Ex-Con Who Killed Girl in Drunken Wreck Arrested Again

A Joliet man who killed a little girl in a drunken wreck and then went back to prison for continuing to drink and drive was arrested again Monday.

This time, Glen Ray Higginbotham was not drunk behind the wheel when he got picked up by the cops. Instead, he was allegedly driving on a revoked license.

Higginbotham, 37, got out of prison less than a year ago. In January 2013, he was sentenced to eight years behind bears for drunken driving arrests in 2010 and 2011. He was released from prison in April, according to court records.

Prior to that, Higginbotham was sentenced to seven years in prison for killing 10-year-old Candi Graham in May 1999.

Higginbotham had been tearing through Lockport when he rammed into a vehicle on State Street near 12th Street. Candi was in the back seat of the car he hit. Candi’s mother, Constance Graham, was making a legal left turn when Higginbotham’s speeding car plowed into her vehicle.

Constance Graham admitted to drinking tequila and beer for hours before the crash. Her blood-alcohol content was 0.197 percent. A blood draw showed Higginbotham’s blood-alcohol content was at 0.2 percent and that he also had cocaine in his system.

Constance Graham was placed on court supervision after pleading guilty to one count of misdemeanor drunken driving.

At Higginbotham’s sentencing hearing for his 2010 and 2011 DUIs, Assistant State’s Attorney Tom Slazyk suggested the repeat offender seemed to be trying to get back into the penitentiary.

“If there was ever a case where an individual was knocking on the prison doors to get in, it would be this defendant,” Slazyk said.