Macon teen accused of killing pregnant stepmom in 2020 has bond set at $200,000
A young woman who allegedly shot and killed her pregnant stepmother in Macon last year appeared at a recent bond hearing where her lawyer described how she has undergone “mental health treatment” in the months since her arrest.
An attorney for Passion Latrice Watkins told a Bibb County judge at a Sept. 2 proceeding that Watkins, whose case generated international news coverage in spring 2020, has also undergone a competency evaluation.
Watkins was deemed competent or aware of what is going on around her and able to assist her lawyer in her own defense. But she has yet to receive a criminal-responsibility evaluation to determine whether she was in her right mind at the time of her alleged crime and if she knew right from wrong.
Watkins, now 20, had turned 19 the day before she allegedly gunned down 36-year-old Melanie Powers — her stepmom who was 39 weeks pregnant — at a house on Radio Drive the morning of April 26, 2020.
Watkins is charged with murder, feticide and cruelty to children as well as aggravated assault for allegedly trying to strangle her then-11-year-old stepbrother, who is said to have witnessed the shooting. It was unclear what may have prompted the episode.
At last week’s hearing, Watkins’ bond was set at $200,000 because her case was yet to be indicted. Georgia law entitles a person to bond being set if they are not formally charged within 90 days of arrest. Her case is expected to be heard by a grand jury next week.
Judge Howard Z. Simms said at the hearing, “If the law didn’t require me to set a bond in this case, I wouldn’t set one, period.”
Watkins had yet to post bond and was still being held at the county jail on Thursday.
Katherine Lynn Dodd, her attorney, said at last week’s hearing that Watkins had been a senior at Westside High School, where Watkins was an “A” and “B” student.
“By all accounts,” Dodd told the judge, “a good kid.”
Dodd said Watkins had, in the wake of her arrest, remained at Central State Hospital in Milledgeville for “mental health treatment for a very substantial period of time.”
Watkins, who said nothing at the hearing, only recently returned to the Bibb jail, Dodd said.
This story was originally published September 9, 2021 at 5:00 AM.