A mother and son accused of putting a man in a wheelchair and then murdering him as part of a “mob” attack have received their verdicts.
Samantha Watts, 42, was sentenced to 45 years in prison on Monday, while her son, Payton Watts, 18, was sentenced to 35 years. Both had pleaded guilty to murder. The sentences were handed down as part of a plea deal, according to South Carolina’s Fifteenth Judicial Circuit Solicitor’s Office.
Prosecutors requested that the younger Watts be sentenced to 30 to 40 years in prison if his mother pleaded guilty “without any agreement or recommendation from prosecutors.”
The case stemmed from a 2023 attack that occurred between January 8 and 9. Corey Adam Soles, 29, was “beaten and suffered blunt force trauma to his head while he lay in a wheelchair,” according to the solicitor’s office. Soles allegedly sustained a broken leg “from an earlier assault by Payton Watts with a blunt force object.”
In court, prosecutors painted a troubling picture of Samantha Watts running a “drug distributing business.” She also “controlled her family, specifically using Payton as her muscle, who was 16 at the time of the murder,” the solicitor’s office stated. Samantha Watts’ other children pleaded guilty to their involvement.
Amber Watts, 23, pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact to murder and received a six-year prison sentence with a five-year probation period. She was suspected of removing evidence from the crime scene and moving Soles’ body.
Jonathan Watts, 21, pleaded guilty to first-degree assault and battery and received a sentence of time served.
Soles was reported missing on January 10, 2023, and his body was discovered six days later in the Galivants Ferry area of Horry County, South Carolina, WPDE reported that month.
At least eight people were arrested in the “mob” attack on Soles, including Ryan James Porter and Joshua Thomas Brown, who were 25 and 20 at the time. The other arrests are believed to be minors, so their names have not been released.
Prosecutors said in court that the mob attack forced Soles into a wheelchair, and he died as a result of further attacks. According to the Myrtle Beach Sun News, prosecutors relied on Soles’ sale of surveillance equipment to Samantha Watts as key evidence. She is thought to have suspected him of stealing from her drug operation.
“One thing that sticks out in my mind is, anyone who is ever broken a bone or broken more than one, it is a very painful thing,” said South Carolina Twelfth Judicial Circuit Judge Michael Nettles, according to the Post and Courier. “Can you imagine breaking one of your biggest bones and sitting there for 11 hours? I take that into account as well.”
Prosecutors also claimed that Payton Watts’ mother began giving him drugs when he was 12 years old as a way of “grooming” him to work for her. Samantha Watts, according to prosecutor Brandon Lanier, “had complete control over everything in that area.”
Soles hailed from Chadbourn, North Carolina. His obituary stated that he was survived by a wife and three children.
“Corey ‘Adam’ Soles was a loving father, a son, a hard worker, and a man who loved the outdoors,” Lanier shared on Monday. “He was 29 when he was murdered. We hope that this outcome provides Mr. Soles’ family with some sense of justice, because nothing can replace their son.
