A Cedar Rapids woman who knowingly gave shelter and transport to a federal fugitive has been locked up for three months. Saudia Raquel Watkins, 28, admitted to helping fugitive felon Kelsey Beckett evade capture by driving her to a local motel and registering the room under her own name—despite being explicitly warned by law enforcement.
Watkins pled guilty on November 7, 2018, to one count of Misprision of a Felony. According to her plea agreement, in November 2016, she provided a car ride to Beckett, who was wanted by Deputy U.S. Marshals for violating federal law. Months earlier, in August 2016, the same Deputy Marshal had warned Watkins that Beckett was a fugitive and instructed her to report Beckett’s location—under threat of criminal charges if she failed to comply.
Instead of doing the right thing, Watkins did the opposite. She not only transported Beckett to a motel but also checked her in and stayed to smoke marijuana with her inside the room. Her actions weren’t just reckless—they were a calculated decision to obstruct federal justice.
After her guilty plea, Watkins was released pending sentencing. But in November 2018, she tested positive for marijuana use, violating her release conditions. She vanished. For nearly two months, Watkins became a fugitive herself—on the run from the same U.S. Marshals she’d once been told to contact. Marshals finally caught up with her in February 2019.
She was sentenced in federal court in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams. Watkins received three months in federal prison and must serve a one-year term of supervised release upon her release. There is no parole in the federal system. She is currently in the custody of the U.S. Marshals.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Tim Vavricek and investigated by the U.S. Marshals Service. Court records are available under case file 18-CR-94 at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. Follow updates from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Iowa @USAO_NDIA.
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Key Facts
- State: Iowa
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Public Corruption
- Source: Official Source ↗
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