A Montgomery County man who sought to open a restaurant in Phoenixville was found guilty Wednesday of killing his business partner and burying her body behind a warehouse last January.
Blair Watts, 33, of Limerick, was convicted of first-degree murder for the death of Jennifer Brown, 43, and immediately sentenced to life in prison.
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Brown was reported missing Jan. 4 after she failed to pick up her son from school that afternoon. Her car and belongings were found outside her Limerick home, where prosecutors said Watts had killed her a day earlier. Two weeks after her disappearance, Brown's body was found in a shallow grave outside a warehouse in Royersford.
Watts had been planning to reopen a restaurant called Birdie's Kitchen in Phoenixville and had received business investments from Brown, who was a longtime friend, investigators said. The two had entered a partnership agreement in August 2022 and Brown had planned to help Watts get the business ready. The restaurant was expected to open late last January.
But prosecutors said Watts deceived Brown about taking out a lease on a property for the restaurant. Watts had not yet paid the property owners any money and did not have a key to the storefront, authorities said. The owners had permitted Watts to hang a banner on the building and keep equipment there in anticipation of an eventual lease signing, but prosecutors said Watts spent most of the money he received from Brown on personal expenses.
When several months passed without any renovation work, police said the owners informed Watts they had no intention to move forward with a lease.
The day Brown was reported missing, Watts showed up at the Phoenixville storefront and told the owners he had the money to put down on a lease, prosecutors said.
Investigators learned Watts had picked up Brown's son from the bus stop the day she went missing and had gone with the boy to her home in Limerick, where he had a spare key. Prosecutors said Watts took Brown's cellphone from the home and used it to make the cash transfers.
Watts pleaded not guilty and claimed during his five-day trial that he did not kill Brown.
Cell phone records showed that two of Watts' cell phones and Brown's personal cellphone traveled in tandem from Brown's townhome to the area where her body was found in the early morning of Jan. 4. DNA evidence from Brown's home and Watts' car connected him to Brown's disappearance and death, prosecutors said.
An autopsy determined Brown had three broken ribs before she died. Her cause of death was found to be homicide by unspecified means, with compression asphyxiation as a contributing factor.