Five years later, trial of Franklin woman accused of poisoning friend with eyedrops starts Monday

The jury trial of a Franklin woman facing homicide charges for allegedly poisoning a family friend with eyedrops and stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from her will begin Monday.

Jessy Kurczewski, 39, is accused of using eyedrops to poison a friend whom she was caring for in 2018 and with stealing $290,210 from the same person, according to a criminal complaint.

She pleaded not guilty in 2021.

What charges is Kurczewski facing?

Kurczewski is facing three felony charges in Waukesha County Circuit Court: first-degree intentional homicide, theft of movable property greater than $100,000 in value, and theft of movable property between $10,000 and $100,000 in value, according to online court records.

The trial is scheduled to begin on Monday, Oct. 23, and is estimated to last about five weeks. Judge Jennifer R. Dorow ― the same judge who presided over the Waukesha Christmas Parade attack trial of Darrel Brooks ― will preside over this trial.

What are the details of the incident?

According to the criminal complaint:

Police received a call on Oct. 3, 2018, from Kurczewski saying her friend was not conscious or breathing. She told authorities she’d been checking on her friend daily and her behavior had been odd the week before.

Officers dispatched to Meadow Grass Circle in Pewaukee found a woman unconscious in a recliner with crushed medication on her chest and on a plate nearby. Prescription bottles were also near her.

Kurczewski said there was “a possibility” the woman, who was not named in the complaint, was suicidal. However, others who knew the victim told authorities they didn’t think she would “intentionally or unintentionally overdose.”

Initially, the woman’s death was believed to be a drug overdose. However, it was soon ruled a homicide when the Waukesha County Medical Examiner found the victim had a fatal amount of tetrahydrozoline, the main ingredient in the eyedrops, in her system. The examiner said to reach those levels it was “impossible” to have just been used in the eyes.

Kurczewski was arrested in July 2019 in connection with the death.

What is Kurczewski’s defense?

Kurczewski denied killing the woman, assisting in or staging her death but said she’d “saved” the victim from herself in the past.

Kurczewski told police the victim was known to purchase a great volume of eyedrops. In a later interview, she told detectives the woman drank Visine with vodka before her death. Kurczewski said she had brought a water bottle with Visine in it to her friend at her request.

As she’d been “drinking it regularly for so long,” Kurczewski said she didn’t think it would kill her.

Did Kurczewski admit to the crime in jail?

Kurczewski said she was “probably going to prison for the rest of her life” because she helped the woman “do what she wanted.”

Kurczewski allegedly had a breakdown while at Taycheedah Correctional Institution and told her roommate she gave her friend “several bottles of Visine to kill her.”

It was also discovered the victim’s finances changed over time as contact with Kurczewski increased. It began to closely resemble Kurczewski’s, according to the complaint, which also said Kurczewski had a gambling problem and committed fraud multiple times before.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Trial of Franklin woman accused of poisoning friend w/ eyedrops starts