Wife and baby killer Chris Watts has been disciplined and separated from his 'brother in spirit' after prison guards found his und...
Wife and baby killer Chris Watts has been disciplined and separated from his 'brother in spirit' after prison guards found his underwear, a jar of Vaseline and baby oil in the other man’s cell - but the inmate's fiancée insists Watts was only 'helping out' his friend.
Both Watts, 35, and his prison pal Dylan Tallman, 32, were punished in July after Watts’ possessions were found in Tallman's cell, it was revealed last week.
Reports suggest the discovery showed the two were having sex while in prison.
The discovery forced authorities to separate the two jailbirds who had grown close as they served out their sentences in adjoining rooms.
But Christa Richello, Tallman's fiancée, tells DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview that Watts and Tallman are merely good friends who found each other in prison and they are not lovers.
‘I can definitely prove that my fiancé is not gay, and neither is Chris Watts,’ Richello, 42, said.
‘And I don’t believe that force of circumstance because they were locked up led them to have any sexual contact. Those accusations are just crazy, and I just have to laugh at it,’ she added.
Richello explained that Watts and her fiancé are now finding life hard in prison following their separation.
Richello, who lives in East Haven, Connecticut, is planning to marry career criminal Tallman as soon as he is released from Dodge Correctional Institution in Waupun, Wisconsin.
Coldblooded killer Chris Watts has been disciplined and separated from his 'brother in spirit' after prison guards found his underwear, a jar of Vaseline and baby oil in the other man’s cell - but the inmate's fiancee insists Watts was only 'helping out' his friend
Watts is serving five life sentences plus 84 years for the 2018 murder of his pregnant wife Shanann and their daughters, Bella and Celeste in Colorado
Watts, 35, and Dylan Tallman, 32, (pictured) were both punished in July after Watts’ possessions were found in Tallman's cell, it was revealed last week. Reports suggest the discovery showed the two were having sex while in prison. The discovery forced authorities to separate the two jailbirds who had grown close as they served out their sentences in adjoining rooms
But now Christa Richello, Tallman's fiancée, tells DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview that Watts and Tallman are merely good friends who found each other in prison and they are not lovers
‘I know both Chris and Dylan and I know their relationship. They are friends. They are very close but that’s all it is,’ she said.
Richello wrote to Watts after he was sentenced to five life sentences plus 84 years for the 2018 murder of his 15-weeks-pregnant wife Shanann and their two daughters, Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3, in Colorado.
But the killer receives so much mail from female admirers he passed her letter on to his friend Tallman — allegedly in return for a cinnamon bun and a packet of ramen noodles. Richello denies there was any such trade.
Richello is a clinical psychologist who specializes in sexual abuse and trauma cases and says she worked inside the Connecticut prison system. But she had to quit due to her lupus — the same disease that Shanann suffered from.
She is convinced Watts was railroaded into his guilty plea and that he was not involved in the killings of his wife, daughters and unborn son.
‘I watched the videos of Chris Watts with his children and his wife. It was really difficult for me to believe clinically that he was capable of committing that crime.
‘I wrote to him regarding getting the truth out. I told him to keep fighting and let him know there are people that support him,’ said Richello, a regular guest on Armchair Detective, a British YouTube show that pushes the unfounded theory that Watts did not act alone.
Tallman, who has been in and out of prison throughout his adult life, wrote her back within a week and they started a correspondence that led to him proposing over the summer.
Richello now sometimes refers to herself as Christa Tallman although she has not legally changed her name.
She told DailyMail.com that she traveled to Wisconsin to meet Tallman three times before the COVID pandemic shut down visits. Since then she has relied on Zoom meetings, phone calls and more than 100 letters to keep in touch.
According to internal prison documents reviewed by Daily Mail, the other items include petroleum jelly, candy, soap, Q-Tips, cocoa butter, Carmex lip balm, Secret deodorant, coffee, body powder, Post-it notes, a black Sharpie, lotion and baby oil
Tallman, who has been in and out of prison throughout his adult life, wrote Richello back within a week and they started a correspondence that led to him proposing over the summer
But they were placed in separate units of the 1,165-bed lock-up after a pair of Watts’ Fruit of the Loom boxers were found in Tallman’s (left and right) cell, along with several items that Watts had bought from the prison commissary. It is a breach of prison discipline for one inmate to give items to another
Tallman (pictured) was placed in solitary confinement and lost phone privileges for four weeks for the infringement. Watts lost his phone privileges for two weeks and was barred from buying commissary items for four weeks
Richello said Watts and Tallman had adjoining one-man cells inside Dodge. They discovered they could hear each other if they spoke into an electrical outlet in the wall that separated them which they dubbed ‘the holy outlet.’ She said both of them have turned to religion inside the maximum-security prison
‘He’s delightful. He's just great. He's wonderful,’ she gushed. ‘I feel comfortable enough with Dylan to be able to marry him and jump right into a relationship. I've gotten to know him very, very well.
‘I know Dylan is not gay because of the relationship he and I have. We have talked about what our plans are for the future,’ said Richello, a divorcee who has no children. ‘I would love to start a family with Dylan. I only have a few years left.
‘I have no problems with homosexuality at all. But Dylan is heterosexual and Christopher's heterosexual, I can assure you there was no sexual relationship between them.’
Richello said Watts and Tallman had adjoining one-man cells inside Dodge. They discovered they could hear each other if they spoke into an electrical outlet in the wall that separated them which they dubbed ‘the holy outlet.’ She said both of them have turned to religion inside the maximum-security prison.
But they were placed in separate units of the 1,165-bed lock-up after a pair of Watts’ Fruit of the Loom boxers were found in Tallman's cell, along with several items that Watts had bought from the prison commissary. It is a breach of prison discipline for one inmate to give items to another.
According to internal prison documents reviewed by Daily Mail, the other items include petroleum jelly, candy, soap, Q-Tips, cocoa butter, Carmex lip balm, Secret deodorant, coffee, body powder, Post-it notes, a black Sharpie, lotion and baby oil.
Tallman was placed in solitary confinement and lost phone privileges for four weeks for the infringement. Watts lost his phone privileges for two weeks and was barred from buying commissary items for four weeks.
‘The petroleum jelly is Vaseline,’ Richello said. ‘It’s definitely not lube, it’s Vaseline. And the boxers were brand new and clean. They weren’t ones that Chris had used.’
Richello said the punishment far outweighed the crime. ‘It wasn’t any shanks, it wasn’t anything sharp, anything dangerous. It was just daily living items,’ she pointed out.
‘Were they aware they were not supposed to do that? Of course. But it’s hygiene items, it was nothing serious. We all need to brush our teeth, we all need to shower, we need deodorant, we need lotion, we need Q-tips. These are all normal items to have.’
‘Chris was trying to help out a friend,’ she said. ‘They spent nine months side by side, talking through the outlet for 23 hours a day and they became very friendly'
Watts and Tallman have written two books of Christian devotionals together since meeting behind bars. Richello, who was brought up with a Roman Catholic father and a mother who practiced witchcraft as a Wiccan, contributed to one of them. She said the books should be published around the New Year. Pictured: Tallman sending Richello what the book cover should look like
Watts is in Dodge after being transferred from a prison in Colorado for his own protection. Beard said he will not disclose any information about the high-profile prisoner, ‘to assist facility staff in ensuring his safety.’ Pictured: A chapter of the book Watts wrote
Watts — inmate number 674796 — was previously reported to have become best friends in Dodge with Jake Patterson, who abducted 13-year-old Jayme Closs and killed her parents in 2018. Patterson has since been moved to a prison in New Mexico
Richello said she is in contact with Watts’ parents, Ronnie and Cindy Watts. Although she would not talk about their view of their son’s case, she said: ‘They're a lovely family. They're amazing. In their hearts they know their son, and they know who they raised'
She said that because Tallman is in Dodge on a probation hold after completing his sentence, he is not allowed to buy his own items from the commissary. However, John Beard, spokesman for the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, told DailyMail.com that is not the case.
‘Chris was trying to help out a friend,’ she said. ‘They spent nine months side by side, talking through the outlet for 23 hours a day and they became very friendly.’
‘One thing about Dylan, he takes forever to get ready. Everything has to match. He has to lotion up. That's why the Vaseline was there. He uses it for his lips, he has dry skin. He likes to take pride in how he looks even in prison.
‘He still wants to be clean. He wants to look good.’
Watts is in Dodge after being transferred from a prison in Colorado for his own protection. Beard said he will not disclose any information about the high-profile prisoner, ‘to assist facility staff in ensuring his safety.’
Watts — inmate number 674796 — was previously reported to have become best friends in Dodge with Jake Patterson, who abducted 13-year-old Jayme Closs and killed her parents in 2018. Patterson has since been moved to a prison in New Mexico.
Richello said both Watts and her fiancé are finding life hard in prison following their separation.
‘The only time they see each other now is when they go to church or happen to pass each other in the hallway. But they write each other continuously and stay in touch to talk about Christian books they want to publish.
‘It's difficult for Dylan. He's having a hard time without having Chris next to him in the cell. They call each other brothers in spirit.
‘In one of his letters, Dylan asked who would ever think someone like me who grew up on the streets, selling drugs, a gangbanger, would become best friends with somebody who had a great family life and went to school.’
He told her he has been around murderers and criminals his entire life and did not believe Watts was capable of killing his family.
Richello said she is in contact with Watts’ parents, Ronnie and Cindy Watts. Although she would not talk about their view of their son’s case, she said: ‘They're a lovely family. They're amazing. In their hearts they know their son, and they know who they raised.’
Watts eventually pleaded guilty to all charges to avoid the death penalty. As he sentenced him to spend the rest of his life behind bars, Judge Marcelo Kopcow called the case ‘the most inhumane and vicious crime out of the thousands I have seen'
Watts, who had gone on a strict fitness regime bulking up his body in the weeks before the killings, strangled his wife at their home in Frederick, Colorado, on August 13, 2018 after she came back from a business trip to Arizona. He then took his two little girls and drove her body miles out into the countryside where he suffocated his daughters and dumped their tiny bodies in Anadarko oil tanks (pictured). He buried his wife nearby
She said Cindy Watts was the one who informed her when Tallman was placed in segregation as she could get no information from the prison authorities as to why she could not contact him.
‘If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t have known for four weeks where my fiancé was or whether he was alive or dead,’ she said.
Watts and Tallman have written two books of Christian devotionals together since meeting behind bars. Richello, who was brought up with a Roman Catholic father and a mother who practiced witchcraft as a Wiccan, contributed to one of them. She said the books should be published around the New Year.
Detroit-born Tallman — who had a minor rap career under the name Lil-D — previously wrote a book A Blessing In Disguise, based on his life growing up on the streets and dealing drugs. He has been jailed for offences ranging from armed robbery to selling cocaine and illegally obtaining prescriptions.
The Watts family murders shocked America. Chris and Shanann Watts appeared to have the perfect life after relocating from their native North Carolina to Colorado. But beneath it all they were drowning in debt. Chris blamed Shanann’s spending for their financial problems and started an affair with Nichol Kessinger, a geologist, who, like him, worked for the oil company Anadarko.
Watts, who had gone on a strict fitness regime bulking up his body in the weeks before the killings, strangled his wife at their home in Frederick, Colorado, on August 13, 2018 after she came back from a business trip to Arizona.
He then took his two little girls and drove her body miles out into the countryside where he suffocated his daughters and dumped their tiny bodies in Anadarko oil tanks. He buried his wife nearby.
He made up a story that he had walked in on Shanann just as she was strangling Celeste — known as CeCe. He claimed Bella was ‘blue’ on the bed next to her. He said he had just told his wife he wanted a divorce. He claimed he killed her in a rage for what she had supposedly done to their daughters.
But after failing a polygraph he was charged with all three murders, unlawfully terminating a pregnancy and body tampering.
He eventually pleaded guilty to all charges to avoid the death penalty. As he sentenced him to spend the rest of his life behind bars, Judge Marcelo Kopcow called the case ‘the most inhumane and vicious crime out of the thousands I have seen.’
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