Jury convicts Alabama man of beating woman with baseball bat, strangling her and hiding body in well

Published 9:59 am Thursday, September 16, 2021

A jury has found a man guilty in the death of a Jefferson County woman whose body was found at the bottom of a well, authorities said.

Tyler Battles was found guilty Wednesday in the death of 20-year-old Marka Willoe Watkins, Tuscaloosa County District Attorney Hays Webb told WBRC-TV.

Watkins’ body was found in the well outside a vacant Tuscaloosa County house in 2019.

Investigators have said that Watkins was beaten with a baseball bat and then struck in the head with a shotgun before being strangled, WIAT-TV reported. Law officers say that after her body was dumped in the well, Battles poured concrete to conceal the killing.

Battles is to be sentenced at a later date.