Dustin Higgs

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Dustin Higgs

Dustin Higgs.png

Mugshot of Higgs, December 2020

Born

Dustin John Higgs

March 10, 1972

Poughkeepsie, New York, U.S.

Died

January 15, 2021 (aged 48)

USP Terre Haute, Terre Haute, Indiana, U.S.

Cause of death

Execution by lethal injection

Criminal status

Executed

Conviction(s)

Capital murder

Criminal penalty

Death (October 26, 2000)

Partner(s)

Willis Mark Haynes

Victor Gloria

Details

Date

January 27, 1996

Imprisoned at

United States Penitentiary, Terre Haute

Dustin John Higgs (March 10, 1972 – January 16, 2021) was an American man who was executed by the United States federal government, having been convicted and sentenced to death for his role in the January 1996 murders of three women in Maryland.[1] 19-year-old Tamika Black, 21-year-old Tanji Jackson, and 23-year-old Mishann Chinn, were all shot and killed near the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, on the Patuxent Research Refuge, in Prince George's County, Maryland. Because the murders occurred on the Patuxent Research Refuge, which is classed as federal land, Higgs was tried by the federal government rather than by the state of Maryland.[2] His case, conviction, and execution were the subject of multiple controversies.[3]

The main controversy surrounding Higgs's case was that Higgs did not personally kill any of the three victims. The man who fatally shot all three women to death, Willis Mark Haynes, was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole plus 45 years, while Higgs, who remained in a vehicle when the killings took place, received a death sentence.[4] The prosecution argued that although Higgs did not kill anyone, he was the ringleader, and not only ordered Haynes to kill the women but bullied him into it. Higgs and his defense team maintained his innocence to the end, arguing that although he was involved, he was merely a witness to the crime, and was set up by Haynes and another witness, Victor Gloria. In 2012 Higgs claimed in a sworn affidavit that he did not force or threaten Haynes to kill any of the victims.[5][6]

Higgs was executed via lethal injection on January 16, 2021, becoming the thirteenth and last person to be executed during the Trump administration, during which federal executions returned after a seventeen year hiatus.[7]

Contents

- 1Early life

- 2Patuxent Research Refuge murders

- 3Drug-related offence and arrest

- 4Revelation and murder trial

- 4.1Prosecution's version of events

- 4.2Defense's version of events

- 4.3Verdict

- 5Controversy

- 6Execution

- 7See also

- 8References

Early life[edit]

Dustin John Higgs was born in Poughkeepsie, New York,[8] on March 10, 1972, to Alfonso Higgs and Marilyn M. Bennett (1945 – 1982).[9] Alfonso was reportedly abusive and would regularly beat Marilyn and Dustin in their family home. He was also a drug dealer who neglected Dustin and his other children. When Dustin was 8 years old, Marilyn was diagnosed with cancer. She died in 1982 when Dustin was 10. Family members of Dustin and friends who knew him reported a big change in his mood after his mother's death.[9][10] He moved to Laurel, Maryland, in 1991.[11]

Patuxent Research Refuge murders[edit]

On the evening of Friday, January 26, 1996, Dustin Higgs, Willis Haynes and Victor Gloria drove from Higgs's apartment in Laurel, Maryland to Washington, D.C., to pick up Tamika Black, Tanji Jackson and Mishann Chinn. Dates had been arranged for each of the men and women and the groups had agreed to meet and hang out together. The six of them travelled in Higgs's vehicle, a blue Mazda MPV van, and returned to his apartment to drink alcohol, smoke marijuana and listen to music. The partying continued into the early hours of January 27.[12]

At some point during the night, an argument broke out and the women left the apartment. Higgs, Haynes and Gloria then headed out after them, with Higgs driving his own vehicle and Haynes sitting in the front passenger seat. Gloria was sitting in the back of the van behind Higgs. Higgs drove his van to the side of the road where the women were walking. They offered the women a ride home, which they willingly accepted. The women got into the back of the vehicle and Higgs drove out of Laurel. Neighbors in the area reported hearing and seeing the three women laughing and talking in the early hours of that morning.[13]

Higgs drove his van along a state road on to the Patuxent Research Refuge and stopped the vehicle near the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center. The women got out of the van and Haynes exited the vehicle. Haynes then fatally shot each of the three women with a silver .38 caliber pistol before returning to the van and closing the door. The gun was then thrown into the Anacostia River. In the early hours of January 27, a passing motorist found the bodies of the three women and contacted the Park Police. Jackson's day planner was found at the scene with Higgs's nickname and telephone number recorded in it. According to the medical examiner, Jackson and Black had each been shot once in the chest and once in the back. Chinn had been shot once in the back of the head.[13]

Drug-related offence and arrest[edit]

The murders went unsolved for nearly three years. Higgs was first questioned about the murders in March 1996 at his apartment.[13] He acknowledged that he had known Jackson and had talked to her the night before she died. He was arrested and a search of his apartment was conducted as he was suspected of being involved in an unrelated bank fraud violation. Police found cocaine and firearms in his apartment. Higgs was arrested on unrelated federal drug charges and on May 12, 1997, pled guilty to possession with intent to distribute cocaine.[13] He was sentenced to seventeen years in a federal prison for the crime and remained in custody.[1]

Revelation and murder trial[edit]

In October 1998, Gloria and Haynes were arrested on unrelated drug charges. After being questioned, police learned of more details surrounding the murders. On December 21, 1998, both Higgs and Haynes were indicted by a federal grand jury on murder charges. Higgs was already in custody at the time, serving his 17-year-sentence for the unrelated drug offense.[13][14]

After this revelation, Higgs and Haynes were tried separately in 2000. Victor Gloria pleaded guilty to being an accessory-after-the-fact to the killings, a charge that only carried a maximum penalty of fifteen years in prison. Gloria cut a deal, however, and in exchange for his testimony against Higgs and Haynes he was sentenced to seven years in prison. His testimony was the main piece of evidence used in Higgs's trial.[15]

Prosecution's version of events[edit]

The prosecution's version of events is that Higgs got into a heated argument with Tanji Jackson at his apartment on the evening of January 26. Jackson had supposedly taken a knife from the kitchen and threatened Higgs after she rejected his alleged sexual advances towards her. After the argument, the women left the apartment enraged. According to Gloria, Jackson made some kind of threat as she left the apartment. As Higgs watched the women leave, he saw Jackson appear to write down his license plate number. According to Gloria, this angered Higgs, who was concerned she knew people who may retaliate against him.[13]

The men then left the apartment and headed after them in Higgs's van. They pulled over and offered the women a ride home, which they accepted. The prosecution accepts that they were not forced into the vehicle or taken against their will. Higgs did not drive the correct way back to Washington, D.C., and instead drove to the Patuxent Research Refuge. Higgs pulled over at a secluded location and ordered the women out of the van. The women then asked if they were being forced to walk home to which Higgs responded "something like that." As the women got out of the van, Higgs took out a handgun and handed it to Haynes. According to Haynes's testimony, Higgs then said to him "better make sure they're dead". Haynes then exited the van and Gloria heard gunshots. He witnessed Haynes shoot one of the women in the chest. After the women were killed and the gun was disposed of, Higgs drove back to his apartment with Haynes and Gloria. Gloria was later dropped off at a fast-food restaurant, where he was told to keep his mouth shut.[13]

Defense's version of events[edit]

The defense argues that Higgs's supposed reason for wanting the women killed, being nothing more than Jackson rejecting his sexual advances and possibly knowing people who may have retaliated against him, is a very weak motive for ordering three murders. They say the idea that the women willingly got into the van for a lift home also contradicts the idea that Jackson was angry at Higgs and would seek revenge.[16] The defense claims that the real reason the women were killed was because they owed Haynes and some of his associates drug money. Two inmates at the Charles County Detention Center said Haynes had claimed to them to have a much bigger role in the killings.[17] One argued Haynes was more of a partner to Higgs than someone who followed orders. They said the victims owed him drug money and that also Haynes "had to kill" one of the women because she had allegedly been trying to set him up.[18]

Higgs's lawyer said he only learned of the witnesses after reviewing Haynes's trial record, by which time Higgs had already been sentenced to death. The evidence would supposedly have made both Haynes and Higgs equally culpable in the eyes of the jury, and the failure to provide the statements violated the Brady rule.[18] According to the defense, both Gloria and Haynes repeatedly changed their stories, with Haynes admitting in 2012 in a sworn affidavit that Higgs had not forced or bullied him into doing anything, something the prosecution had claimed at Higgs's trial.[6]

Verdict[edit]

Ultimately, Higgs and Haynes were both found guilty of the murders. On August 24, 2000, Haynes was sentenced to life in prison without parole, plus 45 years.[19] The federal judge at Haynes's trial claimed he had shown no remorse for the killings.[4] He remains incarcerated at United States Penitentiary, Beaumont. Haynes's Federal Bureau of Prisons register number is #35389-037.[20]

On October 26, 2000, Higgs was sentenced to death, becoming the first person from Maryland to be sentenced to death in the federal court system.[21] He was incarcerated at United States Penitentiary, Terre Haute.[20]

On November 22, 2000, Gloria was sentenced to eighty-four months in a federal prison.[14] He was released on February 4, 2006, serving a total of just over five years and two months in prison. Gloria's Federal Bureau of Prisons register number was #35417-037.[20]

Controversy[edit]

Multiple controversies surround Higgs's case. The first being that he was sentenced to death despite not personally shooting or killing any of the three women himself. The case against him was mainly built on the testimonies of Gloria and Haynes, who had both cut deals and reportedly changed their stories multiple times. The fact the murders were committed on federal land further complicated things. Higgs was tried by the federal government rather than by the state of Maryland. Had the murders occurred further down the road, the women would not have been killed on the Patuxent Research Refuge, and Higgs would have been tried by the state of Maryland instead of by the federal government.[22] If he had been tried by the state of Maryland, based on state law, he would not have been eligible for the death penalty.[6] The state of Maryland also abolished the death penalty in 2013,[23] with all remaining death row inmates resentenced to life without parole.[24] Prior to the abolition, the last execution in Maryland occurred in 2005,[25] when Wesley Baker was executed for the June 1991 murder of 49-year-old Jane Tyson.[26] Had Higgs been tried by Maryland, he would have escaped execution and instead received another sentence for soliciting the murders. Even if he was sentenced to death, he would have had his sentence commuted to life imprisonment without parole like all the other death row inmates in Maryland, provided that his execution did not take place before Maryland's abolition of the death penalty.

Execution[edit]

In the early morning of January 15, 2021, Dustin John Higgs was executed by lethal injection at the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. The lethal agent used was the barbiturate pentobarbital.[7] He was pronounced dead at the age of 48 at 1:23 a.m. Higgs' last words were "I'd like to say I am an innocent man. I did not order the murders." He mentioned each of the three murder victims by name. He became the third and last inmate to be executed by the US federal government in January 2021 after both convicted murderers Lisa Marie Montgomery and Cory Johnson, who were executed on January 13 and January 14 respectively.[27]

The execution was controversial, and became further complicated when Higgs tested positive for COVID-19 a few weeks prior.[28] Higgs's execution was placed on hold by a federal judge's ruling on January 12, 2021.[29] The stay was lifted on January 14, 2021, allowing the executions of Higgs and another inmate (Cory Johnson) scheduled to die on January 14 to proceed.[30]

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