Former lover testifies

By Brian Knox
Published June 25, 2006

Due to space constraints, testimony from Monday in Rebecca Simpson’s trial was not included in last Thursday’s paper. The following is a brief recap.

On Monday, Danny Watts told a Tarrant County jury that he began an affair with Rebecca Simpson which continued even after his marriage to Shemane Watts.

He said he and his wife did have fights over his affair with Simpson, but Watts said his wife rarely hit him during their fights.

When questioned about his relationship with Simpson’s 16-year-old daughter, Sara, Watts said he would call her primarily to check on her mother.

He denied making inappropriate comments to the teenager, saying he might have said “she’s pretty, she looks like her mother,” to Sara Simpson.

When asked under cross-examination from prosecutor Christy Jack if Rebecca Simpson might have been jealous of her daughter, Watts said, “at one point, maybe so.”

Watts said he and Simpson would take vacations together, including trips to Mexico, before he married Shemane Watts.
He also said he would have his wife call Simpson to apologize after Shemane Watts and Simpson would have arguments, but he wouldn’t have Simpson apologize to his wife.

“I don’t have any power over her,” he said, referring to Simpson.

He said he talked to Simpson about the possibility of her divorcing her husband, Ross, but Watts said Simpson didn’t want to leave the lifestyle she was living.

Watts said that he did have a business relationship at one point with Simpson after she bought two tanning beds for his business, The Gym, in Bridgeport. He said Simpson had the beds removed after she felt she was not being paid her share of the profits.