The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Local News

March 10, 2008

Watson may be offered plea deal

By Monica Pryts

GREENVILLE — Michael Robert Watson’s murder case could be wrapped up sooner than expected.

Watson, 43, is listed on the March trial term for the Mercer County Court of Common Pleas on charges he allegedly set the fire in 2005 at an Otter Creek Township restaurant and hotel that killed a West Salem Township man.

However, the Mercer County District Attorney’s office and Watson’s lawyer don’t expect the case to get that far.

“I don’t anticipate it going to trial this month,” said Randall Hetrick of Mercer, Watson’s attorney.

A pending plea offer could be completed this week, Hetrick said, adding he couldn’t comment on the details.

Samuel Zuck, Mercer County’s first assistant district attorney, also said he doesn’t expect a trial to happen this month, especially since a plea offer is in the works.

“It might be a guilty plea, it might not,” Zuck said, adding he couldn’t disclose any details until the offer is settled, if it is.

State police in August charged Watson with second-degree murder, three counts of arson, burglary, criminal trespassing, recklessly endangering another person, theft and receiving stolen property.

Watson waived the charges to court Sept. 14 and has been held in Mercer County Jail since then.

Watson is the only suspect in the Aug. 16, 2005, blaze at the O.C. Hotel and Cantina, 438 Hadley Road. James Hall, 48, died in the blaze. At that time, Watson had been recently released after serving a prison sentence for burglary in Ohio.

According to police:

Watson, who was one of three people renting rooms at the O.C., started the fire between 3 and 4:25 a.m. after he stole $1,300 plus $100 in rolled quarters from the office.

The others staying at the hotel were Hall and Stanley Leskovak. Leskovak, 82, told police he awoke around 3 a.m. and made some coffee in his room. He heard footsteps outside his door and went out and saw flames coming from the bar area of the restaurant.

Leskovak got out of the building and tried to get help. He said he could hear Hall yelling for help from a second-story window. Hall never made it outside. Firefighters found his body in the hallway near a door to the outside. He had died of smoke inhalation, and his death was ruled a homicide.

Police allege that Watson hid in the office and waited for owner William Kirk to leave before stealing the cash and setting the fire. They say he called 911 at 4:25 a.m. to report the fire, identifying himself as Michael Skrunck, his ex-girlfriend’s last name, and then went missing.

On the day of the fire, police talked to Watson’s family members, who said when they told Watson about the fire he seemed “surprised and expressed sorrow over the probable loss of family photos of his son and the jar of coins in the room.” Watson told his family he had left the hotel at 4 a.m. to go to work and “everything at the hotel was fine then,” police said.

While authorities were interviewing Watson’s family, he called and talked to police, agreeing to meet with them. He never showed up and told police he would talk to them with a lawyer.

Police searched Watson’s room at the hotel and didn’t find any personal items like the family photos and coins.

On Aug. 19, Watson was arrested in Medina County, Ohio, on unrelated charges. He told police there that he had been scared when he smelled smoke at the O.C. and called 911. An Aug. 23 search of Watson’s truck found his belongings, including the family photos and coins.

Watson spent about two years in a Grafton, Ohio, prison on burglary charges stemming from a January 2004 incident in Andover and was released in 2007 to Mercer County authorities, who held him on a parole detainer.

The O.C. was demolished after the fire and rebuilt. It reopened in mid-2007 but no longer offers lodging.

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