The Fondren Firebug is behind bars and will remain behind bars for five months after the CCID Court got through with him yesterday.
Todd Higgins is a known nuisance in the Fondren who specializes in torching businesses, smashing windows, and vandalizing homes. Naturally the Fondren Firebug is a veteran of the Hinds County Catch & Release Program as the police keep arresting him but the judges kept setting him free - until yesterday.
CCID Court Judge James Holland made it clear the Court has had enough of his shenanigans and sentenced Higgins to serve six months in jail but suspended one month of the sentence.
The Court provided the Defendant with personal, oral and written notice of his trial set for today on one charge of malicious or willful trespass that occurred on March 1, 2026, in violation of Section 97-17-87(1), Miss. Code. As with prior cases, the Defendant failed to appear as required. This Court, after hearing from two witnesses and viewing photographs of the incident, finds that Defendant guilty of malicious and willful trespass and sentences the Defendant, as below. A violation of Section 97-17-87 carries with it a maximum fine of up to $500.00 and jail time up to six months. The Court takes notice of prior interactions between law enforcement and this Defendant.' This sentence relates only to the present alleged crime that occurred on March 1, 2026, and is not affected or enhanced by prior allegations, rulings or charges. This Court reserves consideration of and ruling on any alleged violation of this Court's prior Sentencing Order dated June 13, 2025. 1. As a result of the findings at trial and a separate sentencing hearing, the Defendant is found guilty of a violation of Section 97-17-87(1), Miss. Code and sentenced to six months in jail, with one month suspended. Thus, he is required to spend five months in the Hinds County Detention Center followed by one month on probation, conditioned on his full compliance with the other requirement of this order.
1 Note that Court records indicate, in part, the following: In May 2020, the Defendant was arrested on charges of arson and threatening a homeowner when bond was set at $500,000. A Grand Jury later indicted him for third degree arson. In September of 2021 theDefendant pled guilty to said indictment and he was sentenced to three years. In January 2024, he was charged with the alleged burglary of a vehicle at North Mart Plaza, and a bond set at $2,500. Tn February of 2024, he was arrested for allegedly taking bicycles with grand larceny, and a bond set at $50,000. In May of 2024, a Grand Jury indicted on said charge. In June of 2024, he was arrested for allegedly breaking into businesses and charged with burglary of business, his bond was set at $25,000. In December 2024, he pled guilty to grand larceny and was sentenced to serve five years with some time suspended, then to serve two years of supervised probation upon release. On April 5, 2025, he was arrested for alleged malicious mischief and trespass. Before this Court on May 27, 2025 he was charged with malicious mischief when a trial was set and noticed but he did not appear, he was found guilty and fined $1,420.75. His time in jail was suspended dependent on the Defendant committing no additional crime. On December 17, 2025, he was arrested for alleged malicious mischief, and on January 12, 2026 he was found guilty of malicious mischief and a Revocation Order entered on his charge of malicious mischief. Once tried, he was sentenced to seven days to serve On March 5, 2026,, he was found guilty of trespass after warning and sentenced to serve seven more days to run consecutive to the seven-day sentence given on that same month.
The Court also issued a restraining order barring Higgins from going on the victim's property on Belhaven Street.
Kingfish note: Ok, Fondren residents, this is how you do it. If he commits a crime against you, document and file a complaint with Capitol Police instead of griping on Nextdoor. The judges will keep hammering Higgins if he keeps coming before them.
12 comments:
have seen him on the street before, and he is a very disturbed individual and frankly, it's cruel that he is allowed to continually exist on the street, He needs to be institutionalized where he can receive care and better opportunity with the stress he lives under that causes him to act out this way
That's part of a very complex problem - we DON'T institutionalize anymore, at least not like we did 50 years ago or so. It's definitely a tension - old school mental institution were ripe with abuse and cruelty, but with better oversight I'm hard pressed to believe that's worse than the current state of homelessness and lack of any care.
@9:43 Your statement could literally apply to a few hundred individuals roaming the streets of Jackson. We don't have enough institutions to house them all.
Literally any unhinged feminazi or troon with warning color hair and trouble glasses would fit this description as well.
These people are harmless until they are not. Its time to expand and update Whitfield and get them off the street.
Why in the world haven’t the local Evangelical Prosperity Christian Mega Churches solved this problem yet? Did the Schofield Reference Bible not provide them guidance?
@WISEOWL it's not just a Whitfield funding issue, it's a legal/civil rights issue. The government isn't legally allowed to institutionalize nearly to the extent they used to. It directly correlates to the increase in the homeless population
I know this is from a dreaded news source for many dear readers, but it's a good overview of the shift away from, and potential future return to institutionalization. https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2024/04/16/1244702372/could-the-u-s-force-treatment-on-mentally-ill-people-again
I decided to do like 30 seconds of research on google. In the 1950s, the federal government spent very little on mental institutions. Today, the federal government spends about 10 billion annually on homelessness. LOL
Where’s his family?? Is he the same firebug that use to be a lawyer?
Churches care more about money than helping people
Send him to the farm. 5 months there may cure him ( although 5 in Raymond might as well).
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