The murder case against the man accused of killing NHL star Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew has lurched into uncertainty after defense attorneys revealed new test results they say show their client's blood alcohol content was below the legal limit at the time of the fatal crash.
Sean Higgins, the 45-year-old Pilesgrove, New Jersey, man charged with striking the Gaudreau brothers while they rode their bikes on Aug. 29, 2024, now wants all charges against him dismissed. His attorney told a Salem County Superior Court judge during a video hearing Tuesday that an expert determined Higgins' BAC was.075, below the.08 legal threshold, and that the original testing may have been flawed.
Prosecutors had told the grand jury Higgins' BAC was.087. The defense says that number was wrong, and that the error corrupted the indictment.
Defense attorney Richard Klineburger dropped the bombshell during Tuesday's hearing, telling Judge Michael Silvanio that the sample tested was not what prosecutors represented it to be.
"It seems that it was plasma that was tested, not whole blood."
The distinction matters. Plasma testing can yield higher BAC readings than whole blood testing, and if the defense's expert is correct, the difference is enough to move Higgins from above the legal limit to below it. Klineburger told the court his expert's analysis brings the number down decisively.
"Based upon our expert report, that brings the actual BAC reading down to.075."
That.012 gap between the prosecution's figure and the defense's figure is narrow in numerical terms. In legal terms, it's a canyon. The.08 threshold is the line between a driver who was legally intoxicated and one who, at least by the statute's measure, was not. Klineburger argued the original, higher figure was presented to the grand jury and shaped its decision to indict.
"It taints it."
Higgins faces charges of first-degree aggravated manslaughter, reckless vehicular homicide, leaving the scene of a fatal accident, and tampering with physical evidence. If convicted on all counts, he faces up to 70 years behind bars.
Prosecutor Michael Mestern did not concede the defense's findings. He told the court he needed time to run the results by his own experts and investigators. Judge Silvanio indicated that if prosecutors ultimately conceded the defense's claims about the BAC, Mestern would be allowed to seek a new indictment against Higgins from a grand jury. The judge also encouraged both sides to engage in plea negotiations and offered to help facilitate talks.
Higgins is due back in court on April 14, when the prosecution is expected to reveal whether it agrees with the defense's BAC findings and to update the court on the status of any plea negotiations.
This is not Higgins' first attempt to escape the full weight of the charges. He previously lost a bid to have the charges reduced or dropped. The defense has also turned over a counter plea offer, rejecting prosecutors' prior deal of 35 years behind bars.
Whatever the BAC number turns out to be, certain facts remain undisturbed by the defense's motion.
Johnny Gaudreau, 31, and his brother Matthew, 29, had been riding their bikes single-file on the shoulder of a road in Oldsmans Township when Higgins struck them. Another car had slowed down to watch the two cyclists. Higgins allegedly attempted to pass that vehicle and hit the brothers. He pulled over a quarter-mile down the road.
Higgins admitted to drinking that day. He allegedly told officers he had had five or six drinks.
A BAC of.075 does not mean sober. It means a man who admitted to consuming five or six drinks got behind the wheel, attempted to pass another vehicle on a road where two cyclists were riding on the shoulder, and killed them both. The legal question of whether he was above or below.08 matters for the indictment. It does not resurrect two brothers.
Johnny Gaudreau played in the NHL for 11 seasons. He was a beloved figure in the sport, a would-be Team USA forward whose absence was felt at the 2026 Winter Olympics. When the U.S. men's hockey team clinched gold against Canada on Sunday, they honored Gaudreau during their post-win celebrations.
The timing of the defense's legal maneuver, coming just days after the Olympic wrap and that tribute, landed with particular weight for a hockey community still processing the loss.
The legal system will sort out whether plasma or whole blood was tested, whether the grand jury was misled, and whether a new indictment is warranted. Those are legitimate procedural questions, and they deserve rigorous answers. But procedural wrangling over a.012 BAC difference should not obscure the core of this case: two brothers are dead, the man accused of killing them admits he had been drinking, and he initially left the scene.
April 14 will reveal whether the prosecution's case stands as charged or needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. Either way, the Gaudreau family waits, not for a number on a lab report, but for something closer to justice.
