Mother pleads guilty in accidental shooting of baby in Granite Falls

GRANITE FALLS — The mother of an 11-month-old girl killed near Granite Falls in an accidental shooting in 2021 has pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

On Nov. 5, Arabella Watts, 27, pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter in the death of her baby, Naleyna Rhonda Jean Kitson. Her plea came less than two weeks after her daughter’s father, Jesse Kitson, also pleaded guilty to manslaughter and unsafe storage of a firearm.

Prosecutors dropped the unsafe storage allegation against Watts, along with an unlawful firearm possession charge.

Under state sentencing guidelines, Watts faces between just over 5½ years and just under 6½ years in prison.

Kitson, 33, faces slightly less time in prison on the manslaughter charge because Watts has previous felony convictions for assault and burglary.

Kitson is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 15. Watts is set for sentencing Jan. 31.

On the evening of Dec. 4, 2021, Kitson was making dinner at his mobile home in the 8600 block of Highway 92, according to charges filed in Snohomish County Superior Court. Watts brought her son, 2, and daughter over.

As Kitson cooked, often moving between the kitchen and the grill on the porch, Watts sat on the couch on her phone, according to the charges.

Police believe Kitson left a loaded Remington 1858 .44-caliber revolver on the coffee table in front of the sofa while cooking. Kitson had bought the gun the year before, along with a .45-caliber conversion cylinder so he could use .45-caliber bullets in the revolver, according to court papers. The conversion cylinder came with a safety manual.

“IF THE HAMMER IS DOWN AND A LIVE CARTRIDGE IS IN LINE WITH THE BARREL, THE REVOLVER CAN FIRE IF DROPPED, OR IF THE HAMMER IS OTHERWISE STRUCK WITH SUFFICIENT FORCE,” the manual reportedly read, in all caps.

Watts recalled her daughter was in front of her, between the couch and the coffee table, according to court documents.

The daughter either pulled the gun down or a coat entangled with the revolver, forcing the gun to fall to the floor, according to the charges. Upon impact, the revolver fired a round. The bullet went through the holster, through the coat and into the girl. She died at the scene.

An autopsy determined she suffered a “fatal through-and-through gunshot wound of the torso that entered the right hip, injured the right kidney, abdominal aorta, stomach, liver, and left lung, and exited the left chest,” according to court papers.

In January of this year, over two years after the fatal shooting, prosecutors charged both parents in the shooting.

Several other Snohomish County parents have faced criminal charges for improperly storing their guns in recent years.

For example, prosecutors charged a Monroe prison official after her son, 12, got hold of her gun and killed himself. She completed a felony diversion program to avoid prosecution.

Jake Goldstein-Street: 425-339-3439; jake.goldstein-street@heraldnet.com; X: @GoldsteinStreet.