Facebook Mary Katherine Higdon and Steven Freeman
On tonight’s episode of 48 Hours: Suspicion, correspondents review the case against Mary Katherine Higdon in the killing of her longtime boyfriend Steven Andrew Freeman. Freeman was found not guilty of the charges brought against her, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
According to the CBS press release for “The Case Against Mary Katherine Higdon,” Higdon called 911 to report that she had accidentally shot her boyfriend but later, police allege Higdon confessed to murder, though the audio on the tape was impossible to hear due to feedback.
Investigators believed that Higdon shot Freeman after an argument during a fit of anger; they believed that she lied about what happened that night, The Griffin Daily News reported.
Higdon Did Not Take The Plea Deal Offered to Her
Police say Mary Katherine Higdon confessed to killing her boyfriend. The problem? Feedback rendered the interrogation tapes inaudible.
An all-new “#48Hours Suspicion,” tonight at 10/9c. t.co/bjOpVheZsK
Before the trial was due to start, Higdon was offered a plea deal from the state, but she declined that deal, choosing instead to go to trial, according to The Grip.
“The case was continued from the prior calendar,” Griffin Judicial Circuit District Attorney Ben Coker told the site. “Prior to that trial calendar, she was offered a plea of life with the possibility of parole.”
The trial lasted over a week. The prosecution argued that what happened to Freeman was not an accident, while the defense argued that Higdon had acted in self-defense and claimed she suffered from Battered Woman Syndrome, The Grip wrote.
During the trial, The Griffin Daily News reported, Higdon testified that, while she did not know the gun was loaded, she had held up the firearm to defend herself in fear of her boyfriend. There were multiple text messages read aloud to the court and jury to show the alleged abuse she received from Freeman.
Higdon Was Found Not Guilty of All Charges
Police say Mary Katherine Higdon confessed to killing her boyfriend. The problem? Feedback rendered the interrogation tapes inaudible.
An all-new “#48Hours Suspicion,” tonight at 10/9c. t.co/bjOpVheZsK
At the end of the trial, the jury deliberated for four hours and ultimately found Higdon not guilty on all counts, according to The Atlanta-Journal Constitution.
“The State’s case focused on the events of a single day, August 1, 2018,” Michael Granims told AJC in an email. “Mary Katherine Higdon deserved that the rest of the story be told… we are proud to say that justice was served and Ms. Higdon is now home with her family.”
Coker told The Grip that, while he disagreed with the verdict, his office presented a strong case.
“I thought my assistants and law enforcement presented a strong case – evidentiary,” he said. “Any time you face a battered wife defense, it’s never easy because there isn’t an objective standard. It’s all subjective. I thought we presented a very strong case.”
Now, Higdon is speaking with reporters about the events of that night and her life now. She told 48 Hours correspondent David Begnaud that she would have never done anything to hurt her boyfriend according to the CBS press release.
“All I know is what’s in my heart,” she said. “And I know what happened that night … I loved Steven, and I would never ever do anything to hurt him.”
She added that she didn’t know how he’d been shot because she said she was not pointing it directly at him.
“The gun going off … I don’t even see how, like, it even got him,” she says on the episode. “Because I wasn’t even, like, really pointing it directly at him in the first place.”
Tune in to 48 Hours: Suspicion Wednesday, September 23 at 10 p.m. to learn more about Higdon’s story.
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Mary Katherine Higdon Found Not Guilty in Connection to Longtime Boyfriend Steven Andrews’ Death