In an unusual legal move, an Orange County prosecutor convinced a judge that 29-year-old Joshua Latham killed Tami Diane Higginbotham, even though Latham wasn’t on trial for murder.
Friday, 163rd District Judge Dennis Powell revoked a burglary probation for Latham and sentenced him to prison for 20 years. Judge Powell stacked the sentence on a five-year sentence out of Newton County for bail jumping and added a $10,000 fine to the total of 25 years.
Assistant District Attorney Krispen Walker said a probated sentence can be revoked for any violation of state laws. After Newton County dropped a murder indictment against Latham, Walker decided to prove Latham killed Higginbotham as a way to revoke the probation and send him to prison.
The case goes back to February 2013 when Higginbotham disappeared. The 41-year-old woman from Vinton, Louisiana, told her family she was going to Orange to sell a cell phone. She was reported missing the next day when she never returned home. Her abandoned car was found at Blue Bird Fish Camp on Simmons Drive.
Walker said Latham had been a suspect from the time Higginbotham disappeared because she was supposed to meet him. He told police and Higginbotham’s family that he never saw her, Walker said.
After initially talking to police, Latham left Texas. He was on deferred adjudication from a burglary conviction in Orange County. Deferred adjudication is a kind of probation often given to first offenders. If the offender completes the terms of the probation, the offense is removed from their criminal record.
When Latham disappeared, Orange County authorities issued a motion to revoke his probation and an arrest warrant was issued. Police in Maryville, Tennessee, arrested him. He was reported to be at a house in the town with his girlfriend and infant child.
Her body was found February 15, 2013, in a wooded area in Newton County north of Mauriceville after local police talked to him. An autopsy report showed she had been strangled. He was brought back to Orange by an Orange Police Department detective and a Texas Ranger.
A Newton County grand jury indicted Latham for murder in July 2013 and he was released on a $125,000 bond. But when his trial was ready to begin in February 26, 2015, he did not appear for court. Another warrant was issued and he was arrested April 28, 2015, in Starks, Louisiana.
Walker said the Newton County prosecutor got a conviction of bail jumping with a five-year sentence, but dropped the murder indictment. “A tremendous amount of work went into the case” by Orange police, the Orange County District Attorney’s investigator and the Texas Rangers, she said.
The Orange County District Attorney’s Office decided to use the evidence that Latham killed Higginbotham in a hearing to revoke his probation, she said.
The presentation before Judge Powell started Thursday and continued Friday. The evidence included a demonstration by DA Investigator K.C. Brashears on how Latham disposed of Higginbotham’s body. Brashears used Walker to portray Higginbotham in the courtroom demonstration.
Also, police obtained a surveillance video from the Mobile station at Simmons Drive and Interstate 10 near Blue Bird fish camp. The video showed Higginbotham with Latham as he bought gas. The video showed he was lying when he said he had never seen her.
Walker said Higginbotham’s family was grief-stricken after the murder charge was dropped, but they are pleased with Judge Powell’s decision to establish that Latham killed Tami Higginbotham.
“Even though it’s not a murder conviction, they are happy, happy, happy” she said.
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