One of the

first signs of trouble in Beverley and Jim Watson's marriage came during

a spend-the-night New Year's party at the couple's south Fayette home

in the late 80s, according to the testimony of one of Beverley Watson's

closest friends.

As she and

Beverley sat on a bed, Jim Watson entered the room and aimed a shotgun

at the back of his wife's head, Debbie White testified Wednesday afternoon

in the Fulton County murder trial against Jim Watson.

"He pulled

a shotgun and put it to the back of her head and said, 'Are you going

to talk to me now?'" White said.

Jim Watson

pulled the gun away soon after and walked out of the room, she added.

Jim Watson

is accused of murdering his wife after she disappeared from their south

Fayette home in January 1997. He claims she walked off on foot and never

returned, but prosecutors contend he somehow killed her and dumped her

body in south Fulton County, where her remains were found in a wooded

area near Fairburn.

Another of

Beverley Watson's close friends told the jury that Beverley Watson told

her how she was once "followed" by her husband as she went looking

around Fayetteville for an apartment months before her disappearance.

Krista Hinkle said Beverley Watson told her that as she tried to "lose"

her husband, she pulled into the parking lot of the Fayette County Sheriff's

Department and threatened to "go in and tell them he was stalking

her."

At the time,

Beverley Watson planned to move out of the couple's home and initiate

divorce proceedings, and she didn't want her husband to know where she

planned to live, Hinkle said.

Both White

and Hinkle admitted that they never called police about either incident

or the threats they said Jim Watson made to his wife. Each woman expressed

remorse for not alerting authorities.

"I just

didn't ever think that she would be dead one day," White said, adding

that she blamed Jim Watson for her best friend's death.

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