A man who allegedly murdered and dismembered a woman who managed the Chula Vista property where he lived pleaded not guilty Thursday to a murder charge.
Robert Lee Watkins, 41, is accused in last month’s slaying of 56-year-old Brenda Gillett, who managed a property owned by her mother on Via Curvada.
In court documents seeking to have bail denied to Watkins, prosecutors say Watkins claimed to police that Gillett confronted him with a hammer, prompting him to take it from her and strike her with it. He later also attacked her with a hatchet and decapitated her, he allegedly told police, then stuffed her body in a suitcase. Next, police say he told them, he took an Uber with her head in a bag and dumped it near the USS Midway,…