Murder trial begins for woman accused of stabbing her man in the heart

FORT WAYNE, Ind. ---Opening day in court and there was a gentle bicker over a certain undignified word normally applied to a woman and, if that word was a term of endearment or an indication of abuse.

When the 280-lb Robert Higginbotham Jr, now deceased, called his girlfriend the “B” word as in “that b—-ch stabbed me,” was he really angry or showing love?

Christina Habegger

His close relative he called brother, Napoleon Kidd, said in court Tuesday that Higginbotham also referred to Christina Habegger as his “wife,” even though they’d only been together a few months and weren’t married.

Habegger, 37, was charged with murder after she (allegedly) stabbed Higginbotham on Oct. 13, 2022 at 6:12 p.m. after driving up to Higginbotham's home in her black SUV. 

Her murder trial finally made it to the trial court of Allen Superior Court David Zent after she spent more than two years at the Allen County Jail.

The alleged stabbing incident was caught on surveillance camera across the street at the Bunche Elementary School on Greene Street. The cameras face the blue home at the corner of Greene and Oliver Street where generations of Higginbothams and Kidds live and call it “the family mansion.”

The camera skipped so not every action was recorded. In the video, Habegger is seen driving up to the blue home at 5:55 p.m., stopping with a jerk, according to the probable cause affidavit written by homicide detective Ben Miller. 

A person in the video who looks like Habegger was identified in court by Kidd and Alvastea Scarbough, the mother of Kidd’s children, through court testimony.

Habegger and Higginbotham were arguing that day and Christina or "Stina" had been drinking, they said.

Court documents say the camera skips a couple of minutes ahead and Higginbotham is at the rear of the black SUV as the driver’s side door closes. He begins to stagger towards the front door. He goes inside and comes out again, removing his shirt. 

That’s when he tells Scarbough “that b—-h stabbed me,” Scarbough said.

Christina is seen rolling back up to an alley behind her residence on Kentucky Avenue by 6:18 p.m.

In court, Scarbough and Kidd described the tortuous drive to get Higginbotham medical attention. Scarbough was at the blue home and got Higginbotham into her car.

When she came up to South Anthony Boulevard on Washington Boulevard, the bridge was shut down, making it nearly impossible to get to Parkview Randallia Hospital, and anyway, she’s only lived in Fort Wayne a few years and not completely familiar with all the streets, she said.

Meanwhile, she’s on the phone to Kidd and he’s driving and trying to figure out where she is.

“He’s bleeding a lot,” she tells Kidd. Kidd said Alvastea sounded scared. He told her to keep talking to him.

When Kidd found her, he took over the wheel and made it for the Fort Wayne Fire Department Station 1.

“I was driving a little reckless, he admitted in court testimony. The man he considered his brother - one of their parents married the other - was going in and out of consciousness and he couldn’t talk.

 Alvastea tried to stanch the blood flow, she said on the stand as she cried into a handkerchief.

They banged on the door of the fire station and a paramedic immediately started chest compressions, put on a chest seal where the stab wound occurred, and got him intubated.

But it was too late and Kidd said he knew it was when The Three Rivers Ambulance Authority loaded him up into the ambulance and drove away.

“They didn’t turn on no sirens,” Kidd said.

Chief counsel for the Allen County Prosecutor's Office Tesa Helge led the two through their testimony. Jurors learned that Habegger had stabbed Higginbotham once before on Sept. 2 of that year and that the two of them laughed about it in front of Kidd and Scarbough. Neither thought it was funny.

Higginbotham was hospitalized then, but wouldn’t explain the injury to hospital staff, Kidd said.

Tomorrow, homicide detective Miller will probably discuss the finger wound Habegger had after they took her into police headquarters for an interview. Some of her long fingernails were broken.

Detectives found knives throughout her residence on Kentucky Avenue, not just in the kitchen but in the laundry room too, court documents said.

Habegger’s defense attorneys, Tyree Barkley and Jamie Egolf, will deal with the confusing testimony presented Tuesday. Barkley also put forth that Higginbotham was disdainful and jealous of the father of Habegger's children.

"He was aggressive and possessive when it came to Miss Habegger," Barkley said Tuesday.

Alvastea said Higginbotham regularly called Habegger the “B” word, but Kidd said he thought the relationship was “happy.”