State's witnesses continue testimony in honeymoon death trial

The state continued to build its case against Gabe Watson with testimony from

Dr. Doug Milsap continued his testimony on Friday. Milsap and his wife were on the same dive trip as Gabe and Tina Watson. Milsap, who is an avid diver, recalled meeting the Watsons the day before the fateful dive. He also told jurors about an encounter he had with Gabe after learning Tina had died in the water.

"I said to Gabe, ‘What happened?' and he said ‘We were swimming along on the dive. Everything seemed to be all right and out of the blue, Tina panicked and knocked my mask loose and my regulator loose'," Milsap said. 

Milsap said Gabe continued to say that as he put his mask back on, Tina began to sink. Milsap said Gabe told him he grabbed device used to help stabilize Tina in the water, but that she became too heavy and he lost grip and that's when she went down.

"And I got angry like I'm getting angry now. And I apologize to the court," Milsap said. "And I said, "That's bull….' He looked at me and he said, ‘What do you mean'? And I said 'Gabe, you didn't lose your grip on her. She's not that heavy."

The next witness to take the stand was Stephanie Mercer, a human resources representative from Tina's job at what was then Parisian Department Store in Hoover. Mercer testified that Tina could have enrolled for up to $165,000 in life insurance from her job. That would have been five times her salary.

However, Mercer later testified that Tina could not have increased her benefits to that amount before her wedding in October 2003. She would have had to wait until the open enrollment period, which didn't start until a week after her marriage.

Michael Moore was the next to give testimony. He said that when he and Gabe were in college, they decided to take up SCUBA diving. Moore said they took lessons for several years and obtained certain certifications and testified at length about the training they received, including how to rescue a person out of the water. Moore was called as a prosecution witness, but after he left the stand, he said did not feel Gabe had killed his wife.

Testimony will continue Monday, despite it being President's Day. Prosecutors say they may call Wade Singleton to the stand. Singleton was the dive master of the trip the Watsons took during their honeymoon.

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