RENO -- Chaz Higgs was free on bail Monday from the county jail where he has been held since September on charges that he killed his wife, former Nevada Controller Kathy Augustine, with a paralyzing drug.

Higgs was quickly escorted to a waiting car by five deputies and his attorney.

"He's very happy to be free," his lawyer, David Houston, said outside the Washoe County Jail in Reno.

Wearing jeans, a sweat shirt and carrying a plastic bag with what appeared to be his personal belongings, Higgs did not say much.

Asked what he planned to do first, he said, "Hug my mom."

He was reunited with his mother, Shirley Higgs, a short time later at his lawyer's office, Houston said.

"Upon arriving, we walked in and the first thing he did was hug his mom," Houston said.

Higgs' mother and father, who are divorced, each put up their homes on the East Coast to cover his $250,000 bail.

Houston and co-defense counsel Alan Baum of Woodland Hills, Calif., said Higgs' mother is relocating to Reno from North Carolina to support her son pending his trial in June.

Washoe County District Judge Steven Kosach on March 1 set bail, with provisions that Higgs remain in daily contact with his lawyers and not leave the state. Higgs had been held without bail.

Augustine's family sharply criticized Kosach's order setting bail, calling Higgs a "psychopath" who should remain in jail.

Higgs, 42, an emergency room nurse, is accused of poisoning Augustine with a fatal injection of succinylcholine, a drug used to temporarily paralyze a person before inserting a breathing tube.

Doctors initially believed Augustine suffered a massive heart attack before she was taken to the hospital July 8. She lapsed into a coma and died three days later.