Ex-Employee Convicted in Bar Owner’s Murder

A Superior Court jury convicted a 60-year-old Las Vegas man Monday of murder for slashing the throat and beating to death his former employer.

Jurors took a day and a half to find Martin Coleman Higgins guilty of first-degree murder, burglary and residential robbery in the April 8, 1999, slaying of James Cummings.

Cummings, 68, was the owner of Up th’ Hill bar in La Crescenta, where Higgins once worked.

Higgins was also convicted of one count each of grand theft auto and theft of access card information, as well as two counts of forgery and second-degree burglary.

At his Aug. 9 sentencing, Higgins faces a state prison sentence of life without the possibility of parole. The district attorney’s office decided not to pursue the death penalty in the case.

Sheriff’s deputies found Cummings’ body in his La Canada-Flintridge home, hours after Higgins was arrested in the parking lot of a Laughlin, Nev., casino. Higgins identified himself as Cummings and showed Cummings’ driver’s license, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Phil Wojdak.

Police arrested Higgins on an outstanding fraud warrant after they discovered he was not Cummings. He was then extradited to California on the murder charge.