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Inset left: Andre Higgs (Essex County Prosecutor”s Office). Inset right: Latrena May (Obituary). Background: The street where Higgs shot and killed May in East Orange, N.J. (Google Maps).
A New Jersey resident has been sentenced to life imprisonment for fatally shooting his former girlfriend as she sought assistance from a police officer outside her residence.
In December 2025, a jury in Essex County found 53-year-old Andre Higgs guilty of the 2015 murder of 27-year-old Latrena May, who had been a dedicated educator at Pride Academy Charter School in East Orange. The two were previously involved in a romantic relationship.
The court handed Higgs a life sentence for the murder, equating to 75 years under New Jersey law. Additionally, he received a 20-year sentence for associated weapons offenses.
The tragic event unfolded on the night of May 1, 2015, after a dispute erupted between Higgs and May outside her home on Tremont Avenue in East Orange, a community near New York City.
This heartbreaking incident underscores the fatal consequences of domestic violence, fueled by uncontrolled anger and unfortunate timing.
“The shooting occurred after May ran from her home to escape an attack by Higgs and flagged down a police vehicle,” prosecutors explained in a press release. “As East Orange Detective Kemon Lee exited his vehicle and approached, Higgs fired multiple shots at May.”
The detective returned fire and hit the killer in the legs. Then, Higgs retreated back into May’s house where the victim’s 4-year-old daughter was still asleep. After barricading himself inside the residence, he was eventually arrested.
Higgs was originally sentenced to life in prison in 2017 following a trial and conviction for May’s murder. But that sentence was overturned by the New Jersey Supreme Court in 2023, which granted him a new trial.
In the ruling, the justices found that defense attorneys should have been granted access to Lee’s “internal affairs file, which included prior incidents of the officer firing his weapon while on duty” and should have been able to question the detective about those prior incidents.
But a second trial did not result in a materially different outcome.
Higgs was found guilty of murder in the first degree, second-degree unlawful possession of a handgun, first-degree unlawful possession of a handgun by a person who has previously been convicted of a crime under the No Early Release Act, and second-degree certain persons not to have weapons.
“This second conviction for murder for Andre Higgs was possible only because of the brave witnesses who once again came forward to testify about the defendant’s callous actions,” prosecutor Justin Edwab said. “As we said in 2017 and repeat today, Detective Kemon Lee was a hero that day for responding to Latrena May and attempting to save her from the grip of her abuser.”
Under a recently passed New Jersey law, Higgs must serve 85 percent of his sentence before he is eligible for release – which equates to just shy of 64 years on the murder conviction alone.
“While no sentence can bring back Latrena May, we hope that knowing Higgs will spend the rest of his life in prison provides the May family with some measure of peace and serves as a solemn acknowledgment of their profound loss,” Edwab added in comments to NJ.com.