Tribune file/Debra Reid - Convicted murderer Darren Mack and his attorneys listen to a judge during his video arraignment. An attorney for Mack will appeal a proposed divorce settlement with his dead wife's family.
Instead of being murdered, Augustine, 50, might have died of natural causes on July 11, 2006, according to Higgs’ lawyer, Richard Cornell. He wants the murder conviction thrown out in part because Higgs didn’t get a continuance so he could better prepare for the trial.
Cornell said Augustine could have died from “mitral value prolapse,” a heart condition that might have caused heart stoppage and death. He said Higgs was guilty only of “bad judgment,” not murder.
Higgs, 43, was convicted by a Washoe County jury on June 29, 2007, of murdering Augustine. He was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 20 years.
On the same day it hears the Higgs appeal, the Supreme Court will hear an appeal from Ely State Prison inmate Darren Mack, the wealthy Reno pawn shop owner who is serving a life term in prison for the June 12, 2006, murder of his wife, Charla.
Mack’s lawyer is arguing that a proposed divorce agreement under which Mack had agreed to pay nearly $1 million to his wife can’t be enforced because the judge never signed the agreement and his spouse is dead.
The estate of Charla Mack seeks the money. Mack’s 10-year-old daughter, Erika, is being raised by Charla’s mother. Earlier this year, District Judge David Huff ordered Mack to make the payment. Mack then appealed.
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