A Texas cruise-ship passenger who was taken into custody when the MSC Seascape returned to Galveston on Monday has now been formally charged with murder in federal court — a major new development in the case Awaaz Punjab reported on Monday, when Jason Leon Watford, 48, of Tyler, was first held on an FBI hold after a woman travelling with him was found dead in their cabin. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas announced the charge and said Watford was set to make his initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew Edison in Galveston at 1 p.m. on Tuesday.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Southern District of Texas
The charge is contained in a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. The Justice Department stresses what a complaint is: a formal accusation of criminal conduct, not evidence. Watford is presumed innocent unless convicted through due process of law, and nothing in the filings is a finding of guilt.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Southern District of Texas
What the complaint alleges happened on Sunday night
According to the allegations in the complaint, Watford and the woman had been dining at a restaurant aboard the ship on Sunday, November 8, when they began to argue. He left and went to their room, and the woman followed approximately 25 minutes later. Surveillance footage showed Watford entering the cabin at about 7:46 p.m., followed by the woman about 25 minutes after that, and investigators say no one else was seen entering or exiting the room during the time that followed.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Southern District of Texas
The complaint alleges that on November 8, in international waters, Watford struck the female passenger several times before strangling her with his hands and arm following the dispute in their room. At approximately 9 p.m. — less than an hour after the woman had entered the room — a cruise-ship housekeeper knocked on the door and spoke briefly with Watford. She allegedly noticed blood on his hands and clothing, saw the woman lying face down and motionless on the floor, and alerted ship personnel. The woman was found deceased with multiple facial injuries, according to the charges.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Southern District of Texas
In the account investigators gave the court, reported from the affidavit by the Associated Press and Fox News, Watford allegedly told FBI investigators that the argument continued in the cabin, that he "snapped," struck the woman multiple times and choked her — applying pressure to her neck for about four to five minutes before releasing her, exhausted. Investigators said the woman remained motionless on the floor for about 10 minutes and that Watford did not contact ship security or medical personnel. About 13 minutes after the housekeeper first knocked, surveillance footage allegedly captured him leaving the cabin in a different shirt and pants and sitting on the hallway floor outside, scrolling on his smartphone. These are allegations in an affidavit, not proven facts.
Source: Fox News (affidavit reporting)
From a housekeeper's knock to a ship turned around
MSC security detained Watford as a suspect, and the cruise line contacted the FBI's Texas City Resident Agency at about 11 p.m. on Sunday to report a suspected homicide aboard the ship, investigators said. MSC Cruises told Fox News Digital that authorities instructed the ship to return to Galveston after the cruise line reported an incident involving a guest. The Seascape — which had left Galveston on Sunday, November 8, on a scheduled seven-night Caribbean voyage — returned to the Port of Galveston early on Monday, where FBI personnel boarded and began investigating, and Watford was taken off the ship and booked into the Galveston County Jail on a federal hold.
Source: Fox News (affidavit reporting)
The woman has not been publicly identified. The Galveston County Medical Examiner's Office said on Monday that an autopsy was scheduled for Tuesday. The ship itself is a large one: MSC lists the Seascape at 2,270 cabins, more than 1,600 crew and capacity for nearly 5,900 guests, and it now sails five- and seven-night Caribbean itineraries from Galveston, having switched from Miami last November. An MSC Cruises spokesperson said the company is cooperating fully with the investigation and providing support to those impacted, that its thoughts are with the guest's family and friends, and that the ship left port on Monday afternoon and resumed its planned itinerary.
Source: NBC 6 / Associated Press
The case, the penalty and the record before the court
If convicted, Watford faces up to life in prison and a possible maximum fine of $250,000, the Justice Department said. The FBI's Texas City Resident Agency is conducting the investigation, with assistance from the U.S. Coast Guard, the Port of Galveston Police Department, Customs and Border Protection and the cruise-ship company. Assistant U.S. Attorney Anh-Khoa Tran is prosecuting the case. An FBI task-force officer told the court the evidence supporting the charge includes surveillance video, Watford's own statements to investigators, accounts from MSC employees and an examination of the woman's body.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Southern District of Texas
Court records from Smith County, Texas — the county that includes Tyler — were also reported by the Associated Press and Fox News: Watford was arrested in September 2024 on a charge of assault causing bodily injury to a family member, and was sentenced that November to 15 months of probation and 30 hours of community service. That prior case is part of the public record now being reported alongside the federal charge; it is not itself evidence in the murder case, and the relationship between Watford and the woman who died has not been specified in the court documents reported so far.
Source: Fox News (affidavit reporting)
The U.S. Attorney's Office states it plainly in its own release: a criminal complaint is a formal accusation of criminal conduct, not evidence, and a defendant is presumed innocent unless convicted through due process of law.
What happens next
The immediate next step is the courtroom: Watford's initial appearance before Magistrate Judge Andrew Edison in Galveston, scheduled for 1 p.m. on Tuesday, is the first formal step after a federal complaint, at which the charge is read and questions of detention and counsel are addressed. In parallel, the Galveston County Medical Examiner's autopsy, scheduled for Tuesday, is expected to establish the cause of death, and the woman's identity is expected to be released once next of kin have been notified. The FBI investigation aboard and ashore remains active, and MSC says it cannot provide further detail while it continues.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Southern District of Texas