Murder defendant Jim Watson

in a taped interview played in court Tuesday said he told different versions

of his wife's disappearance to friends "to get them off my back."

Watson, 39, testified Tuesday,

but not as a witness in his own defense. Instead, it was the prosecution

that played his taped account of what happened in his wife's disappearance

on a cold January night in 1997. A Fulton County jury hearing the tape

will decide if he is guilty of murdering his 33-year-old wife Beverley

Watson five years ago.

Audio tapes from an interview

with a Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent that was conducted a month

after his wife's disappearance were played in court Tuesday morning for

the jury. On the tapes, Watson detailed his actions from the time Beverley

Watson disappeared until the time he reported her missing to the Fayette

County Sheriff's department two days later.

Watson explained that in the

days after his wife's disappearance, he told different stories of her

whereabouts to friends and family "to get them off my back."

He said he tried to call Beverley at work Monday morning two days after

her disappearance and she wasn't there. He also went by two of her friends'

homes to look for her but could not find her.

The last time he saw Beverley,

Jim Watson said his wife had come downstairs with her jacket and went

to the door to the garage. He said he then confronted her about where

she was going so late, since it was after midnight.

"I grabbed her arm she

turned around and threw her keys at me and said she didn't need her keys

'to get out of the damn house,'" Jim Watson said.

The couple's two children were

not home at the time; both were spending the night elsewhere.

After that confrontation Jim

Watson said his wife went upstairs again while he went to the garage to

let his dogs in because it was cold that evening.

"She stayed upstairs and

the next thing I know, the door chime went off," Jim Watson said

on the tape. He said that the chime sounded whenever the front door was

opened.

Watson said his wife would

often leave home and walk around for 10-15 minutes after an argument.

But this time she never returned.

Approximately 15 to 20 minutes

after he heard the door chime, Watson said he sat down to watch TV, "waiting

on her to come back in the door."

Testimony in the prosecution's

portion of the case continued as of press time Tuesday.

The defense is expected to

present its case later this week, with one defense attorney Lee Sexton

predicting the jury will get the case no later than this Friday.

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