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Neighbors don't believe granny a murderer

Photo from Watkins family

Steven Watkins with his daughters. Watkins was slain more than a year ago.

By KATIE CORONADO | News Channel 8
and STEPHEN THOMPSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 6, 2009

Updated: 10/06/2009 07:03 pm

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Shirley Skinner

SEMINOLE - At Lake Seminole Estates, Shirley Skinner was known as a warm and friendly woman, one who played with her great-granddaughter in the community pool and who had recently laid down sod outside her and her husband's mobile home.

So when a special agent with the Illinois state police pulled into the 55-and-over community Monday to say the septuagenarian was charged with putting a bullet into the head of her granddaughter's estranged husband, the reaction was one of disbelief.

"It's shocking," said Eleanor Gray, 73, president of Lake Seminole Estates Corp., the body representing the resident owners of the 151-lot mobile home park, which overlooks Lake Seminole. "It's not something you could possibly believe of Shirley."

Skinner, 74, is accused of killing Steven Watkins, 32, the estranged husband of Skinner's granddaughter, Jennifer Watkins, 31, who was also staying in the mobile home at Lake Seminole Estates.

The killing took place in November 2008 in the west-central part of Illinois, in a home in Ashland, where Steven Watkins had gone to pick up his 18-month-old daughter for a court-ordered visit.
Skinner was arrested Monday on a first-degree murder warrant as she was leaving a Clearwater restaurant accompanied by Jennifer Watkins; Watkins' daughter Sidney, who is roughly 1 year old; and Skinner's grandson, Joshua Webster, 26.

Steven Watkins' mother, Penny Watkins, told an NBC affiliate news station in Illinois that she was relieved an arrest has been made.

"I'm as happy as I can be," Penny Watkins said. "Steven was in my soul. He was a part of me. There's still that part of you missing that will never return."

At her first court appearance Tuesday, Skinner told a Pinellas-Pasco circuit judge she was waiving extradition from Florida. She was polite and respectful while responding to Judge Henry Andringa's brief questions via video camera, giving Ashland, Ill., as her hometown.

After the hearing, her Springfield, Ill, attorney, Dan Fultz, said he was representing both Skinner and Watkins, the granddaughter. They were the only adults in the house when the shooting happened, but Jennifer Watkins has not been charged, Fultz said.

Fultz had long suspected either Skinner or Jennifer Watkins would be charged, but he noted the investigation is ongoing. However, he said he is going to waive the right to a speedy trial in Illinois, a move which gives prosecutors 120 days from the day of Skinner's arrest to bring their case to court. He would not say whether he was making this maneuver because he believed the case against Skinner is weak.

About Skinner, he said, "She's obviously upset" and was troubled by her arrest. Her husband was en
route from Illinois to Pinellas, where Skinner is being held without bail at the county jail. Skinner is expected to be taken to Illinois on Wednesday, Fultz said.

Penny Watkins said that she has not learned the specifics of the night her son was killed and added that she has only heard "so many he-said, she-said stories repeated that I've just been repeating the hearsay."

Still, she said her family is hopeful justice will prevail.

"We do have faith that the one — or ones — that took his life, I do believe they will be punished."

Skinner had been staying all summer at the mobile home she and her husband purchased in 1998, Gray said. It is a time when the mobile home park, which has many seasonal residents, is largely vacant, Gray said.

Gray noted Skinner and her husband, when staying at the mobile home, would assist in relief efforts if there were any kind of natural disaster in Florida. She described Skinner as a "warm, friendly, wonderful person." "That's the only Shirley we've ever seen."

"It would be so out of character for her," Gray said of the allegations against Skinner. "It's not her."

Of late, Skinner had been at the community's pool with her grandchildren and her great-granddaughter. She was also seen putting down new sod at the mobile home and generally fixing the place up.

"We all are going to keep her in our prayers," Gray said. "Everyone is praying for Shirley and her family."

Information from the Associated Press and The State Journal-Register was used in this report.

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