Joe Watson, a.k.a. "The Salon Bandit," Found Competent to Stand Trial

Former newspaper reporter and accused armed robber Joe Watson is competent enough to stand trial, after all. Call it temporary insanity: Back in November, Watson -- who's accused of ripping off tanning salons -- was deemed too whacked to understand what was going on around him. A judge ordered a...

By Ray Stern

February 18, 2009

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Former newspaper reporter and accused armed robber Joe Watson is competent enough to stand trial, after all.

Call it temporary insanity: Back in November, Watson -- who's accused of ripping off tanning salons -- was deemed too whacked to understand what was going on around him. A judge ordered a competency evaluation and hearing by the state's mental health care provider, Magellan, which found that Watson would be fine with the right meds.

A new court order from earlier this month restores Watson to "competent" status and orders him to take his medicine for the rest of the trial.

For Watson, the entire "incompetent" episode seems to only have gotten him a few more months in Sheriff Joe Arpaio's jail.

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Ray Stern is the former news editor of Phoenix New Times. He worked as a newspaper reporter in Arizona for more than two decades. He's won numerous awards for his reporting, including the Arizona Press Club's Don Bolles Award for Investigative Journalism.