Power, Passion And Poison

An Ambitious Politician Meets A Suspicious Death

(CBS)  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 if it was her husband who did it.

For prosecutor Christopher Hicks there's only one explanation. "Chaz Higgs is a calculated murderer who used his trade to achieve his goal: getting rid of his wife," he says.

But defense attorney David Houston says that just doesn't make sense. Why? Because Chaz was getting a divorce. "There is absolutely no motive or reason to believe that Chaz would have harbored the type of animosity spoke of by Mr. Hicks that would cause another human being to take the life of yet another human being," Houston says.

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.

Houston says the autopsy proves Kathy died from a heart attack. "It was discovered that Kathy indeed did have a heart condition. It's known as mitral valve prolapse with regurgitation."

But the coroner's office disagrees, and stands by their original conclusion that Kathy died from succinylcholine toxicity.

The doctor even found what looks like the spot where the needle went in.

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 succinylcholine, he says.

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 is it you opinion that call it a puncture wound was far closer to the time of death?" Baum asks.

"That’s the way it appears to me," Dr. Sohn replies.

That means any hospital nurse could have given it to her.

And there is no hard evidence either - no syringe, no empty bottle of succinylcholine, no fingerprints. So the prosecution begins to build their circumstantial case with evidence found in Higgs possession.

Det. Jenkins says he found a white card describing the dosing for endotrachial intubation and paralytics, and succinylcholine, in a car Chaz was driving.

The prosecution calls their key witness, nurse Kim Ramey, back to the stand, this time to tell a jury what Higgs said the day before his wife was found in a coma.

If that wasn't damning enough, Ramey and other nurses suggest a motive, too: Higgs hated his wife. "It was vicious mean hateful every word in the book when he described her. She was a stalker she was an f'ing bitch," Ramey says.

In response, the defense takes a big risk, putting Higgs himself on the stand. The jury hears a story of love and politics and a crumbling marriage.

Higgs says he was going to divorce Kathy. Why murder when he was planning to walk away?

When asked why he should be believed, Higgs says, "Because I didn't do it. I wouldn't do that."

Court adjourns. Higgs knows that a grueling cross examination awaits him, but overnight there's shocking news: Chaz tried to commit suicide by slitting his wrists.

Higgs left a suicide note professing his undying love for Kathy. Two days later, a subdued Higgs is back in court.

But there's no sympathy from the prosecutor. He hammers away at Higgs with copies of his e-mails to show how happy he was to be rid of his wife.

"Oh by the way I'm single now…I think you're totally hot," Higgs reads in court.

"You didn't mention your wife died. You just said, 'Oh by the way I'm single again.' Is that your way of showing love for Kathy?" D.A. Barb asks.

"No sir," Higgs acknowledges.

After nine days of testimony, it all comes down to the evidence of succinylcholine poisoning.

It took the jury seven hours to reach a verdict: guilty as charged.

What made it an open and shut case for the jurors? One of the jurors said Kim Ramey's testimony just blew it out of the water. They never bought Higgs' story at all

As for Kathy's family, the guilty verdict provides a small measure of relief. A painful year has come to a close. "It's not going to 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 away from us, not even Chaz," her father says.

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Chaz Higgs is serving life in prison with a chance of parole in 20 years. He is appealing his conviction.

[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.