A Wisconsin woman has been found guilty of poisoning her longtime friend with eye drops and then making her death look like suicide while stealing nearly $300,000 from the dead woman.
Jessy Kurczewski, 39, admitted to dumping six bottles of Visine into a water bottle that was later given to Lynn Hernan in 2018 — claiming Hernan was suicidal and asked for the tainted water.
But a Waukesha grand jury on Tuesday didn’t buy Kurczewski’s account and found him guilty of first-degree intentional homicide and two counts of theft in connection with her death.
Hernan was found dead with crushed medicine in his chest in his Pewaukee condo on October 3, 2018. Kurczewski called 911 and said family friends were not breathing and believed he may have killed himself.
Although the scene was made to look like a suicide by overdose, the Waukesha County medical examiner found tetrahydrozoline, the main ingredient in Visine, in his system and declared his death a homicide.
Wisconsin woman Jessy Kurczewski was convicted of poisoning Lynn Hernan with eye drops and stealing $300K from her.
Although Kurczewski appeared to be a concerned friend, reportedly checking on Hernan daily, he actually opened a credit card in the dead woman’s name and drained her bank account.
“He didn’t spend the day worrying about Lynn. He opened a JC Penney account in Lynn’s name, and he used Lynn’s other account to shop, shop online, while he knew he had just poisoned Lynn,” Waukesha County Asst. District Attorney Randy Sitzberger said, according to WISN 12 News.
“Lynn Hernan was worth more dead than alive to Jessy Kurczewski,” he added.
Lynn Hernan was given six bottles of Visine in a water bottle by Jessy Kurczewski in 2018.
Kurczewski was arrested nearly a year after Hernan’s death when investigators discovered he had stolen $290,000 from her.
He maxed out his own credit card and suspiciously received several large checks — including one worth more than $130,000 — from Hernan before the murder, prosecutors said, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
“Lynn gave Jessy money all the time because she wanted it,” her attorney Donna Kuchler said, according to the outlet. “Giving money to Jessy makes her happy. Jessy is like his daughter.”
Jessy Kurczewski, who claimed Hernan committed suicide, was arrested almost a year after Hernan’s death. AP
Investigators also found that Kurczewski had searched for “household poison” according to a deleted search history on his phone, according to WISN.
Kurczewski sobbed as the jury’s verdict was read aloud in court Tuesday afternoon, courtroom video showed.
He faces a mandatory life sentence for the murder charge and will be sentenced on December 7.
Prosecutors say he killed the woman he claimed had a mother-daughter relationship for more money.
“The defendant betrayed Lynn out of greed,” Deputy District Attorney Abbey Nickolie said following the verdict.
With Postal wire
Categories: Trending
Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
