Chester teen, accused of killing grandmother in murder-for-hire plot, in court Wednesday
The Chester teen accused of killing his grandmother in a murder-for-hire plot in 2013 is expected to appear in court Wednesday afternoon.
Police say Clayton Eli Watts, 19, schemed with two others to have Jimmie Paul, 59, killed in January 2013 at Paul’s rural Chester County home. Paul worked in the Chester County Clerk of Court office.
The plot police say was cooked up by Watts and involved Marqueas Buchanan, 20, and accused triggerman Shaiderius Cohen, 22, also was supposed to target Mack Paul, Jimmie Paul’s husband and Chester County’s planning director.
Watts, Buchanan and Cohen, lay in wait at the home for the Pauls to get home from work, police allege, and Jimmie Paul was shot when she entered the house. Mack Paul escaped injury because he went to a shop behind the house instead of going inside.
All three suspects have been in jail since their arrests on murder charges soon after the killing. Arrest warrants allege both Watts and Buchanan confessed to the scheme in which Watts would pay $10,000 for both killings – using his grandparents’ own guns – but no money changed hands.
Watts, who police say had planned the hit starting in late 2012, recruited Buchanan, a classmate at Chester High School, who brought in Cohen. Watts was prepared to pay for the killings because his grandmother, with whom he lived most of his life, made him do his schoolwork, go to bed on time and do chores that Watts believed were too strict.
Plea offers have been on the table for all three for about two years, prosecutors have said. Watts faces at 30 years to life in prison, if he pleads guilty to murder.
A hearing for Buchanan had been scheduled for Thursday, but his lawyer, Cyrus Hinton, was shot and killed Sunday night, allegedly by Hinton’s own son. Buchanan’s case is now on hold. No hearings are set for Cohen.
The shocking killing of Jimmie Paul reminded many in Chester County of the stunning 2001 killings of Joy and Joe Pittman by their 12-year-old grandson, Christopher Pittman. Pittman was upset over being disciplined for a fight on a school bus, so he shot his grandparents with a shotgun while they slept. He was tried as an adult and is serving 25 years in prison.
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This story was originally published April 15, 2015 at 2:13 PM with the headline "Chester teen, accused of killing grandmother in murder-for-hire plot, in court Wednesday."