48 Hours - Power, Passion, and Poison

Episode Date: November 2, 2023

This classic episode of “48 Hours" explores the death of 50-year-old Kathy Augustine, a career politician from Nevada. Questions arose about the cause of her death after police received a tip from her husband’s co-worker that she may have been poisoned, and toxicology reports further confirmed the presence of the powerful paralytic drug Succinylcholine. "48 Hours" correspondent Troy Roberts reports. This "48 Hours" episode last aired on 12/20/2008. Watch all-new episodes of “48 Hours” on Saturdays, and stream on demand on Paramount+.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. Even if you love the thrill of true crime stories as much as I do, there are times when you want to mix it up. And that's where Audible comes in, with all the genres you love and new ones to discover. Explore thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. Listening to Audible can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits,

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Just $2.99 a month. Well, Nevada is a cowboy state. Keep our taxes low, make our economy robust, you know, and keep the government the hell out of our lives. Kathy was the kind of person, if you put her in front of a crowd and you gave her the microphone, everybody loved her. My name is George Harris. I'm involved in Republican politics. I've lived in Nevada my whole life. Kathy was the Energizer Bunny.

She was. She was driven. She met everybody. And she got a picture with them. And she genuinely lived that Republican dream. She was a very, very strong woman. She was a very bright woman. She had a great sense of humor. She was one of the most ambitious people

that I've ever seen in politics. She loved the political world. She was at every event. I've never seen anybody work harder. She won her first election. She won her second election. She won her statewide election. She knew her responsibility was to the taxpayer

and not to the guys in power. The guys in power didn't like Kathy because Kathy didn't put up with their nonsense. This is breaking news. State Comptroller Kathy Augustine is in intensive care at Washoe Medical Center at this hour. She's in stable but critical condition. My name is Chaz Higgs and Kathy Augustine was my wife. It was early.

I walked into the bedroom. She just didn't look right. I tried to wake her up. She didn't wake bedroom. She just didn't look right. I tried to wake her up. She didn't wake up. She didn't have a pulse. I started doing CPR. I called 911. I said, my wife's not breathing.

Please help. They sent an ambulance. Then they took her to the hospital. I just was looking at her thinking, oh my god, what is going on? A cardiologist told me that she had suffered a heart attack. It was just so surreal. I couldn't believe it. It was clear that she was in very, very bad shape from the moment we walked in. Her eyes were wide open, couldn't blink her eyes, couldn't move move my name is Phil Alfano and I'm

Kathy Augustine's brother I knew it wasn't a heart attack I've been around people that have had heart attacks the first time I saw her when we walked into that hospital room I knew I'd lost her State Comptroller Kathy Augustine's fight for life ended at 4.30 this afternoon. While our family hopes and prays she died of natural causes, we are extremely grateful that an investigation has been launched. Kathy Augustine having a heart attack, that does not compute. We had doubts from the very beginning, all of us,

but I know I kept trying to push that out of my mind, saying, no, no, this can't be. My immediate reaction was, they killed her. They killed her. Power, passion, and poison. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park.

They have to alert the military, and when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. The scary cult classic was set in the Chicago housing project. It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom

mirror. Candyman. Candyman? Now we all know chanting a name won't make a killer magically appear, but did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? I was struck by both how spooky it was, but also how outrageous it was. We're going to talk to the people who were there, and we're also going to uncover the larger story. My architect was shocked when he saw how this was created. Literally shocked.

And we'll look at what the story tells us about injustice in America. If you really believed in tough on crime, then you wouldn't make it easy to crawl into medicine cabinets and kill our women. Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, wherever you get your podcasts.

Kathy Augustine died around 4.30 this afternoon. Nevada's first female state controller died surrounded by loved ones in the intensive care unit at Washoe Medical Center. I was devastated. I was devastated. In the days after Kathy Augustine's death, her husband Chaz Higgs says he was so despondent... I had been drinking to numb myself. He locked himself in the bedroom of their Las Vegas home. And I thought, this is a nice night to die. Then slashed his wrists.

I actually did it over and over because I wanted to make sure. I laid down and said, good, now I can be with my wife. And that was the last thing I remember. He was rescued the next morning by Kathy's adult daughter who found him unconscious and called paramedics I was hurting I I just I just couldn't handle the pain anymore if I loved my wife and I just couldn't believe that she was taken away from me. This was the last picture that was taken of Kathy. Why she was alive.

For Kathy's parents Kay and Phil Alfano, the loss of their only daughter is at times too much to bear. I keep thinking of Kathy as my angel in heaven looking down at me. Kathy's passion for politics began in high school when she won a coveted internship in Washington, D.C. And she came back and she was hooked, just completely hooked. A typical type A personality, says close friend Nancy Vinnick. Everything in her whole life was organized. That was Kathy. All of her clothes were all color coordinated. All of her suits were in order. She was a perfectionist to the T. Except in picking her husbands. My daughter with men was not very wise. There were two brief marriages and a child before she was 30.

She was so intelligent, so smart, but when it came to men, she a soft spot she could not make good decisions except for Charles. Charles Augustine, Kathy's third husband, was an airline pilot 16 years her senior. I think Chuck kind of knew how to take my sister in stride with you know some of her perfectionisms. Kathy's brother Phil. He used to refer to her as she who must be obeyed and you know had a sense of humor about it so I think that made the relationship work very well. But as Kathy's political career took off, winning seats in the state legislature, then becoming controller, her ambitions grew and so did the tensions at home. Her ambitions grew, and so did the tensions at home.

Her job as controller certainly drove a wedge into that marriage. They planned to get a divorce. But before the agreement was finalized, Charles suffered a stroke. He died five weeks later with Kathy by his side. She didn't expect it. I mean, he was supposedly getting better. And I was like, what the heck happened? Kathy retreated to Hawaii,

where three weeks later, she stunned family and friends by getting married again. I was dumbfounded. Completely dumbfounded. Thirty-nine-year-old Chaz Higgs was her fourth husband, eight years her junior. He was a registered nurse living in Nevada. Who proposed to whom? Kathy proposed to me.

It probably was a little quick as far as getting married, but we didn't look at that. We just looked at we loved each other, we wanted to be together. When it came to personal relationships, my sister rushed into things. I think she had this real idealized notion of romance, and here was this guy that had swept her off her feet, and he was going to make everything right. To many, they seemed an unlikely couple. He just didn't seem like her type at all. And it just didn't seem like they went together.

Like, huh? She didn't talk about politics. I didn't talk about nursing. And we just, we just were two people that fell in love. It was three years after they fell in love when Chaz found Kathy unconscious in their bed. In a matter of days, she was dead. I couldn't believe it.

And there's days even now I don't believe it. I wake up and think, I'm in a dream. As Kathy Augustine was laid to rest, suspicion was growing about the cause of her death. There is no one I know that believes she had a heart attack. Nobody believes she had a heart attack. She wasn't a sick person. She never was.

Augustine had just been given a complete physical. And there was nothing wrong with her. Two weeks before your daughter was taken to the hospital, she was a picture of hell. Yes. In fact, the preliminary autopsy found no evidence of a heart attack and no other obvious cause of death. But the medical examiner did find an unexplained mark on her buttocks. We knew that we had a circumstance that raised eyebrows. And Reno police had received a tip suggesting Kathy may have been poisoned.

Hey. Detective Dave Jenkins launched an investigation. It would have necessitated someone who could have access to Kathy in the moments before she lapsed into unconsciousness. But Jenkins needed evidence that a crime had been committed. Urine samples taken when Kathy arrived at the hospital were sent to the FBI.

Two months later, toxicology reports confirmed the presence of a powerful paralytic drug called succinylcholine, proof, Jenkins says, that Kathy had been murdered. Who killed Kathy Augustine? I believe, to the core of my being, it was Chaz Higgs. Chaz Higgs, the same man who was so distraught over his wife's death that he attempted suicide, was immediately arrested and charged with first-degree murder.

I said, you've got to be kidding me. It's just incredible what has happened. Did you kill Kathy Augustine? No. I wouldn't kill anyone. It's just not in my nature. I wouldn't do that. Higgs believes investigators are ignoring

other possible suspects. After all, Kathy Augustine was known for being a controversial politician with lots of enemies. But were they deadly enemies? She had told me of the threat that was made on her life. She said that they will do anything to keep me from getting into

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Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly? Introducing the best idea yet, a brand new podcast from Wondery and T-Boy about the surprising origin stories of the products you're obsessed with and the bold risk-takers who brought them to life. Like, did you know that Super Mario, the best-selling video game character of all time, only exists because Nintendo couldn't get the rights to Popeye? Or Jack, that the idea for the McDonald's Happy Meal first came from a mom in Guatemala? From Pez dispensers to Levi's 501s to Air Jordans. Discover the surprising

stories of the most viral products. Plus, we guarantee that after listening, you're going to dominate your next dinner party. So follow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Best Idea Yet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. It's just the best idea yet. Depending on your point of view, Kathy Augustine was either a brilliant politician or a cold-blooded opportunist. If she was a guy, she would have been the brightest thing that ever walked to face the earth, but since she was a woman, she was a bitch. Republican operative George Harris was one of Kathy Augustine's closest allies. She had the ability to push people's buttons the wrong way.

She had the ability to have people dislike her, but she had just as many people like her. Political analyst John Ralston says that beneath Augustine's smiling demeanor was a ruthless politician. She really hit people below the belt and she really used the most divisive, wedge, personal, emotional, inflammatory issues to get ahead. Case in point, the campaign against Dora Harris. Harris said she'd been leading Kathy Augustine in a 1992 race for state assembly. I was about 53 to 47 percent ahead in the polls and that Saturday Kathy came out with a hit piece. She ran a picture of Dora Harris, an African-American woman, next to her picture clearly just saying I'm the

white woman running, she's the black woman, vote for me. It was seen by many, many people as very, very racist. That was Kathy's style. She would do whatever she needed to do to get what she wanted. Augustine went on to beat Harris by 700 votes. Augustine rode her take-no-prisoner style to the statewide office of comptroller in 1998. prisoner style to the statewide office of controller in 1998. When she was re-elected, word spread that her star was on the rise at the national GOP. She was being looked at for a position in the U.S. Treasury, and I think there were some good old boys that didn't like that. That's when all the troubles in her life really, really started to happen politically.

She was hit by a political lightning bolt. Some of her employees went to the Ethics Commission and said, our boss, Kathy Augustine, is making us do campaign work. Augustine became the first person in the history of Nevada politics to face impeachment. The reason? For using her staff and state-owned office equipment in her re-election campaign. Nevada's Republican leadership told Augustine that her political career was over. You must now answer forthwith with the articles of impeachment. Not guilty, Madam President.

As the fist fighter she was, she stood up to him and said, pound dirt, haven't done anything wrong, try me. You ready for this? Absolutely. Her impeachment ordeal went on for weeks. She said she needed to buy herself four more years so she could set up her run for Congress. She said her place was in Washington, D.C. because she was too good for this hick little state. Kathy Augustine literally ran her campaign headquarters out of the Nevada state capitol.

While acting in her official capacity as state controller of the state of Nevada, Kathy Augustine, in violation of Nevada ethics and government law, has willfully committed misdemeanor malfeasance in office. In the end, Augustine was found guilty only of using state-owned equipment in her campaign. She was censured by the state legislature. They brought her down, politically. You know, they got her. I apologize today to the citizens of Nevada, and I will continue to perform my duties as state controller. Augustine refused to quit and showed up on John Ralston's television program to defend herself.

Did you at any time consider resigning? I didn't. It had to do with standing your ground. And when you know that what you did did not rise to the level of impeachment, then it was a matter of staying there and fighting for something you truly believed in. She was not just ambitious and nasty, she was also indomitable. Nothing could keep her down. Augustine launched a politically explosive investigation into financial misdeeds within her own party. And then she went on to announce that she was

going to run for the powerful job of state treasurer. Republican Party leaders were stunned by what they felt was her betrayal. I think they were flabbergasted. I think they were upset. Some people wanted to frighten Augustine out of running, according to her brother Phil. She did tell me that several people had warned her to be careful. I just want to be clear here was your sister threatened there were threats made to her we wanted to ask chas higgs about all of this but lead defense attorney alan bomb told his client to watch what he said did she ever talk

about political enemies yes people out to get her um we kind of have to be a little bit cautious in this area. Can I ask whether or not threats were made against her life? That's an area that I think we better hold off on. But Barbara Woolin had plenty to say. She was running for lieutenant governor in the Republican primary when Augustine confided in her. She had information that she thought I needed to know about involving political corruption, misappropriation of funds, slush funds. She says Augustine knew that her investigation into corruption had put her in danger. She said that a prominent Republican figure

had thrown her against a wall and said the following to her. What are you doing? You're going to f*** it all up. If you know what's good for you, you'll drop out of this race and go away. Otherwise, you better watch your back. Defense attorney David Houston says Woolen's story was not the only one that police ignored. They had a number of different threats that were reported to them, serious threats against Kathy Augustine and to her health and safety, and they didn't even

bother to pursue it. But Reno detective Dave Jenkins says he did pursue reports of threats and makes no apologies for his investigation. She had political enemies. Could someone else be responsible for her death? I certainly don't believe so. Kathy rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, and a lot of people have a number of theories as to what caused her demise. She was impeached on what many and most people feel were bogus charges. And so when they couldn't get her removed from office, suddenly she died.

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Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Today, I have chosen to enter into a stipulated agreement. Kathy Augustine may have had a lot of political enemies, but it's her husband, Chas Higgs, the critical care nurse, who's been charged with her murder. Can I face the wall? At this preliminary hearing, Higgs will hear for the first time the state's evidence against him. We're here on case number RCR 2006-030716,

the state of Nevada versus Chaz Higgs. We have Mr. Barb here on behalf of the state. Washoe County District Attorney Tom Barb will try to convince the judge he has enough evidence to take Chaz Higgs to trial. We know that the drug that was in her urine was toxic and killed her. How it got there, it's what we're trying to prove. The prosecution believes Chaz Higgs injected his wife with a lethal dose of the fast-acting paralytic succinylcholine, waited until she lost consciousness, then called paramedics and tried to pass the whole incident off as a heart attack. Succinylcholine killed Ms. Augustine. He was the only one around at the time

the drug would have had to have been administered. You got a victim that died of poisoning and two people were present, the victim and the spouse. Absolutely didn't happen. Pigg's attorney, David Houston. Case against Chaz is what we call a circumstantial case. The question is, number one, was a crime committed? Because that still hasn't been established. And then number two, if a crime was committed, the question is the obvious, who did it? There are people that think

that it had something to do with Kathy's political career. There are people who think that she died of natural causes. If somebody did kill Kathy Augustine, it sure wasn't Chaz. But at this pre-trial hearing, only evidence tying Higgs to the crime will be heard. He can only mount a defense if this case goes to trial. Chaz would never have anything to do with hurting Kathy or anybody else. No one is closer to Chaz Higgs than his twin brother, Mike. How hard was it for you to see him with handcuffs on? It saddens me. I think there's a big injustice that's been done. Mike has flown across country with his mother to support his brother in court.

The hardest thing for me is just not being able to go up and talk to my brother and have a conversation with him. I think that's Chaz and I think that's me. Their father was a Marine and the twins grew up near Camp Lejeune. I think we were 10 years old and it was our first communion. After high school, Chaz enlisted in the Navy, becoming a hospital corpsman. I deployed with Marine Corps units, Navy ships, SEAL teams, you name it. I went wherever I was deployed and I was their only medical person.

He left after 16 years for a new career as a critical care nurse. Did you like your work? I loved it. I loved it. Were you good at it? I was very good at it. That was my passion. It was in a Las Vegas hospital where Higgs met Kathy. He was one of her husband's, Charles Augustine's, critical care nurses. I was assigned to his care for one or maybe two shifts. Although it was only a couple of days, it was long enough to catch Kathy's eye. As two people, we clicked. We just hit it off.

And just weeks after Charles Augustine died... We fell in love with each other. They loved each other. His family embraced the couple. If you look at any picture of these two together, they're all smiling and they're always happy. But Kathy's family wasn't so happy. I didn't like him and I told her so. Did your granddaughter like him? No, none of us liked him. And when Kathy died, Kay Alfano didn't suspect her daughter's political enemies were involved.

She immediately focused on her son-in-law. How can you be so certain that Chaz Higgs killed your daughter? By the way he acted? Is Kathy conscious? No. She says Chaz didn't behave like someone whose wife was in an irreversible coma. He showed no emotion, no tear, nothing.

Did you go to police with your suspicions? We didn't because we had nothing to go on. We didn't know, but we just, overreacting was just all in our head. But Kathy's family and friends say she had long been confiding in them about her troubled relationship with her husband. He became very verbally abusive towards her. You are fat and you are ugly. I said, Kathy, nobody deserves to be treated the way he's treating you.

Was he unfaithful? Yes. Yes. No, never. Never. I'm not that kind of person. I wouldn't do it to her. So you were faithful to her? Yes. But these stories resonate with Kirsten Lattin. stories resonate with Kirsten Lattin. In 1990, she was married to Chaz Higgs. How soon after your marriage was he unfaithful? Very, very soon. Very quick. When I try to talk to him about it, of course, he denies it. But he also was a really serious steroid user.

She accuses Higgs of steroid-fueled rages. Oh, he would just get nasty mean, start a huge fight. Did you abuse steroids? No. One time? No. No. The marriage lasted less than a year.

For Chaz Higgs, it was one of four troubled unions. In fact, at the time of Kathy Augustine's death, their marriage was on the rocks as well. We had our share of problems. So there was some discussion of divorce? Yes. I just couldn't handle the stress anymore. I couldn't handle what it was doing to her. Higgs blames the stress on Kathy's political career. I apologize today to the citizens of Nevada for my actions. It was tearing her apart, mentally, physically. That was the major thing. Frankly, that was what led to problems in the marriage,

which clearly they were having, but it had nothing to do with them not loving one another. Why would Chas Higgs want Kathy Augustine dead? Well, if you take the stand that every murder has to be rational, I think you'll be disappointed. Detective Dave Jenkins. All we know for sure is that there was a failing relationship, a lot of acrimony between the two of them,

and some allegations of infidelity. That's the ingredient, many times, for violence. They don't have a case. What they have is rumor, innuendo, and their own suspicions. The state's first witness is Kim Ramey. But the prosecution does have a witness. She's damn important. Her testimony says that he knew how to do it without being caught. If a fatal dose of the drug succinylcholine killed Kathy Augustine, then she died a terrifying

death. You're unable to so much as blink your eyes, but you remain fully conscious. You are just waiting to die from suffocation. I understand the pain is just unreal, and there's nothing you can do about it. And to think that somebody would do that to another human being. Succinylcholine, called Sucs for short, is normally given to patients to ease insertion of a breathing tube. It's a drug that has been used, still is used, to immobilize muscles. It just paralyzes the muscles.

It also acts fast and nearly vanishes from the system in minutes, making it extremely difficult to detect. State controller Kathy Augustine died around 4.30. At first, there was no reason to suspect succinylcholine. But then, police got a tip. A phone call from Kim Ramey, who, like Chaz Higgs, is a critical care nurse. Thank you so much, ma'am. Bye.

She had some very serious concerns that Ms. Augustine's medical condition may have been the result of someone having intentionally administered a drug to her. Ramey told police that she and Chaz Higgs had talked at work just a day before Augustine was rushed to the hospital. I do. Thank you. At the preliminary hearing, Ramey said that during that talk, Higgs mentioned a well-known local murder case involving a man who had stabbed his wife to death. He said, that guy did it wrong. He said, if you want to get rid of somebody, and he made a gesture like this, you just hit her, you hit them with little socks, because they can't trace it post-mortem. hit her, you hit them with little sucks because they can't trace it post-mortem. Then I said,

Chaz, that's too much anger to carry around. And the hair on my arm arose. That's what I said. Based on Ramey's telephone tip, a sample of Augustine's urine was immediately sent off to the FBI for testing. How critical was that phone call to this investigation? There is no doubt in my mind that this incident would never have been looked at closely enough to make a determination that a murder had been committed. Your excuse, Ms. Ramey, you're free to leave. Higgs' attorney, David Houston, dismisses Ramey's account. dismisses Ramey's account. It in no way implicates any kind of motive, anger, or reason why Chaz Higgs would do the same thing to his wife in a very short period of time thereafter.

It's almost absurd. But prosecutors point out that when Higgs was arrested, police found handwritten notes about succinylcholine in his car. I have a lot of literature that I carry around as part of my job, so I'm sure I probably did have some literature on succinylcholine, along with about a thousand other drugs, too. Toxicologists did find traces of succs in Augustine's urine sample. I'm not really sure what a trace is, but it's certainly not enough to convict somebody beyond a reasonable doubt of murder.

Succinyl choline is not a recreational drug. If that's present, somebody put it in her. And the only one that had the opportunity to put it in her was her husband. Have you ever administered succinyl choline? Yes. Did you have access to the drug in the months leading up to Kathy Augustine's death? Well, sure.

I have access to a lot of drugs. Were you in possession of this drug in the months leading up to Kathy Augustine's death? No. In a matter of hours, the preliminary hearing is over and the judge is ready to make a decision.

I do believe, based on the testimony presented thus far, that there is probable cause to bind over the defendant on the charge of murder. Chaz Higgs will stand trial for his wife's murder. There won't be closure until he's taken care of. Kathy's family will be there. It isn't going to bring her back, but it can be the satisfaction. Chaz is innocent. And so will Chaz's mother, Shirley. We just know he would never do anything like this.

And we just want to see him come home. and we just want to see him come home. Chaz's parents post-bail, and soon he's on his way home, ready to prepare for trial. His defense team lets 48 Hours in on one of their strategy sessions. They're going to do everything they can to try to make you look bad

because they have no evidence that says you committed the crime. We've got some problems with testimony of nurses as to things that you said that were not particularly flattering. But the defense has a plan to soften the impact of their testimony. And as Dave is going to let the jury know right from the get-go in his opening statement, this wasn't a perfect marriage. So how do you feel? It's hard, but I'll tell you, I'm 100% confident in you guys. We think we know their approach. If that's their approach, they're going to lose. It's that simple.

What is the best case scenario in your mind? Best case is the truth is told, and I'm vindicated. And Chaz, what is the truth? That's something I want to save for the trial. At last, the case that captivated Nevada comes to trial. Now it's up to a jury to decide if controversial politician Kathy Augustine was murdered, and was it her husband who did it? Kathy Augustine, a woman who he admittedly hated, was found in their home with Mr. Higgs,

not breathing and without a heartbeat. For prosecutor Christopher Hicks, there's only one explanation. Chaz Hicks is a calculated murderer who used his trade to accomplish his goal, getting rid of his wife. But defense attorney David Houston says that just doesn't make sense.

Why? Because Chaz Higgs was getting a divorce. There is absolutely no motive or reason to believe that Chaz Higgs would have harbored the type of animosity spoken to you of by Mr. Hicks that would cause another human being to take the life of yet another human being. It isn't easy for the prosecution. There's no murder weapon, no eyewitness, and no clear motive. In fact, the defense says there wasn't even a murder. This is not a death by suspicious means. This woman died because of a heart attack.

The autopsy, he says, proves it. It was discovered that Kathy indeed did have a heart condition. It's known as mitral valve prolapse with regurgitation. A defective heart valve. They can cause heart failure and they can cause sudden death. But the coroner's office disagrees and stands by their original conclusion. It is my opinion that Kathy Augustine died from succinylcholine toxicity. Would you look at those, please?

The doctor even found what looks like the spot where the needle went in. This in particular represented a wound that might account for an injection. And what size needle does that look like to you? Looks like a 27-gauge needle to me. But the defense doesn't buy it. The tiny needle mark couldn't possibly be from the slow and painful injection of a deadly dose of socks, he says. If I were to put this in somebody and then start squeezing, what do you think they're going to be doing while I'm doing that? I imagine the patient would be moving around or trying to get away from it. But when doctors examined the body, there were no signs of resistance.

So when did this needle mark occur? According to forensic pathologist Dr. Anton Sohn, it happened during Augustine's treatment in the hospital. And it's your opinion that, call it a puncture wound, was far closer to the time of death? That's the way it appears to me. That means any hospital nurse could have given it to her.

Interestingly, there is not one witness to suggest that he had succinylcholine. And there is no hard evidence either. No syringe, no empty bottle of Sucks, no fingerprints. So the prosecution begins to build their circumstantial case with evidence found in Higgs' possession. Exhibit eight is a stack of three by five cards. One find refers to Sucks directly.

At the top it says dosing for endotracheal intubation and paralytics, and then succinylcholine. Do you know where it was found? In the motor vehicle Mr. Higgs was operating. The prosecution calls their key witness, Nurse Kim Ramey, back to the stand. Counsel, state's present. This time to tell a jury what Higgs said the day before his wife

was found in a coma. He said, if you want to get rid of somebody, you just hit them with little sucks, and he made this gesture. And what does that gesture that you're doing mean to you? An injection. And sucks means succinylcholine.

If that wasn't damning enough, Ramey and other nurses suggest a motive, too. Higgs hated his wife. It was this vicious, this mean, hateful, every word in the book that when he described her, she was a stalker, she was an effing bitch. He said to me, I actually remember it because it was so vivid, that if I didn't have a daughter in Las Vegas, I would kill my wife and throw her down a mineshaft. In response, the defense takes a big risk, putting Higgs himself on the stand. My name is Chaz Higgs, H-I-G-G-S.

The jury hears a story of love and politics and a crumbling marriage. How are you going to end it? I was going to divorce her. I mean... Did you plan to kill her? No. No. Why murder when he was planning to walk away? Why should they believe you did not kill your wife? No. Why murder when he was planning to walk away? Why should they believe you did not kill your wife?

Because I didn't do it. I wouldn't do that. Even though you said if it weren't for my daughter, I'd kill her and throw her down a mine shaft? I wouldn't do that. Thank you. Court adjourns. Higgs knows that a grueling cross-examination awaits him.

But overnight, there's shocking news. Channel 8 Eyewitness News at 5. Judge Stephen Kosach learned Chaz Higgs tried to commit suicide by slitting his wrists. Higgs left a suicide note professing his undying love for Kathy. Now I can go and be with my wife. I miss her so much. See you in heaven.

Two days later, a subdued Higgs is back in court. Shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. So help you God. Was this a suicide attempt? Yes, sir. And was it because you believed you told your story and that was all you needed to do? Yes, sir. That's what I waited for the last year to do.

I wanted to tell my story. So you could understand why some people would think this was a sympathy ploy? Yes. May I approach? But there's no sympathy from the prosecutor. Is this the dating service? This one up here? Yes, sir.

What's the name of it? Passion.com. Read it to the jury, please. Yes, sir. Oh, by the way, did I tell you that I am single now? I think that you are totally hot, sexy, smart, nice, cool, caring, and did I say hot? You didn't mention to Erica that your wife died. You just said, oh, by the way, I'm single again.

Yes, sir. Is that your idea of displaying love for Kathy? No, sir. Okay. Could you please speak up? Nobody can hear you. After nine days of testimony, it all comes down to the evidence of succinylcholine poisoning. And you've got to ask yourselves,

what have they presented to you in the form of sufficiently compelling evidence to take away any and all reasonable doubt that this is the guy who put it there if it is there in spite of mr houston's loud talk and fast talk nobody has told you that the sucks is not there mr higgs killed his wife with a poison and he should be found guilty With the poison, and he should be found guilty. As we just told you, the jury's reached a verdict in the murder trial. It took the jury seven hours to reach a verdict. We, the jury, find the defendant, Chaz Higgs, guilty of first-degree murder.

Guilty as charged. Juror number one, is this your verdict? I just think we closed every door that the defense tried to open, and I think one of the couple of them, we mashed their fingers. What made it an open and shut case for the jurors? Kim Ramey's testimony just blew it out of the water. You just hit him with a little sus. What made the decision for you?

Kim Ramey. They never bought Higg' story at all. Did you believe any of Chaz's testimony? No. He was the prosecution's best witness, so I was glad he took the stand. As for Kathy Augustine's family, the guilty verdict provides a small measure of relief. A painful year has come to a close. It's not gonna bring our daughter back,

but for us, it's a way to move on. We'll have our memories of Kathy and nobody can take those from us, not even Chaz Higgs was sentenced to life and is eligible for parole in 2027. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey.