The husband of Nevada's late state controller Kathy Augustine was arrested on Friday and charged with murdering her after an FBI toxicology test found a paralyzing drug in her system.
A warrant charging Chaz Higgs with first-degree murder was issued this week in Reno after a coroner's autopsy and results of toxicology tests found succinylcholine in Augustine's system.
Police described the drug as a powerful paralytic. The warrant and test results had been kept secret until Higgs' arrest.
PHOTO: AP
Higgs, 42, was arrested in Hampton, Virginia, where he had apparently driven to visit his father and stepmother, Reno police said.
Augustine, 50, died in a Reno hospital July 11, three days after Higgs, a critical care nurse at another hospital, said he found her unconscious in her Reno home.
Higgs told reporters his wife died of a massive heart attack. But police said Augustine had no history of heart problems and that the autopsy did not suggest she had heart disease.
Suicide attempt
Three days after her death, Higgs tried to commit suicide. He was released from a hospital later that day, and did not attend his wife's funeral the following day.
Investigators said medical experts told them that the drug found in Augustine's system paralyzes muscles within several minutes, including those used for breathing.
The drug is used in hospital operating rooms, emergency rooms and intensive care units to help put in breathing tubes, they said.
Reno homicide investigators went to the hospital where Augustine was admitted after receiving an anonymous telephone tip that her death might not be accidental.
Higgs has vehemently denied having anything to do with his wife's death. The night before attempting suicide, he told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he welcomed the police investigation.
"My wife was a healthy 50-year-old woman who dropped dead. I want to find out what happened," he said. "People don't know what went on in our home. She was frazzled and stressed out."
Higgs had been the nurse for Augustine's previous husband, Charles Augustine, who died three years ago in Las Vegas. His death certificate says he died of complications from a stroke.
Three weeks after her husband's death, Kathy Augustine married Higgs in Hawaii.
Greg Augustine, Kathy Augustine's adult stepson, has said he wants his father's remains exhumed and an autopsy conducted if the FBI determines Kathy Augustine did not die of natural causes.
Elected
Augustine was first elected in 1992 as a Republican member of the state assembly. She became Nevada's controller, the state's chief fiscal administrator, in 1999.
She was impeached by the assembly and convicted for using state equipment on her 2002 campaign and was censured but not removed from office. Political leaders including Republican Governor Kenny Guinn called for her to step down, but she refused.
She was running for state treasurer when she died. Elections officials did not have time to remove her name from the primary ballot last month, creating a potentially embarrassing situation for the state.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese