Russel Higgins: California Man Found Guilty Of Hiring A Homeless Drug Addict To Rape His Wife


A California man has been found guilty of hiring a homeless drug addict to rape his wife, and he and his hired man, who has also been found guilty, are both now facing 50 years to life in prison, WDTN-TV (Dayton) is reporting.

During their trials, jurors were told that Russell Higgins, of Tehachapi, drove about 50 miles south to Bakersfield where he found his accomplice on the city’s skid row, Union Avenue. There, amongst the drug deals, prostitution, and homeless people, Higgins found an accomplice: Haliki Green, a homeless drug addict.

Green would later tell police that he was passingly familiar with Higgins, saying that word on the street was that he’d paid other homeless men $200 to have sex with his wife. Whether or not that was true is unclear, as Higgins has not been charged with any other rapes.

Nevertheless, Green took Higgins up on his offer, telling the jury that he believed it was all role play.

It was not role play.

In March 2016, police were called to a Tehachapi home after reports of a woman being injured in a fall. When police arrived, they found the hysterical woman showing injuries that did not appear to have come from a fall. She then told police her story.

According to WFLA-TV (Tampa), the woman came home from work to find her husband and a “younger-looking black man” in her bedroom. The two men tied her to the bed while Green raped her. At one point, while struggling, she bit her husband’s hand; he responded by telling her to allow the rape to continue else “it would be bad” for her, their children, and their grandchildren.

After the assault, Higgins demanded that his wife shower. However, instead of showering, she simply washed her hair, thus preserving DNA evidence on her body. She then called the police.

Showing good thinking, the woman showed police her husband’s cell phone, which had rape-themed pornography videos. Prosecutors used this to build a case that Higgins, 58, acted out of “sexual deviancy.”

At their trials, both men were convicted of rape and false imprisonment – the jury having rejected Green’s claim that he believed he was acting in a role-play situation – among other charges. Both men are scheduled to be sentenced later this year; they each face 50 years to life behind bars.

As for Higgins, this is not his first conviction of a sexual crime. Records indicate that he was convicted of assaulting a minor in 1985.

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