A New Jersey driver accused of killing National Hockey League star Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew in an August 2024 crash made a stunning admission on Monday.
Lawyers for 45-year-old Sean Higgins conceded that their client had actually been over the legal alcohol limit at the time of the crash, according to a report by New York Post.
The defense team had initially claimed that Higgins’ blood-alcohol content was .075 — just below the legal limit of .08 — and that investigators botched the test results by only testing the defendant’s blood plasma rather than all of his blood.
The prosecution, meanwhile, had asserted that Higgins’ blood-alcohol content was .087.
“It did come back, based upon the non-tainted tube, it came back as a .08, as opposed to .087,” Higgins’ lawyer, Richard Klineburger, said, implying that the defense’s now-accurate test still yielded a slightly lower result than the prosecution’s.
Despite the blood-alcohol concession, Higgins rejected the prosecution’s final offer to plead guilty to two counts of aggravated manslaughter and one count of a first DWI offense in exchange for 28 years behind bars — which would have reduced a possible nearly 100-year sentence.
Salem County Judge Michael Silvanio warned Higgins, an Army veteran, that if he is convicted at trial, he would face a maximum of 91.5 years behind bars, and wouldn’t be eligible for parole until after serving 68 years.
Silvanio then asked the alleged drunken driver several questions about whether he understood what it meant to reject the plea deal, to which Higgins replied, “Yes, sir.”
Higgins is accused of striking and killing the Gaudreau brothers — both of whom were married fathers — with his SUV as they rode bicycles along the side of the road in Oldmans Township, New Jersey, on August 29, 2024.
When Johnny Gaudreau, 31, and Matthew Gaudreau, 29, were hit, the two men were on their way back from their sister’s wedding rehearsal dinner.
On Monday, new photos and maps from the crash were revealed, suggesting that Higgins — whose counts against him include reckless vehicular homicide and aggravated manslaughter — might not have been reckless when he struck the siblings.
Higgins is set to stand trial on January 4. Jury selection will begin on December 1.
Alana Mastrangelo-Wrask is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
