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Jurors convict sexual offender
By CARRIE JOHNSON, Times Staff Writer INVERNESS -- The videotape showed a distraught man tearfully admitting to performing oral sex on four young boys and telling a detective he needed help. But when Mark Andrew Higgins took the witness stand Wednesday, his story changed completely. Higgins, 37, who was on trial for multiple counts of sexual battery on children under age 12, told jurors he had been coerced into confessing by a detective the night of his arrest, July 20. The Times has not named the boys because of their age and the nature of the crime. "I felt very threatened," Higgins testified. "I was not totally in my right frame of mind. For one thing, I was very tired." But in his closing statement to jurors, Assistant State Attorney David Porter said he found it very difficult to believe anyone would invent such a reprehensible story. "Are you going to ever admit to something like that unless it is true?" Porter asked. "Of course not." The jurors apparently agreed with Porter. After deliberating for an hour and 45 minutes, they found Higgins guilty of all nine charges. According to state law, Circuit Judge Ric A. Howard was required to sentence Higgins to three life terms in prison. Higgins stared straight ahead while the court clerk read the verdicts. Afterward, he slumped forward in his chair and rested his head on his forearms. His lawyer, Assistant Public Defender David Bauer, patted him on the back. Higgins, an Inverness resident, was accused of performing oral sex on four young boys, three under the age of 12. He was also charged with showing them pornographic videotapes, forcing them to perform oral sex on one another and smoking marijuana in front of some of them. According to court testimony, Higgins was reported to the Sheriff's Office on July 19, the day after an 11-year-old boy spent the night at Higgins' residence with two other boys. The boy, now 12, testified that Higgins performed oral sex on him and told the boy to do the same to the other two boys that night. The trial, which began Monday, almost came to an abrupt end Wednesday morning. The day began with a screening of the video of Higgins' confession. On the tape, Higgins told Citrus County sheriff's Detective Michael Baute he had been abused as a child. He also said he needed counseling. "Am I actually going to get help or am I just going to get locked up?" Higgins asked. He admitted to Baute he had performed oral sex on four boys between the ages of 9 and 12 over the past year. When the videotaped interview ended, Baute, who was on the witness stand, was asked to identify the defendant. He pointed to Higgins and said, "He's the gentleman sitting next to the assistant public defender, Mr. Bauer." Bauer immediately jumped from his chair and demanded a mistrial. In some cases, mistrials have been granted when a lawyer has been identified as a public defender because it may cast a stigma on a defendant if jurors know he cannot afford his own attorney. After a 30-minute recess, Howard elected to continue with the trial, ruling the remark did not really prejudice the jury. Also testifying Wednesday was Carl Scarano, an investigator for the Department of Children and Families, who said Higgins admitted the sexual acts to him a few days after his arrest. -- Crime reporter Carrie Johnson can be reached at 860-7309 or cjohnson@sptimes.com.
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