A Rock Springs, Wyoming, man gave a grisly confession Friday about how he stabbed a man more than 30 times last year after a meth-fueled argument about a woman with whom they were both involved.
William Thomas Brewer, 33, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder during a Friday change of plea hearing.
He was originally charged with first-degree murder and hiding a felony, plus he faced extra time for being a habitual criminal. But he made a plea agreement with the Sweetwater County Attorney’s Office in which he promised to plead guilty to second-degree murder instead, and the state would dismiss the other charges.
Sweetwater County Attorney Dan Erramouspe is set to argue for between 75-100 years in prison at Brewer’s later sentencing date, while Brewer can argue for any sentence he’d like.
The Confession
Brewer was straightforward, even eager, as he gave a lengthy confession to Sweetwater County District Court Judge Richard Lavery about the July 16, 2023, stabbing of 30-year-old Colter Watsabaugh.
Brewer said he stalled out in Rock Springs after a transient life and childhood because once while visiting for work, he had a dispute with a tattoo artist and burglarized the man’s shop, then ended up on probation in Sweetwater County.
By the summer of 2023, he was living at a friend’s trailer house in town. He was working at Arby’s, and he and his other friends like to smoke meth together, he said.
He’d known Watsabaugh for months before killing the man, Brewer said.
“He was going through a lot, you know,” Brewer told Lavery. “He found out his baby-mama — uh — his kids’ mother was cheating on him and this and that.”
There was other drama. On about July 15-16, 2023, some of the people at a friend’s house where people were hanging out thought Watsabaugh had stolen a Nintendo Switch. So Brewer went and picked up Watsabaugh in his female friend’s vehicle so the others could confront Watsabaugh about the gaming device, Brewer told the judge.
Brewer’s female friend confronted Watsabaugh about the Switch. There also was romantic tension between the two, said Brewer.
It was awkward for him, so he went outside to smoke.
Eventually, the conversation calmed down and Brewer went back inside. But he got a feeling from his female friend that she was ready for him to take Watsabaugh back to the local hotel where he’d found him, according to Brewer’s court testimony.
At this point in Brewer’s frank and detailed confession, his attorney Jon Gerard whispered something in his ear.
“I’m sorry, your honor,” explained Brewer after that brief exchange. “I didn’t know we were doing this today, but I have nothing to hide, so … ”
And he kept on describing that day.
And A Video Of It
On the ride back to the hotel in the female friend’s Honda Pilot, Brewer told Watsabaugh that he, Brewer, had slept with Watsabaugh’s children’s mother.
Watsabaugh didn’t believe him at first, but Brewer insisted, saying he had a video of the act on his phone, according to the testimony.
“He threw my phone at me,” said Brewer. “It hit me on my mouth and he freaked out and said he was going to kill me — and he went to reach for his knife in his right pocket.”
The knife had been a gift from Brewer weeks prior, he said, adding that he knew where it was because Watsabaugh had gestured to it on the ride over as a way of noting that he still had the gift.
Also in Brewer’s rough upbringing, the location of a man’s knife is “something you don’t forget,” he added.
Brewer pulled out his own knife and started stabbing Watsabaugh, he added.
“When everything was going on, I thought he was stabbing me, honestly,” Brewer said.
Gerard later furnished the detail that when one is high on meth, he may find he’s moving very quickly.
Dumped The Body
Brewer later dumped Watsabaugh’s body and partially buried it in rural Wyoming, court documents indicate.
Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Detective Matthew Wharton learned about a dead man near Tri-State Road in Reliance at about 2:15 that afternoon.
Wharton found Watsabaugh there, lying face down directly off the side of the dirt road. The body was partially buried with dirt, sticks and plant material, riddled with stab wounds and pouring blood, the affidavit says.
Deputy Sheriff Jason Mower on July 19, 2023, found the woman’s Honda down a steep embankment off Sweetwater County Road No. 75.
Wharton arrived and walked down to the Honda, which looked like it had been pushed off the roadway, according to the case affidavit.
Blood splattered the front driver’s side window, windshield and front passenger-side floorboard. The directional blood spatter indicated two people were in the vehicle when the stabbing happened, and the doors were closed, the affidavit says.
When county detectives and Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation processed the vehicle for evidence, they found Watsabaugh’s DC brand shoes, Columbia brand hat and keys on a lanyard.
Jot It Down
In court Friday, Lavery asked why Brewer was pleading guilty to second-degree murder.
Brewer said he didn’t want to take the gamble of being convicted at trial, since a potential extra life sentence of the habitual-criminal enhancement would have hung over him that way. He also said he understood that his actions were wrong.
In a later back-and-forth with Wyoming State Public Defender Brandon Booth, the defendant also confirmed that he didn't have a strong self-defense case.
For example, Brewer’s decision to confront Watsabaugh about his “baby-mama” could paint Brewer as the aggressor in the situation. It’s also difficult to call 30-plus stabbings a reasonable reaction to a threat, Brewer confirmed when questioned by Booth.
Erramouspe said these confessions left questions unanswered, like what happened to the knife and what happened to Brewer’s phone?
Brewer later said the knife was somewhere near where he dumped Watsabaugh’s body. Brewer’s phone he threw out the car window “along the dirt roads” while driving that night.
“I would also put on the record,” said Erramouspe, “In his (sheriff’s department) interview he wasn’t reluctant to say that he wasn’t attacked.”
When investigators asked Brewer if Watsabaugh attacked him, Brewer’s immediate answer was no. Asked a second time, he shook his head, the prosecutor recounted.
I Freaked Out
Judge Lavery also had questions of his own. He asked about Brewer’s actions after the stabbing.
“I freaked out,” said Brewer, adding that he tried getting rid of the body. He didn’t realize how bloody the vehicle interior was, in the dark, until he saw photographs of it furnished later as part of his case.
He drove to a liquor store and bought two bottles of vodka, then drove away toward the mountains with no plan at all.
He put the vehicle into drive and tried to make it drive off the mountain, he said. Then he walked about a day through sagebrush toward home.
A man in a truck drove down the road and picked Brewer up, later dropping him at Cruel Jack’s Travel Plaza, he said.
Brewer walked to the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office and turned himself in, telling investigators that what happened was “kinda f***ing me up a little bit. It’s gonna be for the rest of my life. … That’s why I’m here to try to make it right.”
‘Awfully Violent’
After Brewer’s intense confession, Gerard clarified that Brewer was initially reacting to a “situation that got very involved very fast.”
Perhaps responding to the defender’s unease, Lavery said, “I’m not suggesting there was premeditation, but I am suggesting that this was awfully violent, and I can’t understand the excuse for stabbing someone 30 times.”
Lavery accepted Brewer’s guilty plea.
Sentencing will be set for a later date, Gerard estimated in about four to six months.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
