LINTON, IND. (WTWO/WAWV) – Murder charges have been filed in connection with the death of a Linton man on Sunday.
Brandon Criss is facing charges of murder, arson, and animal cruelty after the body of 64-year-old James “David” Higar was found at his home.
According to court documents, on Sunday, June 8, at 1:24 am, the Linton Police Department and the Linton Fire Department were dispatched to a fire at a trailer at 630 D Street SE in Linton.
Once on the scene, the body of Higar was discovered in the bathroom with “lacerations on neck and shoulder unrelated to the fire,” according to court documents. A dog was also found dead in the trailer.
According to the Probable Cause Report filed, a witness told police that he had seen Criss covered in blood. According to court documents, the witness stated, “Criss showed him a picture of a man who appeared to be deceased. Criss allegedly was ‘bragging that he just killed David Higar,” according to the witness. The witness told police that the man in the photo “looked like he was laying naked on a bathroom floor, bloody, beaten and wounded.”
Police then began looking for Criss. They received a call that Criss had been seen at the Sunoco Station on A St NE in Linton. The caller advised that Criss had approached someone to take his jacket and knife because “he thought he had just killed someone,” according to court documents.
Police arrived at the station, located Criss, detained him, and took him to the Linton Police Department for an interview. Criss told officers that Higar was good to him and had given him beer money, according to court documents.
After obtaining a search warrant for Criss’ cellphone, the photo described by the witness was found in the deleted photos on the phone, according to court documents.
Criss told the police that “this was a hate crime.”
According to court documents, Criss allegedly told the officer, “This was a hate crime against David Higar. He’s a child molester, and it was committed as a hate crime. I don’t want to be in state prison. If I am going to prison for the rest of my life, make it federal prison. If this is a hate crime, I’ll be going to federal.”
In an interview with police, Criss’ girlfriend stated that she considered Higar a “father figure” and she considered him to be her step-father. According to court documents, she told police that Criss “had been sexually molested as a child and that he hated child molesters, even though she thought he and Higar were close.”
Linton Police and Indiana State Police interviewed numerous witnesses who saw Criss had blood on him, according to court documents.
Criss remains in the Greene County Jail. He had his initial hearing at 11:15 Tuesday morning in Greene Circuit Court.
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