United States Drug Enforcement Administration

BOSTON, MA. - Steven W. Derr, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Boston Field Division; U.S Attorney Ortiz; Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis; and Plymouth County Sheriff Joseph D. McDonald, Jr. announced today that TREVOR A. WATSON - , 44, of Boston, was sentenced today to the statutory maximum of 30 years in prison for the 2010 attempted murder of an active DEA informant.

At today’s sentencing, U.S. District Court Judge William G. Young said, “The fact is, sir, that you are a terrorist. You are a domestic terrorist. What you did was to terrorize your community and attempt to murder another individual in broad daylight in an effort to put yourself beyond the law....you can run, but the law will find you...this is a just and fair sentence.”

After Watson’s first trial resulted in a hung jury in October 2010, Watson was convicted on Dec. 2, 2010 by a second jury for witness tampering by attempting to kill a DEA informant. On Feb. 27, 2010, WATSON stabbed a DEA informant approximately 10 times outside of Ann’s Unisex Barbershop on Tremont Street in Boston’s South End.

The informant required emergency surgery because both his colon and intestine were cut. While stabbing the informant, WATSON said, “You talking, huh? you telling.” WATSON, who had been charged with the attempted murder of Boston Celtic Paul Pierce in 2002, but was acquitted by a jury, attempted to get witnesses in this case, including the victim/informant - to change their statements to help exonerate the defendant. WATSON did this by writing letters and making phone calls from prison to his associates. In those letters, among other things, WATSON wrote, “I had introduced my lawyer to the fact that if the victim in my case was to sign an affidavit saying I’m not the guy who stabbed him, it was some Spanish guy about 30, which I am not either, I’ll be alright ...” and “The Paul Pierce case was the same way, but at trial he changed his statements and I got found not guilty of att. mur.”

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz said, “Today’s sentence should send a strong message that tampering with a government informant or investigation will result in severe consequences. This defendant’s actions and the level of violence that he exhibited were unconscionable and he will serve the next three decades in prison as a result.”

“Individuals who assist the government in investigations play an enormous role in bringing criminals to justice. Mr. Watson’s attempted murder of a government informant will cost him 30 years. This should send a clear message to others that we will seek the maximum punishment for anyone who attempts to interfere with government informants or witnesses,” said Steven Derr, Special Agent in Charge for the Drug Enforcement Administration in Boston.