Driver charged in Blue Jackets' Johnny Gaudreau's death rejects plea deal
The man charged in a suspected August drunken-driving crash that killed Columbus Blue Jackets star Johnny Gaudreau and his brother, Matthew , formally rejected an initial plea offer from New Jersey prosecutors that would have seen him spend decades in prison.
Sean Higgins, 44, appeared at an arraignment hearing Tuesday morning in Salem County, New Jersey. A grand jury indicted him in December on six charges, including reckless vehicular homicide and aggravated manslaughter for the brothers' Aug. 29 deaths as they bicycled along a rural road.
Higgins entered a not-guilty plea as a formality to allow proceedings to move forward. He has been held in custody since his arrest on the night of the crash.
During a five-minute hearing Tuesday, as the Gaudreau brothers' parents and sisters looked on, Higgins rejected the first plea offer from New Jersey prosecutors.
Prosecutors offered to allow Higgins to plead guilty to aggravated manslaughter and leaving the scene of a fatal accident. In exchange, prosecutors would have recommended a 15-year prison sentence for each of the aggravated manslaughter charges and five years for leaving the scene for a total of 35 years in prison.
If convicted at trial, Higgins faces up to 30 years in prison for each of the aggravated manslaughter charges.
Higgins' attorneys said they anticipate filing several motions in the case, including a motion to dismiss some of the counts in the indictment and a motion to exclude some evidence.
Higgins is next scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 4. He will remain in custody.
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Johnny Gaudreau, 31, and his brother, 29-year-old Matthew, were bicycling around 8 p.m. in Oldmans Township, New Jersey, when a Jeep struck them. Both brothers died at the scene.
New Jersey State Police identified Higgins as the Jeep's driver. Body camera from his arrest shows him performing field sobriety tests and admitting to consuming beers before and while driving.
Prosecutors previously said Higgins' blood alcohol level was determined to be above the legal limit.
Prosecutors and documents released by New Jersey police said witnesses described Higgins as speeding, approaching a vehicle in front of him and then falling back to aggressively approach it again.
Higgins drove around one vehicle to the left, prosecutors said at one of Higgins' previous hearings, and when another vehicle moved to the left to make room for the Gaudreau brothers, Higgins went around that vehicle on the right and struck the brothers.
Higgins told police he didn't see the brothers on their bicycles, according to court records.
The Gaudreau brothers were both slated to be groomsmen in their sister's wedding the following day.
Matthew Gaudreau's widow, Madeline, gave birth to their son, Tripp Matthew Gaudreau, in December. She announced his birth on the four-month anniversary of her husband's death.
Johnny Gaudreau's widow, Meredith, is raising the couple's two children, 2-year-old Noa and 10-month-old Johnny . She announced in her eulogy for her husband that she was pregnant with their third child.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Driver charged in Blue Jackets' Johnny Gaudreau's death rejects plea deal
