Levi Higgins-Green pleaded guilty to murder and six other crimes after investigators rejected an initial account that blamed the boy’s sister.

CHARLESTON, Ore. — An Oregon father has been sentenced to life in prison after admitting he fatally stabbed his 9-year-old son with a spear, ending a case that began with an account describing the death as an accident involving the child’s sister and later expanded into an investigation of violence inside the family home.

Levi Higgins-Green pleaded guilty Aug. 31 to second-degree murder and six additional crimes, according to a Coos County Sheriff’s Office statement. Judge Martin Stone imposed 80 months for the six non-murder offenses and a life sentence carrying a minimum of 300 months, or 25 years, on the murder count. The sheriff’s office said the combined minimum is 380 months, equal to 31 years and eight months. The other convictions were strangulation constituting domestic violence, second-degree assault constituting domestic violence, two counts of third-degree assault and two counts of first-degree criminal mistreatment.

The sentence followed an investigation that began Sept. 28, 2025, when deputies and emergency responders were called to a home off Cape Arago Highway in the Charleston area of Coos County. Authorities were told that a 9-year-old boy had been stabbed with a spear. The initial information provided to deputies was that the boy’s sister had accidentally stabbed him while the children were playing. Emergency crews treated the child, who was taken to Bay Area Hospital and died from his injuries. The sheriff’s office later said its investigation determined the boy had instead been stabbed by his father.

The change from an apparent accident to a homicide investigation did not happen immediately. Deputies secured the scene while emergency personnel responded, and investigators continued working on the case in the days that followed. On Oct. 3, detectives executed a search warrant at Higgins-Green’s residence and arrested him on a charge of second-degree murder. Public statements from the sheriff’s office did not identify the specific physical evidence that led detectives to reject the original version of events, and authorities have not released a detailed forensic reconstruction of the stabbing.

Those limits on the public record are significant because some later accounts have supplied details that are not contained in the sheriff’s basic case summaries. One report, citing court documents, said a surviving sibling told investigators that Higgins-Green stabbed the boy after becoming angry during a Pokémon game. The underlying court document was not included with the sheriff’s public statement, so the reported argument provides possible context for the moments before the killing but should not be treated as a complete explanation of motive. The sheriff’s office itself has not publicly announced a motive for the homicide.

The murder charge eventually became only one part of the criminal case. Investigators said they found evidence of domestic violence involving other adults and children who lived at the residence and that some of the conduct had occurred over a period of years. The sheriff’s office did not identify the surviving family members, saying their names were being withheld at their request. That broader investigation was reflected in Higgins-Green’s guilty pleas to assault, strangulation and criminal mistreatment charges in addition to second-degree murder.

The distinction matters because the final sentence was built from both the homicide conviction and the other crimes. The sheriff’s office said Stone imposed a combined 80 months for the six non-murder convictions, followed by the life sentence with a 300-month minimum on the murder charge. Together, those terms create the 380-month minimum announced by authorities. Some published accounts described the total as 30 years and eight months, but the sheriff’s sentencing release states 380 months, which converts to 31 years and eight months.

The official charge list also differs from some early reports of the sentencing. The sheriff’s release identifies the non-murder convictions as strangulation, second-degree assault, two third-degree assaults and two counts of first-degree criminal mistreatment. Some secondary coverage referred instead to criminal mischief. The sheriff’s own sentencing announcement, reproduced by several Oregon outlets, lists criminal mistreatment. The difference is more than a wording issue because criminal mistreatment and criminal mischief are separate offenses and describe different conduct under state law.

The child’s identity has not been included in the sheriff’s public sentencing statement, and authorities have limited identifying information about surviving relatives. That restraint has left much of the family’s personal history outside the public account. What officials have disclosed is that the boy was 9, that he suffered the fatal injury at the Cape Arago Highway residence, and that emergency responders attempted to save him before he died at the hospital. The sheriff’s office later thanked the agencies that assisted with the emergency response and investigation.

Those agencies included the Coos Bay Police Department, Oregon State Police, Charleston Fire Department, Bay Cities Ambulance, Eugene Police Department and Kids Hope Center, according to the sheriff’s office. The investigation stretched beyond the immediate question of who caused the boy’s fatal injury as detectives examined conditions and reported violence involving other members of the household. District Attorney Jody Newby prosecuted the case. The guilty pleas meant prosecutors did not have to present the evidence at a murder trial, so many investigative details that might otherwise have emerged through testimony and exhibits have not been publicly aired.

The plea also changed the legal posture of the case. When Higgins-Green was arrested in October 2025, the second-degree murder accusation was still an allegation that prosecutors would have been required to prove. His Aug. 31 guilty plea established criminal responsibility without a trial. Stone accepted the pleas and imposed the sentence described by the sheriff’s office. The life term carries a 25-year minimum on the murder conviction, while the consecutive punishment for the additional crimes pushes the overall minimum period of incarceration beyond 31 years.

The case therefore closes in court with a much different account from the one deputies encountered at the home nearly a year earlier. What was first reported to authorities as an accidental stabbing involving two children ultimately resulted in a father admitting second-degree murder and multiple crimes involving violence and mistreatment within the household. Officials have not released a full account of the evidence that changed the direction of the investigation, nor have they publicly detailed every act underlying the additional convictions.

Higgins-Green is serving a life sentence under the judgment accepted by Stone, with the sheriff’s office reporting a combined minimum incarceration period of 380 months. No trial is scheduled because of the guilty pleas. Authorities have continued to protect the identities of surviving family members, and the sheriff’s public statements have not identified a definitive motive for the killing.

Author note: Last updated October 21, 2026.