Jury urged to reject ‘lies’ of Scot accused of killing his parents

A JURY has been urged to reject the ‘compulsive lies’ of a man accused of murdering his parents in their US home.

Scots-born Derek Connell is on trial in Bakersfield, California, for the murders of his Glaswegian mother Kim Higginbotham and her American husband Chris, both 48.

Connell, 33, denies the charges and testified in the trial that he was sexually abused by his stepfather from the age of ten to 14.

He has admitted shooting dead Mr Higginbotham but claimed he did so after his stepfather shot his mother.

Connell said it all happened shortly after he revealed the sexual abuse for the first time and Mrs Higginbotham had threatened to leave her husband.

Closing the prosecution case, deputy district attorney Marcus Cuper told the jury: ‘The murder of Chris and Kim Higginbotham is probably never going to be fully understood or explained.’

He told the court their killing had left family, friends and their community ‘absolutely stunned’ and that ‘no one saw this coming’ as Connell had grown up in a very ‘happy home’.

The court has heard the family moved to the US when Connell was about four years old and Mr Higginbotham was the only father he ever knew. Mr Cuper described how the couple enjoyed life and motorcycling together on their Harley-Davidsons and that they ‘had their acts together in life’.

He contrasted it to how Connell was constantly in trouble, frequently drunk and had spent nine months in jail before recently moving back in with them. Mr

Cuper said: ‘Unfortunately that kind decision ended up costing them their lives’.

He said the world was never going to know why Connell killed his parents as they were the only three people in the house and only Connell is still alive to say what happened.

After Connell was arrested driving out of the garage of the house on the night of the murders, in April 2016, he told police he had found them dead when he got home. He later told officers his first interview had all been lies.

In his second interview he confessed he had been responsible for the killings but said he could not remember them.

Last week he told the court he was sexually abused and had kept it secret until now because of embarrassment and shame.

Described as a ‘compulsive liar’ who has lied ‘again and again’ about ‘everything’, Mr Cuper said the fact he had revealed the abuse now while on trial for murder was ‘incredibly convenient timing’.

He said: ‘I’m asking you to reject the defendant’s testimony in its entirety’, adding: ‘He committed the acts that caused the death of his parents. His testimony about being raped and abused sexually is not credible.’

Connell’s lawyer told the jury that Chris Higginbotham had ‘murdered’ his stepson’s ‘soul’ and ‘spirit’ by abusing him and urged them to clear him.

In a closing statement, the public defender claimed his client

‘Convenient timing’

was a troubled child and teenager, who ‘self-medicated’ with alcohol and had no friends – with only his parents’ numbers in his phone – because of the abuse he suffered at his stepfather’s hands.

The jury was told Connell’s hatred for his father had built up over the years and he had no remorse for killing the man who raped him and killed his mother.

Mr Cadman said: ‘This is one screwed-up human being and it’s Chris Higginbotham’s fault, 100 per cent.’

He told the jury Mr Higginbotham was a ‘murderer and child rapist’ and called him a ‘gun nut’.

Mr Cadman brought up a possible footprint, which he claimed was visible in police photos from the murder scene and found near Mrs Higginbotham’s body.

Mr Higginbotham’s body was found dead with a bare right foot.

He said the footprint was never identified and was missed by the ‘sloppy’ police investigation.

The jury was dismissed to deliberate its verdict.