'I gave it to her': Woman accused of killing friend with eye drops admits involvement in police interview

 

WAUKESHA, Wis. (CBS 58) -- The jury in the eye drop murder trial watched the defendant admit to handing the victim a water bottle full of eye drops the day she died.

In a July 2019 interview, Jessy Kurczewski told investigators she gave family friend Lynn Hernan a water bottle filled with eye drops the day she died in October of 2018.

"That bottle of water right there had at least six, six Visines," Kurczewski said in the video played in court on Monday, Nov. 6.

"How do you know that?" a detective is heard asking.

"Because that's what she put in it. She told me," Kurczewski answered. "I gave it to her because she said, 'I want it.'"

The confession came shortly after she denied involvement in the same interview.

"I did not give her Visine purposefully that day for any reason. I didn't have it with me, and I didn't give it to her," she said.

Kurczewski claimed Hernan, the woman she is accused of killing and stealing over $290,000 from, would regularly mix large amounts of Visine with drinks, so Kurczewski did not think this would be her last dose.

"I honestly thought, though, like the other times, it wasn't going to kill her. I thought it was going to put her to sleep a little bit," she explained after telling investigators she handed Hernan the bottle.

While she admitted to giving it to her, she maintained she did not put the eye drops in it, saying Hernan did.

"I didn't murder her," Kurczewski said.

Testimony on Monday included deleted files from Kurczewski's phone of searches for various poisonings before and after Hernan's death.

"Cyanide dot PDF," read Detective Aaron Hoppe on the stand.

Kurczewski maintained that Hernan would use Kurczewski's phone to look up ways to end her life and that she did not remember searching for poisons a month before she was taken into custody. She also claims she gave Hernan the water bottle filled with eye drops the day she died because she always gave in to Hernan's desires.

"I know that I'm probably going to prison for the rest of my life for helping with what she wanted," Kurczewski said while crying.