Man accused of trying to kill girlfriend stands trial without attorney
A man accused of breaking into his ex-girlfriend's home and setting it on fire, killing her cats in the process, will stand trial this week, and he is representing himself in court.
Derrick Higdon, 49, who now lives in Rock Hill, South Carolina, was charged with attempted first-degree murder, breaking and entering with intent to terrorize and injure, cruelty to animals, and first-degree arson in the July 2017 incident.
Higdon, who has had seven attorneys in the last seven years, appeared in court Monday and asked Superior Court Judge Sally Kirby-Turner to dismiss the case against him. In a lengthy hearing, Higdon presented a tangle of arguments, essentially saying that Assistant District Attorney Debbie Gulledge violated rules governing the presentation of discovery in the case and that the charges should be dismissed because the case took so long to get to trial. He also alleged that Gulledge faked evidence and intentionally delayed his trial, allegations Gulledge denied.
"This is a clear case of intentional delay, falsification of evidence," Higdon said.
Gulledge said that she gave Higdon opportunities to view the evidence against him in advance of the trial, and that Higdon kept firing his attorneys, eventually choosing to represent himself with an attorney on standby to offer legal advice when necessary.
"Every time I've tried to calendar it, I've had new attorneys pop up," she said.
She also said there were delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and that Higdon filed a variety of motions in the case that needed to be heard.
Kirby-Turner denied Higdon's motion to dismiss, telling Higdon he would have the afternoon to review the hundreds of pages of discovery in the case.
Higdon tried to argue with the judge, at times interrupting her mid-sentence. He told her he was not an attorney and needed more time to view the evidence against him. Kirby-Turner did not waver from her decision.
Jury selection in the case began Tuesday morning. The trial is expected to last around a week.
This article originally appeared on The Gaston Gazette: Man accused of trying to kill girlfriend stands trial without attorney
