Jurors in trial for suspects in Careaga killings hear agonizing 911 call, openings conclude
PORT ORCHARD — In emotional testimony in Kitsap County Superior Court on Monday, Carly Schaap described her firstborn, Hunter, as the light of her life. He was a helper, a supporter, a team player. He was eager to work. He played football at North Kitsap High School. He was a happy 16-year-old.
She listened in agony as a recording of the 911 call Hunter made — pleading for help on the last night he and three other members of his family would be seen alive on Jan. 27, 2017 — was played for jurors in the trial for three men accused of killing four members of the Careaga family.
“That’s my baby,” she said through tears. “That’s my baby.”
Through the testimony of family members on Monday afternoon, prosecutors began laying out for jurors a foundational picture of the blended family that lived at the Careaga home in the greater Seabeck area. Prosecutors offered up photos of the four victims — John Careaga, Christale Careaga, Hunter Schaap and Johnathon Higgins.
Opening statements for the prosecution and one of the defendants, Danie Kelly, wrapped up last week, and opening statements for the other two defendants, brothers Johnny and Bobby Watson, proceeded Monday morning as planned.
Read more: Opening statements in trial for Careaga quadruple homicide suspects paused for illness
In his opening statement, Bobby Watson’s attorney Matthew McGowan told jurors that Bobby and John Careaga were acquaintances and had communicated but said that he expected that evidence would show that his client was not involved in the murders.
“We do believe that once you see all the evidence, you’ll be convinced of his innocence,” McGowan said. “As he stands before you here this morning, Robert Watson is an innocent man.”
McGowan noted several points at which he said DNA and other physical evidence did not provide links to his client. Investigators zeroed in on a large amount of money that was moved in and out of his accounts mid-2017, but McGowan told jurors that there would be no transactions that couldn’t be accounted for through legitimate means.
He further told jurors that he believed there would be no evidence that his client was in possession of or used a TracFone burner phone that only communicated with John Careaga in the days leading up to the murders. Investigators linked that device to Bobby Watson's residence in Bremerton and have said it hit off a cell tower that serviced the Seabeck area on the night of the murders.
McGowan told jurors that the only thing that was discernable from the phone’s data was where the device was within a general area.
“Cell phone tower data is not detailed enough to pinpoint the location of a specific phone other than within the entire coverage area,” he said. “This is really important, because when you hear from some witnesses that the TracFone was at Robert Watson’s house, or alternately in Robert Watson’s neighborhood, that’s not the end of the story.”
In a brief opening statement, Johnny Watson’s attorney Craig Kibbe told jurors that there was little in the case that was connected to his client.
“If this trial, over the next however many weeks we’re going to be here, was a two-hour movie, Johnny Watson would be on screen for maybe a minute or two in the background, might not even have a speaking part,” Kibbe said. “That’s because he’s a very minor character in this case.”
Kibbe noted that Johnny Watson’s Mercedes sedan, which was found about a year after the murders abandoned in Pierce County, will play a role in the case. In January 2018, the vehicle was found dumped in the Puyallup River, stripped of porous surfaces. The vehicle was hauled to a tow yard in Pierce County, and the Watson brothers picked up the vehicle a few days after it was found.
“Ultimately,” Kibbe said, “it will be a mystery as to how the vehicle ended up in the river, who put it in there and why.”
Surveillance video captured a meeting between a car and John Careaga at Camp Union, a short distance from the Careaga home, shortly before the timeframe of the murders, and a neighbor later told investigators that he had seen a passenger car leaving the family home that night. Kibbe said that both the footage and the neighbor didn’t identify a make, model or driver and said there was reason to doubt whether the neighbor actually saw the vehicle in the first place.
“Almost none of the evidence in this case relates to my client,” he said in conclusion. “Most of the witnesses in the case are not even going to mention Johnny Watson’s name, but yet he’s here charged with the exact same offenses as everyone else.”
This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Careaga family murder trial jurors hear agonizing 911 call
