Lawyers for Lexington woman accused of killing husband blame ‘expectation bias’
Lawyers for a 76-year-old woman charged with killing her husband say that “expectation bias” is to blame for their client’s prosecution, and neither investigators nor prosecutors entertained the notion that she might not have done it.
Leon Dewayne Hignite’s death was tragic, they say, but not a crime. He simply fell.
“Expectation bias is something that all humans do,” defense lawyer Natalie Hurst-Rollins said Monday during opening statements in Carol Hignite’s murder trial. “It’s when we look for information that confirms our own beliefs, which happened in the investigation for this case. This investigation went off the rails over a period of 72 hours.”
But first responders were immediately suspicious of Carol Hignite’s story, prosecutors say. Investigators found blood on the walls and ceilings at the home, raising further alarm bells.
Prosecutors argue that Carol Hignite bludgeoned her husband with a hammer, and then left him to die. She also tried to burn down the couple’s house, they say, while first responders were at the home three days later.
The arguments came Monday during Hignite’s second trial on charges of murder, arson and neglect of an elderly person. The first trial, in December 2022, ended in a mistrial after jurors could not agree on a verdict for the murder charge. Hignite has been in jail since September 2017.
Nikolas Fegenbush, assistant commonwealth’s attorney, told jurors Monday that evidence gathered by police was inconsistent with Hignite’s claims. Police found a hammer they say was used to kill Leon Hignite, and it tested positive for presumptive blood.
And the Hignites’ daughter, Heather Hignite, testified that her mother abused her father. She said she saw her father with black eyes, scratches and bruises, though she had been estranged from both parents for about two years when her father died.
“She wanted him away from her, be quiet and do what she demanded,” Heather Hignite said.
But Natalie Hurst-Rollins, one of Carol Hignite’s lawyers, suggested that the way Leon Hignite lived — with a slew of medical issues and prone to falls — made his everyday circumstances dangerous.
They argue that Carol Hignite didn’t understand the severity of her husband’s injuries. She helped him during the three days he lay suffering from his injuries, and she eventually called 911 when he wasn’t getting better.
Hurst-Rollins painted Hignite as a loving wife who gave her husband ice chips and placed a towel under his head while he lay on the bedroom floor.
Carol Hignite was hoping he would get better, as he had after previous falls, her lawyers said. But he never did.
The trial is expected to last until Thursday.
This story was originally published January 13, 2025 at 2:36 PM.
