Left: Judge Jennifer Dorow; Right: Jessy Kurczewski. (Law&Crime Network)
A Wisconsin woman who slowly murdered her wealthy friend with an inordinate amount of eyedrops several years ago was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole earlier this week.
In November 2023, after nearly 11 hours of deliberations, jurors determined Jessy Kurczewski bore culpability for the death of Lynn Hernan, 62, who was found at home dead on Oct. 3, 2018.
In addition to one count of murder in the first degree, Kurczewski was also found guilty on two counts of theft of movable property over $10,000 but less than $100,000 for transferring hundreds of thousands of dollars of her friend’s money into her own bank account.
On Friday, Jessy Kurczewski, 40, was sentenced to spend at least 30 years behind bars before she is eligible for parole for the murder conviction. She was additionally assessed a 10-year sentence on the theft counts. Waukesha County Circuit Judge Jennifer R. Dorow assessed those lesser sentences to run consecutive, or after, the murder sentence. In sum, Kurczewski must spend 40 years in prison before she has a chance to see the outside world.
“Justice has been served in the sentencing of Jessy Kurczewski,” Assistant District Attorney Randy Sitzberger said after the sentencing, in comments reported by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
The defendant made the 911 call that brought law enforcement into her life all those years ago.
The criminal complaint noted the presence of “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,” while describing the victim’s deathbed.
Kurczewski 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.
That sufficed — but not for long.
The initial overdose determination was overturned when police later learned Hernan died from a fatal dose of Tetrahydrozoline, the main ingredient in eye drops. A subsequent homicide investigation resulted in Kurczewski being arrested for murder on June 4, 2021.
In response to the new findings, Kurczewski told investigators Hernan “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.
The defendant also explained away the crushed-up pills that were on the dead woman and near her reclining deathbed.
“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.””
Defense efforts centered on the argument that Hernan was, in fact, obsessed with consuming eyedrops; that Kurczewski genuinely cared for her friend; and that she was just trying to ease her suffering.
But an additional wrinkle for the defendant — which made up the major motive advanced by the state — was the victim’s finances.
Prosecutors showed 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.
In the end, jurors agreed with law enforcement.
Sentencing in the case was delayed after a very public — and very bizarre — contretemps between the defendant and her lawyers.
On the eve of her sentencing, an alleged jailhouse plot to fraudulently cast doubt on the basic facts of the murder was detailed in a lengthy handwritten letter that purported to implicate one of Kurczewski’s attorneys — and ultimately both attorneys were removed from the case.
During her sentencing hearing, the convicted killer expressed scorn for the adequacy of her legal defense and promised to appeal.
“I will not stop fighting,” she said before hearing her fate, according to the paper. “As God as my witness, this case is far from over.”
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
