Miami pool shooter eyed in third case, a 2009 murder, had string of domestic violence arrests
He’s been charged with murdering his wife, execution style, at a community pool in Northeast Miami-Dade. He’s been named as a “person of interest” in the suspicious disappearance of an ex-girlfriend in 2014.
And now Carl Monty Watts Jr. may again be in the crosshairs of police for the unresolved killing of yet another woman more than a decade ago: Vickie Simmons, 25, who was discovered murdered in a Biscayne Boulevard motel in February 2009.
Her sister Lashon Jones told the Miami Herald that Watts was Simmons’ girlfriend at the time, and the two had gotten into an argument shortly before she was discovered murdered. And while she said a Miami-Dade police detective told her at the time that Watts was the main suspect, there hadn’t been enough evidence to charge him.
“If this case would have been solved a long time ago, there wouldn’t have been more victims,” Jones said.
A Miami-Dade police spokesman, Alvaro Zabaleta, declined to say whether Watts was indeed a suspect or even a “person of interest” in the unsolved murder of Simmons. But he acknowledged Tuesday that Miami-Dade cold-case detectives “are revisiting the case.”
Watts, 45, remains in a Miami-Dade jail awaiting arraignment on a charge of second-degree murder with a deadly weapon. The Miami-Dade Public Defender’s Office, which is representing him for now, declined to comment.
Police say Watts shot and killed his wife, Shandell Harris, 30, in front of her horrified mother and daughter as well as other kids and parents at the pool at the Michael-Ann Russell Jewish Community Center on Sunday afternoon. One day earlier, Watts stabbed Harris when she threatened to leave him — she reported the case to Miami police, but detectives hadn’t yet tracked him down when he opened fire at the pool.
Private security guards immediately detained Watts, who acknowledged he stabbed his wife but invoked his right to remain silent about the shooting, according to a Miami-Dade police arrest report.
His name was familiar to the families of other women who’d been in tumultuous relationships with Watts.
Watts had long been considered “a person of interest” in the unsolved disappearance of Fort Lauderdale’s Trukita Scott, who has been missing since she failed to pick up her two children from a day-care center in June 2014. She was last seen leaving her job at U-Haul in Miami Gardens and heading to Liberty City to meet up with Watts. Her missing car was later found in Liberty City.
Her father, Charles Scott, 52, said Watts acknowledged to the family that she visited his home to pick up money for their child, but denied having anything to do with her vanishing.
Fort Lauderdale police, in a statement released this week, said it was aware of Watts’ latest case and “our detectives are in contact with MDPD.”
Miami-Dade police was also the lead agency investigating the killing of Simmons, who was found dead inside the Sun N Surf Inn, 11102 Biscayne Blvd., on Feb. 18, 2009.
Watts had been in a relationship with Simmons, according to Jones, her sister. At first, Jones said she didn’t think Watts had anything to do with her sister’s demise — until a couple days later, she went to clean out Simmons’ apartment and thought his behavior was odd.
There, she found Watts changing the locks on the apartment. Jones said he took her underwear and items of clothing. She noticed something else. “I noticed none of his items were in the apartment,” she said.
Jones later learned, from Simmons’ son, that the two argued frequently and had gotten into a fight shortly before she was killed. Pieces of a glass bottle he’d smashed on the ground were still in her apartment when Jones went to clean up, she said.
READ MORE: JCC shooter was ‘person of interest’ in 2014 disappearance of Fort Lauderdale woman.
Watts was never charged in the Simmons killing or in the disappearance of Scott. But he also has a long history of felony arrests dating back to the 1990s, many with allegations of domestic abuse and kidnapping.
In early 2003, Watts was arrested for aggravated kidnapping with a weapon, armed robbery and armed burglary. He and another man were accused of robbing a man at a Miami Springs hotel. The case was dropped after defense witnesses — including a girlfriend — testified that he was at a family party that day.
Simmons was actually a listed witness in the case, although it was unclear if she was that alibi witness.
Then in 2004, he was sentenced to three years in state prison for grand theft, organized fraud and a weapons charge. He later escaped custody and was returned to prison until 2007.
That fall, after his release, Watts was arrested for two domestic violence cases involving another woman, with whom he had five children.
On Oct. 18, 2007, the woman was leaving work when Watts “forced her” into his car and “struck her several times,” according to an arrest report. The woman, while trying to escape, stabbed Watts with a pen — which he took away and in turn stabbed her in the ribs, North Miami police said.
He eventually dropped her off at North Shore hospital. The next day, the woman was having the locks changed on her apartment door when Watts showed up and “forcefully removed her and placed her inside his vehicle,” the report said. After “yelling and intimidating her” in the car, he eventually let her out.
Police eventually arrested Watts on charges of kidnapping and aggravated battery. But prosecutors could not make the case stick. The reason: the woman repeatedly refused to cooperate with the prosecution. The Herald is not naming her because she could not be reached for comment.
A month before Scott disappeared in 2014, Watts also had been arrested and charged with battery and false imprisonment for attempting to force a teenage girl at a Broward County bus stop into his car. According to an arrest report, he acknowledged that he spoke to the girl because “she looked young and sexy” but denied attacking her.
Watts “said that he normally picks up young pretty girls when he sees them on the side of the road. He said that he is lonely because his girlfriend broke up with him and he just wanted companionship. He stated that he is very persistent when it comes to picking up girls and that he doesn’t give up easily,” the report said.
At the time, he was on federal probation for a weapons charge. In the Broward case, he ended up pleading no contest and got credit for 335 days served in jail. After Scott vanished, Watts served 11 months in prison for violating his federal probation.
This story was originally published April 5, 2022 at 6:27 PM.