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Eye drops homicide trial, defense questions ME
Lynn Hernan died in October 2018. Prosecutors say she was poisoned. Jessy Kurczewski's defense team says it was suicide. Hernan's medical history was at the center of testimony on Thursday, Oct. 26.
WAUKESHA, Wis. - Lynn Hernan died in October 2018. Prosecutors say she was poisoned. Jessy Kurczewski's defense team says it was suicide. Hernan's medical history was at the center of testimony on Thursday, Oct. 26.
Prosecutors say 39-year-old Kurczewski poisoned her friend with enough eye drops to kill her.
"You don't know as you sit there today, whether she voluntarily ingested that?" asked Donna Jean Kuchler, defense attorney.
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"It was my opinion (Lynn Hernan) didn’t. But knowledge of her action, no," said state's witness Waukesha County Medical Examiner Lynda Biedrzyski.
In the weeks before Hernan died in October 2018, she was admitted to the hospital. The defense said she had a history of using alcohol – and that towards the end of her life she put on 30 pounds in less than two weeks.
Jessy Kurczewski
Lynn Hernan
Biedrzyski was back on the stand for the entire day Thursday – this time under cross-examination.
"She had chronic back pain, chronic hip pain?" asked Kuchler.
"Yes," Biedrzyski responded.
Waukesha County Medical Examiner Lynda Biedrzyski
Hernan's medical history and how Biedrzycki came to her ruling that Hernan's death was a homicide from tetrahydrozoline poisoning were the subject of hours of questioning from Kurczewski's defense.
"Problems worsening, occurs persistently. We’ve heard that before?" asked Kuchler.
"Yes," answered Biedrzycki.
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"Is there information in this record that Lynn has a history of using alcohol?" Kuchler asked.
"Yes," Biedrzycki replied.
Prosecutors say Kurczewski poisoned Hernan and stole thousands of dollars from Hernan before and after she died.
Kurczewski's defense says it was suicide – that Hernan had a history of depression, a series of health problems, and had a potentially lethal cocktail of prescription drugs in her system at the time of her death.