10/2/2009
ERIN MATHEWS
Terrence J. Watson was unlawfully arrested on the day two Salina people were found murdered, and evidence from a backpack he was wearing at the time cannot be presented in his capital murder trial, a judge ruled this week.
However, Saline County District Judge Rene Young also ruled that jurors will be presented with evidence collected in rural Republic County where Watson and another man are alleged to have burned evidence related to the killings.
Watson was arrested in February for the murders of Taryn Dechant and Ernest Jones Jr., both 22. That arrest was not the one challenged in court.
Dechant and Jones were found shot to death in their apartment Sept. 26, 2008. Watson had been arrested for obstruction of official duty and drug charges later that day, but the judge found that arrest was not legal.


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