Moment cold-eyed double killer was told: You’ll die in jail
Expat Scot murdered his parents in US
THIS is the moment Scots-born killer Derek Connell learned that he could die in prison after being found guilty of murdering his parents.
Connell shot dead his Scottish mother Kim Higginbotham and her American husband Chris at their quiet cul-de-sac bungalow in Bakersfield, California, on April 30, 2016.
The 33-year-old’s trial came to a dramatic conclusion on Thursday night when the jury came back after more than ten hours’ deliberation to deliver their verdict.
Connell, pictured here for the first time in four years after the judge allowed cameras in the court for the verdict, showed no emotion as the clerk at Kern County Superior Court read out the jury’s decision.
He was found guilty of first degree murder for count one, which was the killing of his 48-year-old stepfather, and guilty of second degree murder for the killing of his mother, also 48.
However, jurors found him not guilty of first degree murder over the death of his mother.
Judge John Brownlee set sentencing for March 12 and Connell could face life in prison without parole – meaning he would die in jail.
Speaking after the verdict, Deputy District Attorney Marcus Cuper told the Scottish Daily Mail he was happy with the result. He said: ‘I think [the jury] did well.’ He added that Connell could still face life without parole despite being found guilty of a lesser charge in the killing of his mother.
Mr Cuper said: ‘It should be life without parole.’
During the trial Mrs Higginjury botham’s sister Sonia Connell flew out to give evidence for the prosecution.
She told the court how her nephew had texted her after the murders, telling her his parents were dead, and then picked up her FaceTime call to her sister’s iPad and horrifyingly showed her their dead bodies.
In a revealing part of her evidence, Miss Connell told the
how she had asked her nephew if he did it when on the gruesome FaceTime call and he said ‘no’ but was ‘furiously’ rubbing his head – a trait, the prosecution said, that was a ‘tell tale’ sign Connell was known to display when he was lying.
She also told the court her sister had loved her son ‘unconditionally’ and that her nephew grew up in a happy household.
Miss Connell also said former US Navy man Chris had ‘showed nothing but compassion, love and concern for Derek’.
The trial heard how Connell, orginally from Shawlands, Glasgow, had told ‘compulsive’ lies to investigators after he was caught driving out of the family home on the night of the murders, with his parents shot dead on the floor inside.
In his second police interview he confessed he had been responsible for the killings but
Later editions of yesterday’s Mail
‘Nothing but compassion’
said he couldn’t remember them happening. However he gave a ‘bombshell’ new story when on the stand in court – claiming he was sexually abused by his stepfather from the ages of 10 to 14 but had kept it secret until now because of embarrassment and shame.
Connell admitted shooting dead Mr Higginbotham but claimed he did so after his stepfather shot his mother – claiming it all happened shortly after he revealed the sexual abuse for the first time and Mrs Higginbotham had threatened to leave her husband.
Mr Cuper told the jury to reject the ‘compulsive’ lies Connell had told ever since his parents deaths.
Following the verdict Mr Higginbotham’s father, Addison Higginbotham, said he was relieved by the verdict but added: ‘Nobody wins.’