A 23-year-old Tehachapi man is facing court after allegedly killing his 83-year-old grandfather and burning his remains.
According to documents obtained by 23ABC, Skyler Higginbotham allegedly stabbed his grandfather Norman Higginbotham to death.
Kern County Sheriff’s Office deputies and detectives discovered several pieces of evidence that they believe link Skyler to the alleged murder, including testimony from Skyler’s friends and GPS data extracted from his phone that placed him near the scene where Norman’s body was burned.
Norman’s remains were discovered burned in a storage unit on an abandoned property near Banducci Road and Alps Drive in Tehachapi.
23ABC contacted several neighbors in the area regarding the June incident, but none were willing to comment.
Skyler Higginbotham made unprompted statements about his case, according to the offense report written by the deputy who booked him into the Lerdo Receiving Facility. The report notes that the quotes are not verbatim and that exact quotes could be obtained from video recordings of the statements.
“They’re saying it’s murder, but I don’t have a history that supports that,” the deputy claims Skyler, adding that he may obtain character statements.
The deputy also claims Skyler stated that he was “tweaking” and didn’t know what to do when Norman was discovered dead in the house.
“I’m just scared about it; negligence isn’t the same as homicide, man,” Skyler reportedly said.
Skyler is also said to have spent several thousand dollars found in his and Norman’s home before being informed that Norman had died, and he was confronted by deputies about it. According to the report, Skyler told deputies that he knew Norman had died in a “cosmic sense.”
Skyler Higginbothamis is scheduled for a pre-preliminary hearing at 9 a.m. on August 25. He’s being held without bail.
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