DRUG DEAL TURNED DEADLY

Suspect Describes In Police Statement Killing Andrew Van Wie, 19, In
Disagreement Over Pot

ALBANY -- Marty Higgins told police he was just trying to keep his drug
dealer honest on May 13 when he accidentally shot him five times in the
head with a .22-caliber rifle.

He said he liked doing business with Andrew Van Wie because, like a pizza
shop, he delivered.

But the 19-year-old Hudson Valley Community College student had a habit of
shorting his marijuana orders while at the same time jacking up the price,
Higgins claimed in the statement taken by city Detective Michael Kelly.

At about 4 that morning, Higgins decided things were going to change.

"I told him it didn't look right ... and he kept playing with the scale,"
Higgins said of the 2 ounces he'd paid $440 for. "I told him I was sick of
this (expletive) and he said he was going to leave with the money. That's
when I took the gun out and told him he wasn't going to get away with this."

"I just wanted to get my money back," Higgins stressed. "... I thought the
safety was on."

Yet he described a scene in which he wrangled with the youth from the
kitchen of the 761 Myrtle Ave. apartment to the living room, where Van Wie
collapsed and died between the TV and the door.

"It was like we were wrestling and the gun would point at him and I would
shoot him," he said. "Then I dragged him into the kitchen. I was scared. I
didn't know what to do next."

Friends of Van Wie's, who were waiting in the car, approached the house to
see what was taking so long, police said. Higgins met them at the door and
urged them to come in, but when they saw the pool of blood inside the door,
and on Higgins' clothes, they fled.

Police said the youths may have narrowly escaped with their lives.

Neighbors described Higgins as a quiet, affable guy who kept to himself,
but belongings inside the ransacked apartment -- including death masks and
other macabre items like a dead tarantula on ice, hint at another story.

A judge ruled Thursday that Higgins written and oral statements will be
allowed at trial, including testimony from one police officer who said that
when he thanked Higgins for turning himself in so promptly, he replied:
"Could someone take care of my dogs? I'll be going away for a long time."

A trial date will be set later this month.