Jury expected to deliberate early next week in eye drop murder trial
WAUKESHA, Wis. (CBS 58) -- The jury in the eye drop murder trial is expected to begin deliberations early next week.
"This is a case of murder, greed, and lies," Waukesha County Assistant District Attorney Randy Sitzberger said.
Opening statements brought forth prosecutors' stance that Jessy Kurczewski killed family friend Lynn Hernan because she was worth more dead than alive to the now 39-year-old Franklin woman.
Kurczewski is facing one count of first-degree intentional homicide for allegedly poisoning Hernan with eye drops in 2018. She is also facing two counts of theft for allegedly stealing over $290,000. Her defense team claims Kurczewski did not kill Hernan, but rather that she committed suicide after suffering from poor health for a long time.
"If Lynn Hernan were here today, she would say, 'Are you crazy, prosecution?' That's my daughter that you have sitting there at the desk over there, that's my daughter. She knows everything I was doing when I was doing this,'" Defense Attorney Pablo Galaviz said during opening statements.
Friends of the Pewaukee woman testified they did not believe she would take her own life.
"I would've tried to do something. She never gave me the indication of suicidal, ever," Hernan's friend James Kelliher said on the stand.
One witness brought up by the defense, Jimmy Burg, who knew Hernan through Kurczewski's mother, said otherwise, claiming Hernan constantly talked about committing suicide and that he had seen eye drops in her home.
"Yes, she had a big, white Slurpee cup with a straw coming out of it, she had a bottle of vodka next to her, she had an ashtray, her cigarettes, and a bottle of Visine," Burg said, explaining what he saw while visiting Hernan's home before her passing.
A forensic toxicologist explained that tetrahydrozoline, the active ingredient in eye drops, can be fatal. She explained that her findings showed Hernan's blood had 400 times higher than the highest level in typical eye drop use. Phone calls played in open court show Kurczewski calling to inquire about Hernan's toxicology results. Kurczewski even visited the Waukesha County Sheriff's Department to ask questions about Hernan's death.
"We weren't sure if it was a suicide or if it was something medical," she said to police during a visit with her mother to inquire about Hernan's toxicology results.
The then-boyfriend of Kurczewski, Scott Craig, took the stand and testified that he believed Hernan was in a five-month coma because that is what Kurczewski told him. Despite breaking things off with her once she was arrested, he said he still accepted her calls from jail. In one call played in court, he confronted her about the lie.
"You just kept making up more and more lies. You're diabolical. That's just crazy," Craig said during the call.
"I told you that to protect you. For a reason," Kurczewski responsed.
"That's pretty disgusting. That's a disgusting thing to lie about," Craig said.
To touch on the financial crimes Kurczewski is accused of, detectives laid out patterns of life for both her and Hernan, discussing them in detail on the stand. The state claims that at the time of death, Hernan's finances resembled Kurczewski's more than hers. However, the defense maintains Hernan willingly gave the money to Kurczewski.
"Fair to say you could not and did not talk to Lynn about the memo on any of these checks, whether this money was being given to Jessy as a gift or elsewise," Defense Attorney Brad Novreske asked.
"I did not speak to Lynn at all about the checks that were issued out of her account," Detective Nathan Plennes answered.
During their last witness, the state played a handful of interviews Kurczewksi gave to police after being arrested. In them, she changes her story multiple times. After detectives revealed Hernan's cause of death was a fatal dose of tetrahydrozoline, she tells them Hernan was suicidal, buying guns and drinking Visine with vodka for an "easy way out." Kurczewski claimed she was not on board with Hernan's desire to die.
"I didn't want her to do it. I didn't want her to do it," she told police.
At first, she was adamant that she had never given Hernan eye drops.
"I didn't purposely ever mix anything for her. Never. I swear to God. I'm not lying. She put it in her water once in a while and her vodka once in a while. She kept trying more different doses," she said.
But eventually, she admits to giving Hernan eye drops in the past, but not the day she died. Then, she changed her story again, telling investigators she did hand Hernan's eye drops on Oct. 3, 2018.
"That bottle of water right there had at least six, six Visines," Kurczewski said in the video.
"How do you know that?" a detective asked.
"Because that's what she put in it. She told me," she explained. "I gave it to her because she said, 'I want it.'"
Kurczewski said she handed Hernan the Visine-filled water bottle because she always gave in to her wishes.
"I know that I'm probably going to prison for the rest of my life for helping with what she wanted," Kurczewski said, crying.
After three weeks of evidence, Kurczewski chose not to take the stand.
"It was very hard for me to decide, but ultimately, I will not be testifying," she told Judge Jennifer Dorow on Thursday, Nov. 9.
Closing arguments are on Monday.