Christopher Watts sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his pregnant wife and daughters

Shanann Watts' family, found dead in mid-August with her two young daughters, called Christopher Watts a "heartless monster" at the Monday's sentencing hearing, while specifying that he was "deadly." he did not want him to be sentenced to death.

Christopher Watts, 33, wearing an orange jumpsuit, kept his head down and cried while Shanann's family members were addressing the audience room.

"I trusted you to take care of them, not to kill them," said Frank Rzucek, Shanann's father, in a moving statement.. "They also trusted you, heartless monster, and then you take them out like a garbage can, you disgust me."

Shanann's brother Frankie Rusick Jr asked, "What kind of person is killing the people they love the most?"

As a result of these statements, the judge sentenced Watts to three consecutive life sentences with no possibility of parole. He was also sentenced to 48 years in prison for illegal termination of pregnancy, which will be consecutive to three life sentences.

Watts will serve two other life sentences for first degree murder of a child under 12, and 36 years in a row for three charges of falsifying the body of a deceased.

Shanann, 34, was found dead in mid-August in a shallow grave on the property of Anadarko Petroleum, where Watts was working. She was 15 weeks pregnant at the time with a boy whom the couple had planned to name Nico. The bodies of Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3, were discovered inside oil tanks.

Sandy Rzucek, Shanann's mother, cried while she was addressing the room.

"I do not know who gave you the right to take life, but I know that God and his mighty angels were there," she said.

Earlier this month, Watts pleaded guilty to five counts of first degree murder, three counts of falsification of a deceased human body and a charge of unlawful termination of pregnancy. His plea agreement saved him from the death penalty.

"I did not want death for you because it's not my right," Sandy Rzucek said. "Your life is between you and God."

Watts' parents, Cindy and Ronnie Watts, also spoke in the courtroom that the murders "should never have happened".

"It's something we will never be able to overcome.We will always mourn the loss of our family," Cindy said.

Police said in an unsealed affidavit about a week after finding the bodies that Shanann had returned home after midnight on August 13, after a business trip. Watts told the detectives that he woke up around 5 am and had a discussion with his wife about the separation.

He said he left for work shortly before 5:30, which the authorities were able to confirm with a neighbor's security camera.

While the police were looking for Shanann and the girls, Watts publicly pleaded for their safe return, telling reporters that he was "torn in" and that he wanted "everyone come home". He also stated that his wife had left and taken their daughters to a friend's house and that she had never returned.

However, her lost husband's facade quickly collapsed when police learned that Watts had lied to the investigators that he was in business with a colleague. According to the affidavit, Watts then changed his story by saying that he was "strangling Shanann to death" after seeing Bella and Celeste kill him. He then directed the authorities to where the bodies had been buried.

Anadarko Petroleum returned Watts on August 15, the day of his arrest. The causes of death had not yet been made public, but Weld County District Attorney, Michael Rourke, said during Monday 's conviction that Watts had strangled Shanann before he died. to smother Bella and Celeste.

"Imagine the horror in Bella's mind while her father was taking her breath away," he says, telling the room that Bella "was defended to save her life".

"The defendant then methodically and calmly loaded their bodies into his work truck – not in a hasty or disorganized manner."

In an interview last week, the Watts woman had an affair with a woman who had described how he had shown little emotion while his family was missing and seemed calm. Nichol Kessinger, 30, also said that Watts had lied to him and that he was about to finalize his divorce with Shanann and that he was looking for a new apartment for him and the girls.

"I do not think there's a logical explanation for what he's done," Kessinger told the Denver Post about the murders. "It's an insane act and it's horrible."