John Jefferson
News footage of Arabella Watts (left) and Jesse Kitson in court (KING).
A Washington couple who pleaded guilty to manslaughter following the accidental shooting death of their 1-year-old daughter were sentenced to prison time.
Jesse Kitson, 34, and Arabella Watts, 26, were charged in the death of their baby daughter, who was killed on Dec. 4, 2021, when an unsecured gun fell off a coffee table and fired. According to court documents obtained by local news outlet HeraldNet, Kitson was walking back and forth from the grill outside to the kitchen while Watts was on the couch inside checking her phone.
At the time, Kitson told police that he had left the gun on a shelf, but Watts said it was on the coffee table. While the exact details of the shooting were unclear, police believed that the baby pulled a coat off the table, causing the loaded gun to fall off and fire a round into the girl, killing her.
According to KING, a local NBC affiliate, Kitson and Watts both pleaded guilty to manslaughter, and Kitson pleaded guilty to unsafe storage of a firearm. Kitson was sentenced to five years and 10 months, plus 18 months of community custody. Watts was sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison.
Both parents were initially charged in January 2024 with first-degree manslaughter in a domestic violence context and pleaded not guilty.
Court documents revealed more details about the events of Dec. 4, 2021. Watts had arrived that evening at the home of Kitson with her daughter, who had been two weeks away from her first birthday, and 2-year-old son. Despite Kitson’s claim to police that he put his loaded, holstered gun on a shelf, documents stated that he told police that he put the gun on the coffee table in front of the sofa where Watts sat with the 1-year-old. While Watts was sending Facebook and text messages, Kitson was back and forth while he cooked dinner. Neither parent saw their daughter near the gun and only knew something happened once they heard the gun go off.
Watts called 911, and first responders performed lifesaving procedures on the girl for 10 minutes before declaring her dead at the scene. The medical examiner said the baby died from a “fatal through-and-through gunshot wound of the torso that entered the right hip[.]”
According to the police report, Watts reportedly said, “I knew that this could happen.” Watts also reportedly told police that she didn’t like being near the gun and that it scared her.
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