A Wisconsin woman who was found guilty last year of poisoning her disabled “friend” with eye drops and stealing her money was sentenced Friday to life in prison.
Jessy Kurczewski won’t be eligible for parole for 30 years, WISN reported.
“I think 30 years is a pretty significant amount of time. But my target is really for you,” Judge Jennifer Dorow said, noting that Kurczewski will be nearly 80 before she can see the outside of a prison, “older than what Lynn [Hernan, the victim] would be today.”
A jury found Kurczewski, 40, guilty last November of killing Hernan in 2018 and staging the scene to look like a suicide, as CrimeOnline reported. Hernan’s death was initially treated as an overdose after she was found dead with crushed medications on her chest and prescription medications nearby. But an autopsy determined that she died from tetrahydrozoline poisoning — an eye decongestant found in over-the-counter eyedrops — and there was too much of the drug in Hernan’s system to have come from using it in her eyes.
Kurczewski spoke for nearly two hours during Friday’s sentencing hearing, taking no responsibility for Hernan’s death and insisting that her “friend” killed herself.
“It is a lot to be accused and convicted of murder, when I didn’t do it,” she said. “It won’t bring her back and it won’t make her life any easier. You’re holding me responsible for what she did. Those are her decisions. Her choices. Her actions. And no one else’s. Not even mine.”
Prosecutors presented evidence at trial of Kurczewski researching the effects of tetrahydrozoline on the internet prior to Hernan’s death.
The jury found Kurczewski guilty of first degree intentional homicide and two counts of theft, as records showed her tranferring large amounts of money from Hernan’s accounts to her own and making sizable purchases.
Kurczewski was originally scheduled to be sentenced on December 7, 2023, but the hearing was delayed when her attorneys withdrew from the case and then delayed again when a second set of attorneys also withdrew, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported.
