Trial starts Monday in Augustine death

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CARSON CITY — Former state Controller Kathy Augustine was not murdered, but died of a heart attack brought on by stress from her campaign for treasurer and her personal inquiries into the actions of former state Treasurer Brian Krolicki and other Republican politicians. That’s what lawyers for Augustine’s husband, Chaz Higgs, will argue Monday when he goes on trial for murder in connection with Augustine’s July 11 death.

"Everything Kathy was working on now is coming out," Reno lawyer David Houston said. "Kathy was investigating these people and being threatened by these people. She was under tremendous stress."

Higgs, 43, is accused of injecting Augustine, 50, with a powerful muscle relaxant, succinylcholine, which is used in emergency rooms to help doctors insert breathing tubes into patients. It can be lethal if a patient’s respiration is not maintained.

But Houston said Higgs, a critical care nurse, has no criminal record and had no motive to kill Augustine since the vast majority of her estate was to go to her daughter Dallas in the event of her death.

The trial in Reno before District Judge Steven Kosach is expected to last two weeks.

Krolicki, now lieutenant governor, said he is astonished that his name would be brought up at a murder trial. Krolicki said he never threatened Augustine, whose office in the state Capitol was across the hall from his.

He was aware Augustine was raising questions about contracts awarded by his office. Before her death last summer, Krolicki gave the Review-Journal copies of documents that he said showed he did nothing improper.

Before the trial begins, Kosach will consider several motions filed by Houston and California attorney Alan Baum.

In one, the judge is asked not to let prosecutors mention how Higgs sometimes would respond when fellow nurses asked if he needed help in the emergency room.

"Yeah, you can get rid of my wife," Higgs would say.

Higgs also sometimes told people about Augustine: "If it weren’t for my daughter, I would strangle her and throw her down a mine shaft."

Houston maintained these are "flippant comments" that no one ever took seriously.

In a Capitol news conference a day before Augustine’s death, Higgs said his wife had suffered a heart attack brought on by campaign stress.

Higgs mentioned that Augustine worked at her state job during the day, campaigned during evenings and then went home to try to gather information on the Internet about Krolicki and other Republicans.

Just before Augustine’s death, Higgs had taken a job as critical care nurse at Carson-Tahoe Hospital in Carson City. He previously worked at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center in Las Vegas and at Washoe (now Renown) Medical Center in Reno.

Higgs also was a Navy medical corpsman for 16 years.

The couple had been married three years at the time of Augustine’s death.

In documents filed in the case, Houston and Baum contend no succinylcholine has been reported missing from the hospitals where Higgs worked.

"I’m sure they will try to blame the Republicans for her death," said Thomas Barb, the Washoe County deputy district attorney who is prosecuting Higgs. Barb said his case against Higgs largely depends on toxicology tests in September in the FBI’s lab in Quantico, Va., that found traces of succinylcholine in samples of Augustine’s blood.

"If the toxicology test had not come back positive for a drug that can kill you, there would be no case," Barb said last year.

Before her death, Augustine had contacted members of the media and expressed concerns about contracts former Treasurer Bob Seale had obtained from the treasurer’s office then led by Krolicki.

Krolicki had been deputy treasurer during the eight years Seale held the office.

When questioned by a reporter about the controller’s allegations, Krolicki released a packet of documents that showed contracts Seale obtained were won in open bidding situations and reviewed by the governor’s office and approved by the state Board of Examiners.

Nonetheless, a legislative audit in May found Krolicki violated three state laws by allowing $6 million in state funds to be kept outside of the state in the hands of three private companies, including one formerly affiliated with Seale.

Houston said the audit vindicated Augustine.

"None of us is saying Krolicki killed her, but I can show she was under tremendous pressure," he said.

He added Krolicki, Seale and other Republicans worked to block Augustine from obtaining an appointment as U.S. treasurer. Seale also was working on the campaign of Mark DeStefano, who was running against Augustine in the Republican primary for treasurer.

Since the audit, Krolicki has maintained he did nothing wrong and auditors were wrong in their conclusions. The attorney general’s office has been given the audit and is investigating whether charges should be brought against Krolicki.

Higgs blasted Krolicki, Seale, former state Republican Party Chairman Paul Adams and other politicians in a purported suicide note he left in the couple’s Las Vegas home when he slit his wrists July 14, the day before Augustine’s funeral.

Augustine’s adult daughter, Dallas, kicked open a locked door and paramedics revived Higgs. He was hospitalized for only a few hours.

"I am truly looking forward to seeing these gentlemen in the afterlife so we can have a few words," Higgs said in the note. "My wife’s career was ruined by you, and she drove herself to the grave just to prove she was right."

Krolicki called the content of Higgs’ "so-called suicide note" utterly false.

"The DA’s office is convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Higgs murdered his wife," Krolicki said. "His bizarre note seems to be based solely on mean-spirited campaign rhetoric. To future comment on a pending murder prosecution is inappropriate."

As controller, Augustine in 2004 became the first official in state history to have been impeached. Augustine paid a $15,000 fine for violating laws forbidding state officials from using their government offices and staff to work on political campaigns. But the state Senate decided she could remain in office.

At the time of her death, Augustine was prevented by law from seeking another term as controller.

A July 12 autopsy in Reno did not come up with a cause for Augustine’s death, and it found no evidence of heart disease. Samples of her blood and urine were then sent to the FBI’s crime lab in Quantico, Va.

Two months later, the FBI found succinylcholine in samples of her urine and Higgs was charged with murder.

The morning that Augustine died, Reno police had been called by Kim Ramey, a nurse at Carson-Tahoe Hospital who had worked with Higgs four days earlier, on July 7.

Ramey testified during a preliminary hearing last December that Higgs told her that succinylcholine was the perfect way to kill someone because it could not be detected.

"’If you want to get rid of someone, hit them with a little sux,’" Ramey recalled Higgs telling her.

Ramey said Higgs also brought up the case of Darren Mack, a prominent Reno businessman accused of killing his wife and shooting Reno District Judge Chuck Weller on June 13, 2006.

Ramey said Higgs told her Mack was stupid for stabbing his wife to death since, if he had used succinlycholine, it would be undetectable in post-mortem tests.

Author Tom Clancy described succinylcholine as being undetectable in his 2003 novel, "The Teeth of the Tiger."

In the novel, American commandos kill terrorists by injecting them with the drug.

During a hearing in March, when Higgs was released from jail on $250,000 bail, police theorized that he might have gotten the idea to kill Augustine from the novel.

Ramey also testified Higgs told her he had problems with Augustine and planned to divorce her, although it would be a "short divorce." The two nurses had met for the first time that day.

At the end of their 12-hour shift, Ramey said, she invited Higgs to a going-away party that friends were giving her at a local restaurant. He declined, she said.

She said Higgs told her he was "going to go home and (expletive) tell her (Augustine) I’m going to leave."

The next morning, Higgs called 911 and said he found his wife unconscious and with no pulse.

Three days later, Augustine’s family decided to turn off artificial breathing devices in Washoe Medical Center and let her die.

Houston said testing used to detect succinylcholine is "junk science." He contended most convictions involving the use of the drug as a means of murder have been overturned on appeal.