Judge hands man 182-year sentence for East St. Louis shooting that left boy paralyzed
A Madison man was sentenced to 182 years in prison for his role in a shooting melee outside an East St. Louis grocery store that left a small boy paralyzed.
DeAngelo Higgs, 36, is one of three men charged in the shooting on Sept. 9, 2021. He was convicted Aug. 18 on seven counts of attempted first-degree murder, seven counts of aggravated battery with a firearm, and possession of a weapon by a felon.
Mason Mitchell was struck by the spray of gunfire while seated in his mother’s car outside East Side Meat Market near the intersection of Martin Luther King Drive and Sixth Street. His mother, Marquisha Collins, had stopped there after work to pick up a quick, hot dinner for her children.
She sat in a front row seat at the St. Clair County Courthouse Monday to hear the judge tell Higgs he’ll serve two lifetimes with the Illinois Department of Corrections.
“I felt so happy, because that’s the justice they need,” Collins said in an interview with the BND. “I wanted all of them to get that amount of years. I feel like I got justice for Mason. I was praying for the death penalty because they took my son’s childhood away from him. …
“I got so angry. I thought he would get less time or beat it. He stated so many false accusations; he had a fantasy in his head. I cried and cried and prayed and prayed this man did not get the time he was trying to get.”
Mason Mitchell was 3 years old when the shooting occurred. At least one bullet struck him in the right arm and through his back, down his side and into his stomach. His spine was fractured, requiring eight hours of surgery the night after the shooting, Collins said. He remains paralyzed below the injury to his spine.
Mason’s 8-year-old brother was with him in the back seat of the car. He dropped to the floor when he heard the barrage of gunfire and saw that his brother was bleeding.
Collins sped away from the store while trying to call 911, but got no answer. She continued driving until she reached the East St. Louis Police station, where officers took Mason and rushed him to the hospital, she said.
It took investigators about 10 hours to locate Higgs and two accomplices hiding in the basement of a partially demolished building in the 600 block of St. Louis Avenue, about a block from the crime scene, state police said.
Cartez R. Beard, 31, and Lorenzo W. Bruce Jr., 33, also have been convicted for their roles in the shooting.
Collins said Mason continues to adapt to childhood in a wheelchair, while his big brother struggles with the trauma. She said during a victim impact statement that no amount of time that Higgs serves in prison can restore the everyday life Collins enjoyed with her sons prior to the shooting.
“He had not been showing any emotion for what he did,” she told the courtroom Monday. “He started off that same way, but when the judge sentenced him he started crying.”
Collins has had her own personal struggle, she said.
She talked openly about “how I lost my career job,” and the “depression I am dealing with because of the life-changing situation, my son not being able to play and have fun like other boys his age.”
“It doesn’t seem like it’s been a year since this happened. It seems more like a month,” she said. “That’s how traumatized I am.”
Higgs told the court the shooting was in self-defense.
“He tried to say it was self defense, that someone pointed a gun at him and he shot after that,” Collins said. “They didn’t care that families, including children, were out there. These are grown men. He can’t give my son his ability to walk again. He can’t remove the catheter that he has to wear.
“My son can’t get in on the activities that his classmates participate in. He just has to sit there. That makes me sad. I want to ask the teacher to do something he can be a part of.
“Looking at the sadness in his eyes when he tries to do what his brother does, or when he slides across the floor to play and not be able to get down on the floor and crawl and play like he used to do, it’s tough. I don’t think any mother who loves her children could look at this and not be affected by it.”
Higgs has previously been charged with felony counts of aggravated assault, armed robbery and fleeing police. He asked the court of leniency in his sentence because he has five children of his own.
“Why didn’t he think of his children before he did what he is court for today?” Collins said.
“My baby can’t jump up and down, dance, run around and play, climb or do anything that he was supposed to be able to do because of his actions. He wasn’t caring that people were out that day that didn’t know anything about what was going on with him and the people who were shooting with him.
“Every action has a consequence.”
Collins said Mason spent five months in a hospital being treated for his wounds. The shooting cost her her job and forced the family to find different housing that suits Mason’s special needs and purchase a car that accommodates his wheelchair.
Finding work, however, has been a challenge because of the demands related to Mason’s daily care, she said.
“I have to get him off the bus. It’s always something. I really can’t do nothing because my son needs me to be there for him. Our lives changed. (HIggs’) life needed to change too.”
She wondered aloud whether Higgs cares to process what he has done to Mason, her other son, and other members of her family.
My baby went through multiple surgeries and experienced excruciating pain. He was so sedated,” she said. “When he came out of his sedation he didn’t know what happened. He tried to get up and couldn’t. He tried to talk and couldn’t because of a tube the doctors placed in. I was so sad trying to imagine how my baby was feeling.”
IIllinois State Police and the U.S. Marshal Service investigated the case.
This story was originally published November 8, 2022 at 12:11 PM.
