Jurors hear police interrogation of Lexington woman charged with killing her husband
Jurors spent hours on Wednesday watching a recording of an interrogation between Lexington homicide detectives and Carol Ann Hignite, a 74-year-old woman accused of murdering her husband in 2017.
She faces charges of murder, knowingly neglecting an elderly person and third-degree arson following the death of her husband, Leon Dewayne Hignite, 76.
Her trial began Monday with prosecutors Mary Tobin and Kathryn Webster arguing that Carol Hignite killed her husband by attacking him with a hammer and neglecting him for three days before calling for help.
Carol Hignite’s defense team, led by Russell Baldani and Tucker Richardson, has argued that Leon Hignite had multiple health issues which caused him to fall in the couple’s bathroom and hit his head on a sink, ultimately leading to his death.
Hignite told officers in the investigation that her husband went into the bathroom perfectly fine and was in there for 10 minutes before she heard him fall. She said he came out injured, and got down onto the floor where he laid until emergency services arrived three days later.
Police: Suspect’s version of events is ‘impossible’
During the interrogation, which took place on Sept. 29, 2017, investigators can be heard telling Carol Hignite that her version of events was “completely impossible.”
The video evidence was shown to the jury on Wednesday afternoon with former homicide detective Robert Wilson testifying on the stand as prosecutors and defense counsel picked apart the conversation. Wilson was the lead detective in the investigation.
“The problem that we have got is that your version of events aren’t adding up with the injuries that Dewayne suffered,” Wilson said to Carol in the video.
Wilson alleged that the injuries Leon Hignite suffered — a broken rib, punctured lung, fractured orbital socket and more than 30 lacerations to the crown of his head — couldn’t have been from a fall.
“It is impossible that he fell inside the bathroom and that caused all of those injuries. It is impossible,” he said.
Wilson also said Leon Hignite could not have gotten himself up and out of the bathroom if he had suffered those injuries from a fall.
On Wednesday, Wilson maintained his opinion that the injuries could not be from a fall. He also disagreed with other theories the defense presented, including that Leon Hignite hit his head on a bed frame following his alleged fall in the bathroom.
Suspect: I didn’t do anything ‘except try to help him’
Carol Hignite vehemently denied in the interrogation that she would hurt her husband.
“I didn’t do anything to Dewayne except try to help him after he fell,” she said in the footage. “I don’t know what he did in that bathroom.”
Detectives asked Carol Hignite in the video if she was “tired” or “fed up” with Leon Hignite, and maybe didn’t mean to hurt him as bad as she did. She again denied and insisted she would not hurt her husband. She has still maintained her innocence as the trial has proceeded.
At the time of the interrogation, Carol Hignite told police she was without her blood pressure medicine and without sleep.
“Without her medication, no sleep, this elderly woman — she insisted she did not hurt Dewayne, and she didn’t take the bait,” Baldani said. “She even said, ‘When he wakes up, he will tell you that I didn’t do it.’”
“I don’t think she thought he was going to get up,” Wilson replied while on the stand.
Members of the jury also listened to discussion about a fire that stated at Hignite’s home. Hignite has been charged with third-degree arson after investigators showed up to search her home and discovered the fire had started.
In the video, she seemed shocked to learn that a fire began in the basement of the house. She said she hadn’t been in the basement for years, and she would never dream of burning her house down.
“I would have never set my house on fire,” she affirmed. “Why would I set my house on fire?”
“To cover up a crime maybe,” Wilson said previously. “You lived in that house for 30 years with no fires and an assault and crime takes place and within two hours of the police showing up, a fire starts.”
Lawyer raises questions over evidence testing
Following the video’s presentation, Baldani questioned Wilson, who was lead detective on the case, and asked why he didn’t test certain items found in the home including the bed frame, the sink, or a cup with a spoon in it next to the bed.
“We are trying to figure out what caused the injuries on top of Mr. Hignite’s head and a cup and a spoon is not going to help us with that,” Wilson said.
Baldani alleged that police “jumped to conclusions” and led a “horrendous investigation” by not backing up anything with the defendant’s claims of Leon Hignite falling in the bathroom, or his medical issues which could have contributed to the extent of his injuries.
He said the Commonwealth had “bootstrapped charges” against his client, and asked Judge Jeffrey Taylor to give a direct verdict against the murder and arson charges.
Taylor denied the motion, and cited key pieces of evidence that could validate Carol Hignite’s charges.
Both sides rested their case Wednesday afternoon. The trial is expected to continue into Thursday with closing statements.
This story was originally published December 22, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
