Jessy Kurczewski appears in a booking photo. (Waukesha County)
A 39-year-old Wisconsin woman accused of murdering her wealthy friend with eyedrops heads to trial this week in Waukesha County.
Jessy Kurczewski is alleged to have told police various versions of a story about how her friend died. The first version began with the discovery of the Pewaukee woman’s “unconscious and not breathing” body on a recliner and the subsequent emergency call she made on Oct. 3, 2018, according to the criminal complaint filed in the case.
Lynn Hernan, 62, was found at home with “a large amount of crushed medication on her chest and a plate directly to the left of her with a large amount of what appeared to be crushed up medication still on the plate,” the criminal complaint reads.
For months, the official explanation for the woman’s death tended towards an overdose – until January 2019. Then, the Pewaukee Police Department learned that Hernan died from a fatal dose of Tetrahydrozoline, the main ingredient in eye drops. A subsequent homicide investigation resulted in Kurczewski being arrested on June 4, 2021. She is charged with one count each of intentional homicide in the first degree, theft of movable property greater than $100,000, and theft of movable property over $10,000 but less than $100,000.
The toxicology results for the family friend’s death were quickly made known to the defendant. In response to those findings, Kurczewski had an explanation, police say, telling investigators Hernan was “‘was ‘known’ for eye drops and that she purchased them in great volume and there would be bottles and boxes from eye drops all over the residence,” according to the criminal complaint.
But then, what about the crushed up pills, conveniently located on the dead woman and near her reclining deathbed? The defendant allegedly had a story to support that wrinkle as well – accounting for Hernan’s actual cause of death.
“Kurczewski offered that [the victim] must have staged her own suicide with the crushed pills because Kurczewski maintained that she did not,” the complaint reads. “Kurczewski then says [Hernan] had been trying to kill herself by drinking Visine in vodka. Kurczewski said [the victim] would try different doses in water bottles or vodka and she would get very sick.”
At some point, however, the defendant’s story allegedly changed again. This time, Kurczewski allegedly admitted her friend’s death was something more like a begrudging case of assisted suicide.
“Kurczewski said her and [victim] fought about it for an hour prior to Kurczewski leaving the residence that morning and she finally gave in and gave the water bottle with 6 Visine bottles in it to [victim],” the complaint goes on. “Kurczewski said it was ‘her choice.””
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The heart of the defense, so far at least and in what we know from pretrial motions filed and hearings for the case, is that Hernan was, in fact, obsessed with eyedrops and that Kurczewski genuinely cared for her friend and was trying to ease her suffering.
“[S]he knows she’s probably going to prison for the rest of her life for helping [the victim] do what she wanted,” the complaint reads.
An additional wrinkle for the defendant – and making up the major motive for the state – is the victim’s finances.
Prosecutors allege that Kurczewski’s spending increased significantly after she began spending time with Hernan. Those spending habits, police claim, were buoyed and only made possibly by Kurczewski transferring more than $100,000 of her friend’s money into her own bank account. According to the complaint, Kurczewski defrauded the victim of $290,210.06 total and was in control of her estate.
One potential witness, who could offer significant testimony for both sides in the trial, is an inmate at the Taycheedah Correctional Institution who was roommates with Kurczewski after her arrest, according to a court document obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. During “an emotional breakdown” the defendant allegedly told her jailhouse roommate that she did give Hernan “several bottles of Visine to kill her.” But that alleged second-hand confession takes issue with the financial motive. According to the inmate, “everyone thinks she did it for money,” but Kurczewski really and truly believes she intended to help alleviate her friend’s pain with poison.
But, police also allege, Kurczewski has a history of attempted fraud and a gambling problem that might make her alleged financial transgressions seem something more like a managed addiction – a compulsion she didn’t want to act on but did so anyway.
The prosecution is being led by Waukesha County Deputy District Attorney Abbey Nickolie. The defense is being co-chaired by Waukesha-based attorneys Donna Kuchler and Pablo Galaviz.
The case is being overseen by Waukesha County 3rd Judicial Administrative District Chief Judge Jennifer Dorow, who previously presided over the Darrell Brooks trial.
Jury selection began on Monday morning. The trial is currently slated to last some five weeks and run through late November.
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