Mary Katherine Higdon, a Georgia resident who worked as an assistant at a preschool for many years, is accused of killing the man who was her high school sweetheart at their home.
In the city of Griffin, Georgia, Higdon worked as a preschool teacher’s helper at the St. George’s Episcopal School. She is accused of shooting and killing a man named Steven Freeman, who was 23 years old. His relatives reminisced about him fondly, particularly his Southern drawl, his dedication to helping others, and his passion for fishing and hunting.
According to his Facebook page, Freeman worked as a metal worker at Drain Right Gutters & Roofing, Inc., and in the past, he worked as a stacker at the Food Depot. His Facebook page also features many photographs of Freeman with Mary Katherine Higdon.
According to the description, Freeman was born and reared in the city of Griffin, Georgia, where he went on to receive his education from Spalding High School and Gordon State College. In 2012, Freeman changed his status on Facebook to reflect that he was “in a relationship,” and as of that year, he had not posted any noteworthy posts that were easily accessible to the public.
Mary Katherine Higdon Wikipedia
Mary Katherine is the major person of interest in connection with the shooting death of Steven Freeman. She was also taken into custody by the police when they arrived at the home the couple shared on Sunnybrook Drive in Griffin, Georgia, which is located about an hour outside of Atlanta.
During the time that Katherine’s case was being heard in court, she was being held in the Spalding County Jail. The accusations against Mary were dropped.
Many individuals in the courtroom were taken aback when the judge decided to acquit Mary Katherine Higdon of all charges, including purposeful murder, negligent homicide, assault with a dangerous weapon, and carrying a weapon while engaged in a crime.
They built their defense on the allegations that Steven Freeman had a history of both sexual and physical violence. In support of their claims that they were acting in self-defense, Mary Katherine’s public defender, Michael Granims, presented multiple text conversations.
They retained the services of a professional who diagnosed Mary Katherine with Battered Woman Syndrome based on her symptoms. Prior to August 1, 2018, the police had been called to the residence of the couple five times, once for a fight between the couple’s family members.
Where Is Mary Katherine Higdon Now In 2022?
There are a lot of people who are interested in finding out where Mary Katherine is currently and what her current situation is. The teaching assistant, who was only 24 years old at the time, was exonerated when a jury determined that she was not responsible for the murder or the possession of a firearm.
When the proceedings on her side of the trial were finished, Mary Katherine went back to her home in Griffin, Georgia. She has kept it a secret and hasn’t been particularly active online since then, possibly in an effort to avoid the attention of the public and the press.
It is only logical to assume that Mary Katherine has been able to put her horrific past behind her and is now living a peaceful life away from the public eye.
Why Did Mary Katherine Higdon Shoot Her Boyfriend?
Mary Katherine Higdon is said to have told law enforcement that the gun went off inadvertently, according to the accounts. According to WSB-TV Atlanta, she said that the firearm discharged when she was in the back room of their house passing it to Freeman. She was there at the time.
The police, as reported by the news channel, deny that this account is accurate. The leading detective told the news station that the evidence supports the government’s argument that there was “intent to kill,” but he did not provide any further explanation.
After being shot in the chest, Steven Andrew Higdon did not recover from his injuries and passed away. Higdon is said to have told WSB-TV that she “didn’t comprehend what transpired since she had never maintained a handgun in the chamber” in response to the allegations made against her.
Wikipedia and Biography of Mary Katherine Higdon
Mary Katherine Higdon, a resident of Griffin, Georgia, was taken into custody for the murder of Steven Freeman, who was her live-in partner. Does the evidence from the crime scene imply that she systematically meant to kill him, or could it have been an accident that she shot him? In the episode of “48 Hours” titled “The Case Against Mary Katherine Higdon,” CBS News journalist David Begnaud conducts an investigation.
Mary Katherine Higdon, who was 24 years old at the time, placed a panicked call to 911 on the evening of August 1, 2018, and the Griffin Police Department responded to the call. She reported to the operator that she had just accidentally shot her partner. She said that she was sorry. During the conversation, she claimed that she was unaware that the gun had a round already loaded into the chamber of the weapon.
As soon as emergency personnel arrived at the couple’s residence, the paramedics began treating Steven for his life-threatening injuries while the police consoled Higdon, who was in a state of distress, and secured the scene. Even though he was brought to the hospital, Steven Freeman, who was 23 years old, passed away a few minutes before midnight.
Higdon is quoted as saying that the gun went off inadvertently while she was delivering it to Freeman at the tumultuous scene. However, the detectives found that there was food spilled across the kitchen floor, which led them to assume that there may have been an incident before the shooting took place. The police started to get the impression that this wasn’t just a tragic event that happened to happen.
Lt. Chris Wilson is conducting an interview with Mary Katherine Higdon. According to Wilson, in the course of this interview, Higdon admitted that she had shot her boyfriend Steven Freeman out of rage. The police claimed that they had a confession on tape, however the audio on the recording where she reportedly confessed could not be heard because of a feedback hum. The police claimed that they had a confession on tape.
Mary Katherine Higdon was led to the headquarters of the police department so that she might be questioned there.
There, she provided a different account to the investigators by claiming that the gun went off when she was throwing it to Freeman. Investigators claim that Higdon suddenly confessed to the murder of Freeman and admitted that she shot him out of rage over the course of the interview, which swiftly morphed into an interrogation.
Mary Katherine Higdon was taken into custody for the murder of Steven Freeman by investigators who believed they had an unfaltering confession recorded on tape.
However, there was a significant obstacle. On the vast majority of the recording, there was only feedback to be heard. It would be necessary for the prosecution to attempt to build their case without using it.
At the trial that will take place in June 2019, a witness for the prosecution named Thomas Skinner claimed that Higdon worked at the same sports goods business as he did at one point in his life. A friend of Steven’s said in court, “I know she understands how to handle a gun very well,” and he said this about the friend. The rest of what Thomas Skinner had to say was that Higdon had boasted to Freeman and his pals about how knowledgeable she was about firearms and how she had grown up in an environment where guns were commonplace.
Mary Katherine Higdon testified on her own behalf during the proceeding. She testified through tears that Steven Freeman was the love of her life and that she had no intention of causing him harm in any way. Higdon was adamant that the shooting was an accident and that she was unaware that the gun had a bullet in the chamber and that it was ready to fire before the incident occurred.
The prosecution presented the jury with two exhibit images that provided a close-up look at the details of the firearm that had been used to shoot Freeman. In addition, a police sergeant from the Griffin department testified that when he examined the gun, it appeared to have moisture on it, and that it also appeared to have cooking grease on it.
On the evening of the shooting, Mary Katherine Higdon prepared a London broil for dinner. The prosecutors claim that there was cooking grease on the magazine as well as the slide of the gun, which is evidence, in their opinion, that the shooting was not an accident; that the magazine had been removed at one point, and Mary Katherine had loaded the gun and racked it that night, after she and Steven Freeman had thrown the dinner that she had prepared in an argument; and that the magazine had been out at one point; and that the magazine had been removed at one point; and that the magazine had been removed at one point
During her conversation with CBS News journalist David Begnaud, prosecutor Kate Lenhard provided a synopsis of the reasons and circumstances surrounding her belief that Higdon was responsible for the death of Freeman. Lenhard told the jury that the relationship between Freeman and Higdon had been disintegrating and that an enraged Mary Katherine shot Freeman after he finally got home after ignoring her texts all day, and then refused to eat the dinner she had made for him.
“Because she was upset that he didn’t want to eat the food she had just prepared, she removed the magazine from the revolver using the hands she had been using to prepare it. The magazine now contains bullets thanks to her efforts. She loaded the rifle by inserting the magazine. The top of the rifle was retracted by her hand. She then loaded a cartridge into the chamber, and with five and three quarters pounds of pressure on the trigger, she pulled the trigger. And since she was so upset, she went ahead and fired the trigger.” The fact that there was grease on the inside of the gun, as Lenhard said to “48 Hours,” is evidence that the shooting of Steven Freeman was not an accident but rather murder.
Griffin police detective Adam Trammell demonstrated how to load the magazine and chamber a round in a Glock 42 handgun, the same sort of weapon that was used by Higdon, during an interview with Begnaud. Trammell used the gun to demonstrate the same steps that Higdon had demonstrated. The on-camera example given by Detective Trammel revealed the investigators’ idea regarding how the grease got on both the top of the rifle and, more crucially, on the magazine that was contained within the firearm.
David Begnaud, a correspondent for CBS News, and Detective Adam Trammel visited a shooting range, where Trammel illustrated the investigators’ idea of how grease wound up on the top of the pistol and on the magazine inside the weapon.
In the conversation that he had with “48 Hours,” defense attorney Jorge Carabajal questioned the evidence provided by the state, saying, “They took a wonderful close-up image of the gun. I did not observe that quantity of grease or anything else on the pistol, with the possible exception of what you might have on your fingers…”
However, the trial would be about a whole deal more than just some grease on a pistol. Higdon stated in her testimony that she had handled the gun that night because she was afraid of Freeman, even though she was unaware that the gun had a round chambered inside it. Many people in the courtroom were taken aback when Higdon presented a picture of Freeman’s increasingly abusive behavior against his client. She proceeded to read the jury a number of obscene and threatening text messages that Freeman had written to her in the year leading up to his passing. Additionally, Higdon stated in her testimony that Freeman assaulted her by hitting her and raping her on two separate occasions.
The prosecution was not convinced by what they heard. During Kate Lenhard’s cross-examination, Kate Lenhard asked Higdon about the fact that he had never lodged a complaint regarding Steven’s alleged abuse.
In the end, it was the responsibility of the jury to determine whether or not the defendant was guilty of any of the allegations that were brought against her. The jury returned a verdict of not guilty.
The decision of the jury to acquit Mary Katherine Higdon of all charges, including malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, left many in the courtroom in disbelief.
“48 Hours” conducted interviews with several members of the jury in order to uncover the specifics of what took place during the deliberations that took place behind closed doors. Listen to what they have to say on “The Case Against Mary Katherine Higdon,” which will air on CBS and Paramount Plus this coming Saturday, July 24 at 9/8c.
