A Mississippi Gulf Coast judge did not hold back when putting a murderer behind bars on Tuesday.
“You needlessly took this man’s life. Now, you are going to spend the rest of yours in jail…just because you were drunk and mad,” Circuit Court Judge Lisa Dodson told Phillip Collins as she sentenced him to life in prison.
Collins, 53, had previously pleaded guilty to killing James Higgins during a drunken rage nearly three years ago. On Nov. 7, 2021, the daughter of Higgins found her father unresponsive at his home on 25th Street in Gulfport. Members of the Gulfport Police Department responded to the scene and pronounced Higgins dead due to a stab wound.
After canvassing the area and interviewing multiple individuals, GPD identified Collins as a person of interest as he was the last person seen with Higgins. Through its investigation, officers discovered that Collins had lied to other people in the area, making false claims such as Higgins was on vacation or he was asleep inside his house. Upon officers talking to Collins, he admitted to killing Higgins while trying to claim self-defense.
“Due to the hard work and dedication of the Gulfport Police Department, Collins ultimately confessed that he had stabbed Higgins and discarded the murder weapon and articles of clothing into a nearby storm drain,” Assistant District Attorney Haley Broom, who prosecuted the case along with Patti Simpson, said.
GPD investigators vouched that they found enough evidence to prove that Collins did not kill Higgins in self-defense with both the prosecution and the judge agreeing.
“Imagine how [his daughter] felt when she found her dad like that. You left him for her to find,” Dodson told Collins before sending him off with marshals.
