Carl Watson couldn’t believe it Saturday night.
The Texas County sheriff – having learned the location of a weapon believed used in a March 13 murder at Roby – was preparing to travel to Roby with two highway patrol officers to recover the gun. Murder suspect Neldon Neal said he had thrown it on the roof of a trailer house. With a ladder in his truck, Watson was preparing to leave when fire alarms sounded at the jail and county courthouse.
Firemen circled the building as Watson wondered whether to leave. The warning proofed to be false, but the sheriff stayed behind to tend to Neal and his fellow inmates.