Charges dropped against Alabama woman in case of dead body dumped in well, covered with concret
Published 9:09 pm Monday, January 23, 2023
Prosecutors have dismissed murder charges against an Alabama woman in a 2019 killing in which a woman’s body was found at the bottom of a well.
A Tuscaloosa County judge granted a motion Monday to drop the case against Monic Mochell Battles, al.com reported.
Battles had been scheduled to stand trial Feb. 6 in the killing of 20-year-old Willoe Watkins. Authorities say Watkins was beaten and strangled to death before her body was found in July 2019 wrapped in garbage bags and dropped down a well. Her killers then covered the well in concrete.
Battles’ husband, Tyler Battles, was convicted of murder in 2021 and sentenced to life in prison. Two other men, Devon Trent Hall and Joseph Brandon Nevels, pleaded guilty in the case and received 30-year prison sentences.
Court records show an attorney for Nevels, who had previously told police Monic Battles participated in the killing, said in a recent court filing that Nevels was refusing to testify at her trial.