On June 10, 2019, Michael Watson, 17, fatally shot Timothy “T.J.” Maust in his Ashland home. Watson also shot and attempted to murder T.J.’s girlfriend. Samuel Castle, 17, and Gregory Kuzawa II, 18, were present during the murder. Tyler Morris, 17, was not present during T.J.’s murder but he was responsible for planning it–this was an extensively planned crime, as explained below. Castle and Kuzawa got 17 and 19 years, respectively. Watson and Morris were both sentenced to 38 years to life. Because of SB256, Morris is up for parole in April 2044 while Watson is up for parole in April 2049.
Watson and Morris’s crimes—home invasion, aggravated robbery, attempted aggravated murder, and aggravated murder–were not impulsive, immature mistakes made by misguided kids. These were calculated, cold-blooded acts that were motivated by hatred and selfishness.
Over several days, Morris and Watson devised a plan to murder T.J. and his girlfriend. The murderers took multiple measures to avoid being apprehended, including covering their faces with bandanas, committing the crimes at night to avoid being seen, and using a black sock to catch casings and gun residue. They also disassembled the gun and hid the different parts in different locations.
Watson and Morris planned and carried out a horrific crime for their own selfish benefit. They completely understood the wrongfulness of their actions. The fact that they were under the magical age of 18 doesn’t change these facts.
See a memorial for TJ here. Learn about the murderers here.
From TJ’s Sister
The murder of T.J. has significantly affected our family, forcing us to live with horrible pain and agony. My 2-year-old daughter sits on the floor with her toys or books and “plays with” or “reads to” her Uncle T.J…. his urn to be exact, because this is the only way she can be with him. She sobs, she doesn’t understand what’s going on or why. We have had to explain to her why Uncle T.J. would never come back over. My 14-year-old cries with his head on T.J.s urn, silently talking about how he misses him. I have a picture of that. My 5-year-old son has nightmares at night. Not the kind where you wake up and shake it off. The kind where he screams to the point that his throat hurts, waking up the whole family, and with the sweats and tremors. The kind that leaves him terrified beyond belief. Please excuse the absent photo of that, as I’m too busy comforting him and honestly, how do you photograph nightmares? This is only the beginning. The pain doesn’t stop here. My daughter begs me to “just go pick up T.J.” The kids don’t want to make snowmen because that was T.J. and the kids thing they would do every winter. The pain that we live with as a result of T.J.’s murder is mental and emotional torture. We are not able to ever fully heal our souls, especially in our children.
Now, this ridiculous law has come about and these teenage killers will be rewarded for being minors when they committed their heinous crimes–even though they were very aware and conscious of what they were doing, hence the word, “premeditated.” This is our reality, our very real, harsh, and raw reality. There are more families this law will affect and we will suffer for the rest of our lives, living day to day without our loved ones, knowing these monsters will one day again walk the streets, spend holidays with their families, and do things our murdered family members can’t. We are deprived–no, we were robbed of such pleasures with our dead loved ones, because of these underaged cold-blooded murders. I guess, perhaps, none of the people who voted for this have ever had someone stolen from them, felt this level of pain, faced this kind of reality, because had they, I assure you, this law wouldn’t exist.