Power, Passion And Poison

An Ambitious Politician Meets A Suspicious Death

(CBS)  But these stories resonate with Kirstin Lattin. In 1990, she was married to Chaz Higgs. She tells Roberts Higgs become unfaithful very soon after they married. "Very quick. Absolutely killed me. When I tried to talk to him about it, of course he denies it," she says.

"He also was a really serious steroid user," Lattin says. She accuses Higgs of steroid-fueled rages. "He would just get nasty mean. Start a huge fight," she says.

But Higgs says he never abused steroids.

The marriage lasted less than a year. For Chaz Higgs, it was one of four troubled unions. In fact, at the time of Kathy's death, their marriage was on the rocks as well.

"We had our share of problems," Higgs tells Roberts.

"So there was some discussion of divorce?" Roberts asks.

"Yes," Higgs replies. "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. "It was tearing her apart, mentally, physically," he says. "That was a major thing."

"Frankly, that was what led to problems in the marriage. Which clearly they were having," says defense attorney Alan Baum. "But it had nothing to do with them not loving one another."

Why would Chaz want Kathy dead? "Well, if you take the stand that every murder has to be rational, I think you'll be disappointed," Det. Dave Jenkins says. "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 ingredients, many times, for violence. "

"They don’t have a case," says defense attorney David Houston. "What they have is rumor, innuendo and their own suspicions."

But the prosecution does have a witness: Kim Ramey.

Succinylcholine, called "Sux" 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," D.A. Tom Barb explains.

It also acts fast, and nearly vanishes from the system in minutes, making it extremely difficult to detect.

At first, there was no reason to suspect succinylcholine, until a tip came into police. It was a phone call from Kim Ramey, who, like Higgs, is a critical care nurse.

"She had some very serious concerns that Miss Augustine's medical condition may have been the result of someone having intentionally administered a drug to her," Det. Jenkins explains.

Ramey told police that she and Higgs had talked at work just a day before Augustine was rushed to the hospital. At the preliminary hearing, Ramey said Higgs had 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 (holding a needle), 'You just hit her with a little Sux, because they can't trace it postmortem,'" Ramey told the court. "I looked him at the face and I said, 'Chaz, that's too much anger to carry around.' And the hair on my arm arose."

Based on Ramey's telephone tip, the frozen sample of Kathy's urine was immediately sent off for testing.

Defense attorney David Houston 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," he says.

But prosecutors point out that when Higgs was arrested, police found handwritten notes about succinylcholine in his car. "I'm sure I probably did have some literature on succinylcholine, along with about a thousand other drugs too," Higgs says.

Toxicologists did find traces of succinylcholine in Augustine's urine sample. "Well, I'm not really sure what a trace is, but it's certainly not enough to convict somebody beyond a reasonable doubt of a murder," Houston argues.

But D.A. Tom Barb says, "Succinylcholine 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."

Chaz acknowledges that he has administered succinylcholine to patients in the past, and that he did 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," he says.

But he also says he was not in possession of the drug in the months leading up to Kathy's death.

In a matter of hours, the preliminary hearing is over, and the judge is ready to make a decision: Chaz Higgs will stand trial for his wife's murder.

Kathy's family will be there. "It isn't gonna bring her back. But it will give me the satisfaction," Kay says.

Chaz's mother Shirley will also be there. "We just know he would never do anything like this. 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 make you look bad because they have no evidence that says you committed a crime," Houston says.

"We've got some problems with testimony of nurses as to things that you said that were not particularly flattering," Baum adds.

But the defense has a plan to soften the impact of their testimony. "Dave is gonna let the jury know right from the git-go in his opening statement this wasn't the perfect marriage," Baum says.

[sn1955]

Oh, please. This guy was guilty from the get-go. There is no one else who could have put the drug in Augustine's system but Chaz Higgs. Besides, his body language is a dead giveaway of his guilt. He's not only sorry he got caught, but he's sorry he did it. Trying to kill himself twice, the second time right in the middle of his trial, proved he was guilty. An innocent man would not do that. I have lived in Reno for 25 years, and this was a huge story, perhaps the biggest murder case in Nevada history thanks to Augustine's prominence.

[avellinomm]

I am disturbed that this episode continues to air with an innocent man in prison. How can a test, done on urine collected at 735 am reveal the presence of Succinylcholine, if the patient was dead at or about 7am. But at about 715 am, undisputedly had no succs. administered to her between 715 & 735am? Did the FBI explain that? The test that Ms. Morgan of the FBI conducted was defective. There was a power outage at the FBI lab. The urine was not refridgerated for 5 day's prior to the test. Those factors make a difference in the reliability of the results. Succs. has an extremely short half life, less than a minute, yet she supposedly found both succinycholine & succinylmonocholine in the urine? The other tests that were conducted of the tissue, blood, & organs reveal neither. Those were refridgerated. Strange.

[carolcape]

I believe that her husband killed her. She was a very domineering woman in the professional world and
I would say she had some of that tenacity in the marriage. She was just not suited to this man. She was too intelligent for him. She certainly did not wait a very long time before marrying this man. I mean just looking at them as her mom said, they just didn''t fit at all. I feel that she was intelligent, but when she got a little bit of power it went to her head. She thought she could get away with anything, which usually sinks most politicians. But she may have gone unnoticed if she was a man, but they wanted to get rid of her in office and they were going to do anything. Yes, she was threatened from someone, but also her husband had knowledge of that and he took advantage of it. He wanted to get rid of her too quickly and that didn''t work in his favor. He might have gotten away with it, but the fact that he was the only one in the area she was in was just too obvious. He even looks guilty. The coworkers were also good witnesses. He is just where he should be, behind bars.

[thefan08-2009]

its sad she had to die, but politicians like her are the reason why people dont trust politicians any more. i would have setteled for her been impeached instead of dead. but sometimes when you dedicate everything in your power to one trade(politics) you sometimes forget how to handle other things, like finding a good man.

[roscoezzz]

You know what? I thought this guy was innocent until the end when he tried to commit suicide. He was winning in that courtroom I thought. But, the suicide attempt was a sign of guilt before he was to be questioned by the prosecution.
It is sad how this politician woman used and abused the people around her. Look at the way it all ended for her. The wrong men, the wrong political ambition and the wrong way to lead a public life. Sad.