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[Music] thank you everyone please have a seat if you are satisfied Beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant
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caused the death of Lynn hearnen with the intent to kill you should find the defendant guilty of first-degree
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intentional homicide if you are not So Satisfied you must find the defendant not
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guilty Lyn hern's not here to tell you what went on we were dispatched to a suicide a female had located her friend
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deceased in a residence it was immediately obvious that the decedent was there in a
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recliner she has multiple medication bottles that are within Arms Reach she has multiple medications that are kind
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of scattered on her carpet and this appears to be an unknown powdery substance left behind on a plate I
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received a witness statement from Jesse from when I knew Jesse was the caretaker
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of the individual Jesse kfy took care of Lynn during the last year of Lynn's Life
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Jesse was like an adopted daughter to Lynn so Jesse and Lynn were very close Lynn was really sick and depressed Lynn
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started suffering from health issues that were unexplained she was going in and out of the hospital but doctors
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couldn't figure out what it was that was ailing Lynn she was going to like doctor
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after doctor and then she'd call me and say they can't find anything wrong with me the defense argued that Lynn wanted
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to die by suicide because she was sick of being sick I remember hearing it from Jesse on the phone looks like Lynn you
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know committed suicide when you heard your auntie Lenny died by Suicide did you believe that I wasn't
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really sure at the time what to believe cuz you know I just couldn't see her you
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know ending her own life she wants to die she doesn't like life the speculation at the time on law
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enforcement's behalf was that this was clearly a suicide you received information from the medical examiner
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did that cause the Sheriff's Office to change their investigation yes there was a substance that was
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unusual the medical examiner found tetrah hydrosaline in linnon system it's the active ingredient in eye
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drops that when ingested can be fatal my opinion is that Lyn hernon died of tetrah hydrosaline poisoning what about
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the manner of death in this case it's homicide i k there's the eye drops are you serious do you guys think I murdered
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her did you I swear to God I in June of 2021 Jesse kvki was charged with first-degree intentional
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homicide the state argued that Linn hernon was worth more dead than alive to Jesse kesy you're going to see that the
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access Miss kesi had to Lin hearnen allowed her to steal every dollar almost that Linn hernon was worth in life Lynn
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gave Jesse money all the time because she wanted to she wanted Jesse to have it this is not a suicide this was
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intentional homicide Lynn love Jesse if Lyn Hern was here today she would say are you crazy prosecution Jesse's
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innocent [Music] [Music] [Music] this case must be decided by you the jurors based on the evidence presented
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in the courtroom you jurors are the judges of The credibility of the Witnesses and the weight of the
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evidence in October of 2023 in the courtroom of Judge Jennifer Doro 39-year-old Jesse keski went on trial
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for the intentional homicide of 62-year-old Lyn hearnen along with two counts of felony theft for stealing from
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Lynn someone who'd always thought of Jesse as a beloved friend 5 years earlier Jesse called police and
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told them she found Lynn dead sitting in her recliner in the living room of her pukei Wisconsin condo Jesse had been
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taken care of Lynn who had serious medical problems the lawyers will now make their
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opening statements good afternoon everyone the prosecutors for wakaa County our Deputy
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district attorney Abby Nikolai and assistant District Attorneys JJ Crawford and Randy sitser so this is Wisconsin
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versus Jesse keski said otherwise this is a case of murder greed and lies you're going to see that in or about
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October 3rd 2018 Lyn hearnen became worth more dead than alive to Jesse keski prosecutors told the jury that
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this case was about someone who wanted money Stephanie Rodriguez covered the trial for the CBS affiliate in Milwaukee
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and prosecutors said that that's why she was caring for her not because she genuinely cared but that Jesse wanted
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the money in her bank account between January of 16 and October 3rd of 2018 Miss keski was able to steal
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$144,000 plus from Lyn hernon while she was still alive and then she wanted Lyn dead to get the money from her estate
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Lyn hearnen was dead at only 62 years old from a Tetra hydraline poisoning after the defendant gave her a bottle
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laced with vising eye drops to drink but the defense presented Jesse as a close friend who took care of Lynn who
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they claimed was depressed about her declining Health this case is extremely important to
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Jesse presumed innocent and don't ever let that thought leave your mind that she's Presumed Innocent at trial Jesse
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was represented by defense attorneys Pablo galles and Donna cougler here's a picture of Lynn and Jesse a graduation
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party that Lynn threw for Jesse High School At The Mention Of Her close relationship with Lynn this is my
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daughter she's so proud Jesse immediately teared up that's who Jesse is to her daughter Jesse had known Lynn
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since childhood through her mother Jennifer flower Jennifer is like her best best friend and Jesse became her
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best best friend Lynn who worked most of her life as a hairdresser never married
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and lived alone then in the 2 years before her death her health rapidly declined there were times where Lynn
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would fall in her home and Jesse would have to go and help her get up Lynn also had lung disease high blood pressure and
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severe gastrointestinal issues which doctors were never able to fully diagnose she had been in and out of the
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hospital several times and the year before she died Jesse was always with Lynn because she became her full-time
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caraker essentially Jesse would do the grocery shopping for Lynn Jesse paid Lynn's bills Jesse was the only person
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she trusted the defense told the jury that as Lynn's Health further deteriorated she became despondent and
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you saw the way she was done up with the hair and nails and jewelry she didn't look like that
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anymore she didn't want any more visitors cuz she didn't look in her mind the same the defense argued that on
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October 3rd of 2018 Lynn was tired of being sick and decided to take her own life when they arrived on the scene this
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is what they follow at the scene they found a lot of empty prescription bottles and they can't see that as a
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suicide she's innocent find her not guilty one of the first orders of business for
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prosecutors the state would next call Taba cukus was to establish the cause of death former wakesha County Deputy
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medical examiner Tabitha cukus talked to jurors about those pictures she took when she arrived at Lynn's condo this is
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a closeup of the medication bottles that were directly to her left there's additional medications that are present
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some without their caps on kcus had photographed multiple medications shattered on the carpet as well as a
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white powder on a plate and on hearn's chest defense attorney kler suggests the powder was spilled by Lynn herself Jesse
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told you it was common for Lynn to crush medications because of her problem swallowing that's what she told me
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jurors heard from chief medical examiner Dr Linda bitki who testified about those
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photos taken in Lynn's living room she said the pills and and powder scattered at the scene did point to a potential
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suicide there was a thought that maybe there was an ingestion was a possibility for the cause of death but before
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pronouncing the cause of death Dr britzky waited to see the results from the toxicology
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tests when she received them weeks later she was in for surprise there was a substance that I was um unusual an
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unusual finding that I hadn't seen in a report from their uh facility before it was uh called tetrah hydrosaline Dr
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britzky began her own research on tetrah hydraline a drug found in some over-the-counter ey drops this is a
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substance that I haven't seen in a toxicology report before it's not supposed to be in the blood but how did
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it get there Dr bisy were you involved in the cause of death and manner determination for ly hernon yes
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medical examiner Dr Linda britzky told the jury it was in late September 2019 almost a year after Lynn hearn's death
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that she published her official conclusion about how Lynn died the cause of death I determined was tetrah
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hydrosaline poisoning and Dr bitki ruled that Lynn did not deliberately drink a fatal dose of ey drops how this injury
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occurred is that she was given tetrah hydrosaline by another which is why I called it a homicide the belief that
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Linn hernon was given tetrah hydrosaline by another shows that she was given this
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unsuspectingly she didn't know that she was inges tetrah hydrosaline when she did it the defense challenged the
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medical examiner's findings these are all the drugs that were found in Miss hernon Right correct toxicology reports
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showed that Lynn had at least eight prescription drugs in her system some of which Lynn was not supposed to be taking
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at the time because those medications had been discontinued by Lynn's doctors and these were all in her blood which
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means they've already been ingested and made it into the bloodstream true Dr bitki said that in her determination
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those medications along with some of Lynn's medical conditions contributed to but did not cause Lynn's death the
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medications found in Lynn's body were all at therapeutic levels your conclusion was that she died from the
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Tetra hydroline right that yes but the defense asked how could the medical examiner be
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so certain Lynn did not ingest the ey drops on her own you don't know as you sit there today whether
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she voluntarily adjusted that it was my opinion she didn't but knowledge of her action no well you
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weren't there I wasn't there on redirect Deputy da Nikolai asked about the powder found on and near
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ly's body what do you think happened I think that they may have been deposited there the medical examiner
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believed that Lyn hearn's body was staged to look like an overdose because toxicology reports showed that none of
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the crushed up medication that was found on Lyn hearnen and next to her was actually in her
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system the following day state may call your next witness the jury heard from some of Lynn's
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friends did you know Lyn herin yes head Jim kellerer met Lynn at a music festival in 1983 when she was 27 what
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was your first impression that lady that looked that good wouldn't go out with me but Lynn said yes and their romantic
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relationship lasted 10 years even after it ended they remained close friends Lynn was a beautiful lady inside now she
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was beautiful Jim says he never met Jesse until right after Lynn died I get a phone call from Jesse and she says I
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have some bad news Lynn committed suicide and by the way uh we're going to have a dinner for her on the 13th at the
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Open Flame Restaurant she said in one sentence correct your dear friend died by Suicide right the next sentence she
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tells you there's going to be a dinner in her memory right what did you make of that well I kind of didn't believe her
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right off the bat she wasn't crying on the stand Jim said he didn't believe believe Lynn would have taken her own
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life did you ever hear Lynn say anything to you about thinking of killing herself
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no I did not she never never gave me the indication of suicidal never he said that despite her growing frustration
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with her health problems Lynn would still visit him and his girlfriend at their home she'd bring treats and stuff
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she would say she does stomach aches or whatever and she would always leave but the defense questioned whether Jim
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really knew much about about Lynn's Health struggles in the last year of Lynn's life she'd been in and out of the
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hospital discharged the final time just 5 days before her death did you offer to
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go over there and take care of our cat when she was in the hospital no I did not you didn't go visit her no I did
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not prosecutors also called Ken posa we were best friends for about 35 plus years and Ken's son Anthony who says he
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always had a special bond with with Lynn since childhood what did you call Lynn uh Auntie Lenny Anthony says he stayed
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close to Lynn regularly dropping by her condo while he attended College nearby I'd love doing stuff with her you know
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thrift store shopping and that was a date we would go on as go thrift store shopping do you recall when the last
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conversation you had with Lynn was the last time I saw Lynn was a month before she passed away Anthony testified that
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despite her medical troubles Lynn appeared to be improving in fact she said she was starting to feel better and
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she's like I'm fin you I'm glad I'm getting out again and you know we need to do this more often prosecutors asked
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wakashaw County Sheriff's Detective Chris Cole about his investigation into Lynn's death did you speak with Miss
00:17:18
keski in regard to this death investigation yes she contacted our office looking for an
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update prosecutors introduced video of that meeting with Detective Cole he testified that 5 months after Lynn died
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before the medical examiner had ruled on the cause of death Jesse came to the Sheriff's Department with her mother
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Jennifer flower asking questions you know when I talked to the medical examiner last um well I talked him
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numerous times and they said I had a contact two guys they kind of like weren't sure we didn't know if it was a
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suicide or if it was something medical so at this point I mean they're waiting for their their secondary the come
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confirming test during that interview detective Cole found out more about Jesse's relationship with Lynn so she
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was like an aunt a second mom to me she didn't have kids she your whole life and
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that's kind and that's why you helping her out Jesse said she was just about the only person still in Lynn's life
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before she died she pretty much blew everybody off hospital at the end so you know I don't want to see any
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according to Jesse and her mother Lynn was so withdrawn she did not want to talk to her friend Jim when he called
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and she said do not tell him I don't want him here I don't want to see him she didn't like the way she looks she
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want people around but that's not how Jim remembers what happened when he and his girlfriend called Lynn's number well
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this girl answered the phone and she was kind of mouthing off to us don't use his
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phone don't call his number ever again don't worry about Lynn and you're thinking what I'm going to find out from
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Lynn what's going on a few days later Jim says Lynn called him from the hospital and they agreed to
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make plans to get together when she went home and that's the last time that I heard Lyn's
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voice as they tried to make sense of her death Lynn's friends say they recalled Lynn talking about something else that
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was TR troubling her something that had nothing to do with her health you know she would talk about her money it's
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disappearing she just said I don't know what's happening to my money how do you think Lyn hearnen died
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chat now with the 48 Hours team on Facebook and [Music] X did Miss keski tell you who would be
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in charge of handling Lind estate yeah she said she was appointed power of attorney okay as the prosecution turned
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to the charges that Jesse stole money from Lynn they asked Anthony posa about his Communications with Jesse and the
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months after Lynn's death I would just check up with Jesse every once in a while via text and ask her if she needed
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any help Lynn left a will she had drawn up in 2016 which named Jesse as personal
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representative Wisconsin's equivalent of an executive Jesse and Anthony were co-
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beneficiaries when Jesse sent Anthony some paperwork of account she was settling I just remember getting a final
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account with just a bunch of credit card bills he was surprised at the amount of
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money Lynn appeared to owe and it was just weird how she had all these deaths that just didn't make any sense to me
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Lynn's friends remembered her as living paycheck to paycheck until 2014 when she inherited
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$250,000 after her mother died now after Lynn's death Jesse reported to Anthony that most of Lynn's assets had been
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eaten Away by debt I just felt like something was up and I wanted it looked at more closely the jury next heard from
00:21:21
someone who was looking more closely you went through all these Financial accounts sort of line by line is that
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correct yes Detective Nathan plenis testified about the investigation into Lynn's finances
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prosecutors alleged Jesse stole more than $200,000 from Lynn before and after she
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died and in the course of their investigation detectives discovered a bombshell Jesse keski had a criminal
00:21:52
record back in 2011 Jesse was convicted on charges of identity theft and for forgery and sentenced to 8 years Jesse
00:22:02
had been released from prison early in 2016 on extended supervision which coincided with the time Lynn's Health
00:22:10
began to decline can you just scroll down to page uh three plenis told jurors what he learned about Lyn hearn's bank
00:22:18
accounts he testified that Lynn's money market account which had around $250,000 in 2016 was down to only
00:22:29
$87 just after she died a fraction of the total was spent by Lynn on a Jeep and some
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jewelry almost everything else including a total of 20 checks 9,135 62 went to Jesse keski two checks
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March 13th $733 9,416 Jesse was accused of stealing from Lynn because she was getting 20 checks
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out of Lyn hernan's account with carrying things in the memo notes like IRS payment car payment Stephanie
00:23:03
Rodriguez covered the trial for the CBS affiliate in Milwaukee but none of the money was going to the places where Lynn
00:23:11
supposedly intended for them to go plenis described to the jury how he matched each of those checks to deposits
00:23:19
in Jesse's accounts and then tracked where Jesse spent that money there was a big spike in spending while Lynn was in
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the hospital two weeks before she died during her last hospital State money was being transferred from Lynn's account
00:23:35
into Jesse's account and then Jesse was withdrawing that money from ATMs at a local
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casino plen is also testified that on the day that Lynn died a JC Penney credit card was opened in Lynn's name
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just Days Later a $3,000 purchase of furniture made on another credit card in Lynn's name was delivered to the home
00:24:00
Jesse shared with Scott Craig Mr Craig how is it you know Miss keski we were boyfriend and girlfriend for 3 and A2
00:24:07
years what was it that happened in the summer of 2019 that caused that end to the relationship um when walk sha
00:24:15
Sheriff's apartment came to my house and took her away Jesse was arrested for potentially violating the terms of her
00:24:23
supervised release on those identity theft and fraud charges this is the initial interview that was conducted
00:24:30
with Miss keski uh once the warrants were conducted on July 9th detective Aaron Hoppy the lead investigator in the
00:24:39
case and Detective Chris Cole interviewed Jesse hoppy watched portions of that interview along with the jurors
00:24:47
typically would you go there the morning or the night or I didn't have a set it just depended how she was doing the day
00:24:53
before following up on their suspicions that Jesse had been stealing from ly Detective Chris Cole gave her a chance
00:25:01
to explain she claimed Lynn had been paying her for helping at home an official Arrangement that $20 an
00:25:10
hour no there was nothing no nothing like that I mean there was no you know one day oh here's the check one day
00:25:16
here's my card go get this one day I mean it was no no setal no I mean she told all she told my
00:25:24
mom all this month I'm going to pay rent or I'm going to pay your car jurors watched as detective Cole for the first
00:25:31
time shared Lynn's autopsy results with Jesse there's an anomaly in her toxicology there a Dr in her system
00:25:40
that's not supposed to be there what would that be um it's called tetres what is that a Comm know eye drops she uses
00:25:48
eye drops all the time what does she use them for she use them for her eyes she put in her eyes all the time a k her is
00:25:54
the eye drops are you serious in the interview detective Cole told Jesse that the medical examiner
00:26:02
thought someone gave the eye drops to Lynn orally in an attempt to kill her do you guys think I murdered her did you I
00:26:10
swear to God I didn't one have the most to gain on this I have no reason to murder her I didn't
00:26:16
give her anything I didn't give her this eye drop or whatever it's called but detectives say Jesse knew all
00:26:24
about tetrah hydraline she told her boyfriend Scott in text messages someone had put it in her drink when she was at
00:26:32
a bar about 3 months after Lynn's death detective hoppy read the texts in court Jesse to Scott Scott I don't feel good
00:26:43
Scott told detectives that Jesse said she went to the hospital they said my blood pressure is really bad I have
00:26:50
traces of tetrah hydroline in my blood the doctor said that's the main ingredient in ey drops he said that
00:26:59
people put it in people's drinks all the time he said there's no taste to it and
00:27:03
people don't notice Jesse also tells Scott in those text messages that people can die from tetrah hydrosaline
00:27:19
[Music] poisoning detective happy I think you testified you spoke again with Miss
00:27:28
keski that's right on day nine of the trial the jury watched video of another interview between Jesse and detectives
00:27:37
this one took place the day after she was arrested on that parole hold she had asked to speak to detectives again I was
00:27:45
up all night long trying to think of everything I I was thinking of the vines after spending her first night in jail
00:27:52
Jesse's clothing had changed and so had her story right after her arrest Jesse had told detectives that Lynn used eye
00:28:01
drops for dry eyes now Jesse told detective hoppy that Lynn had another use for it she was drinking vodka and
00:28:10
Visine during the second day of interviews with detectives the jury heard Jesse tell them that Lynn did
00:28:16
drink Visine how do you know she mixed Visine with with her V because that's what she
00:28:22
did she's done it about three times why didn't you tell us that yesterday because I didn't want tell you guys
00:28:28
because you guys are making it sound like it Happ the day up and that's not when she was doing that but Jesse says
00:28:34
she never gave Lyn hernon any Visine put so she put Visine in her V then Jesse went further Jesse goes into
00:28:45
detail about how Lynn wanted to die by Suicide that Lynn was using the ey drops to help her die by Suicide she was
00:28:54
looking for her way out Jesse vehemently denied helping bought it I never mixed it I swear to
00:29:01
God I bought it for her and I knew she was mixing it she put it in her water once in a while and in her while the
00:29:08
following day Jesse asked to speak with the detectives yet again the third time in 3 days the jury watched as Jesse had
00:29:17
a new revelation for the investigators Jesse tells detectives that Lynn would get a buzz off of drinking Visine said
00:29:25
she lost like feeling every her body and be feel good and honestly she was doing
00:29:29
it for so long that I didn't think she was going to die from it it really didn't I thought okay she's getting some
00:29:34
sleep from it that's it she was doing for two months at least what the Visine and Jesse now said that Lynn actually
00:29:41
did drink Visine the day she died Jesse claimed that when she visited Lynn that morning Jesse knew that Lynn had poured
00:29:50
six bottles of Visine into her own water bottle that bottle of water right there
00:29:55
had in in six six I didn't put it in there I gave her the bottle of water which is the one you know has six
00:30:02
bottles of ice in it cuz she told you and you give it to her well we argued about it Jesse said she spent 10
00:30:12
minutes trying to stop L she said no I want that Bott of water it'll put me to sleep and then you gave in yeah it's her
00:30:19
choice and what she want and then you left Y hours later detectives alleged Jesse opened that JC Penny card in
00:30:28
Lynn's name and went grocery shopping I didn't do it to her though I didn't Jesse it would be 23 months later that
00:30:39
Jesse keski was charged with Lynn's death does the state have any other witnesses to call no the state
00:30:49
rest when it was the defense's turn Jesse's attorneys focused almost solely on their claim that Lynn died by Suicide
00:30:58
by drinking Visine we would call giri verden verden a friend of Jesse's mother call her Jenny or Jennifer Car Jenny
00:31:07
said he'd been in Lynn's condo twice the second time about a year before her death yet his memory of the visit was
00:31:15
clear I saw him always sitting in this uh chair with a table next door her she had um white slurpie cup uh straw coming
00:31:25
out of it she had a bottle of vodka next to it she had a ashtray her cigarettes and a bottle of Visine you sure it's
00:31:35
Vine yes verden testified that on another occasion he heard Lynn on speaker phone when he visited Jesse's
00:31:44
mother Jennifer well ly just started rambling off and she was either sleepy or tired or whatever but and she was uh
00:31:54
rattling off about the will then she started talking about how she wanted to kill
00:32:02
herself defense calls on Sarah CH Sarah Trump is a nurse practitioner who began treating Lynn for back pain in
00:32:11
2017 despite prescribing several pain medications for her Trump said Lynn did not improve in 2018 January she
00:32:21
continues to complain about her back pain yes the pain being worsening correct yes forensic pathologist Dr
00:32:30
Lindsay Thomas was hired by the defense I would say her past medical history was
00:32:36
very significant she had a very long list of medical conditions and uh also had quite a few psychiatric disorders
00:32:48
depression anxiety agoraphobia which is fear of public places chronic insomnia those were the the ones that
00:32:58
were listed in her medical records Dr Thomas testified she agreed with the state's conclusion that Lynn's medical
00:33:06
problems contributed to her death she did not agree with the state's finding that Lynn died from tetrah hydraline
00:33:14
poisoning the forensic pathologist that the defense brought up said that Lynn's cause of death was undetermined but she
00:33:20
believed it was mixed drug toxicity and so that means she thought that it was a combination of all of the drugs found in
00:33:27
Lin system would you say that there is strong evidence here that ly hernan's death was a suicide uh I would say
00:33:36
there's strong evidence that certainly could have been a suicide yes as the defense concluded Judge
00:33:43
Jennifer Doro asked Jesse if she'd be taking the stand what is that decision it was very hard for me to decide but
00:33:51
ultimately I will not be testified Madam reporter you're her closing argument Miss K's intent is
00:34:00
clear it was to kill Deputy district attorney Abby Nikolai said Jesse had just one motive money and the motive is
00:34:10
our own personal benefit this is someone who has profited over $144,000 before death and over 80,000
00:34:19
after in her closing the state has not proven a first-degree intentional homicide defense attorney donna kler
00:34:27
maintained that Lynn took her own life Jesse knew that Lynn would take fine and drink it but she doesn't know how she
00:34:36
died that day looked like a suicide with pills from a person who was unhappy as for the allegations that Jesse stole
00:34:45
from Lynn Lynn gave Jesse money all the time because she wanted to the defense contended that Lynn gave Jesse the money
00:34:55
because Lynn knew she was going to end her own life she wanted Jesse to have it she knows she's going out and Lynn made
00:35:03
a decision she made a decision that she was going to exit and she did that on October 3rd
00:35:12
once Jesse had left the home attorney Nikolai when you're ready in its rebuttal the prosecution pushed back to
00:35:20
believe that this was a suicide you would have to believe that by the most Cosmic intervention in the
00:35:27
entire world World it happened at the exact point in time when Miss keski maximized the amount of
00:35:37
money that she made on this whole ordeal the jury deliberated for 7 hours the first day but did not reach a
00:35:47
verdict verdict watch for this case was tense when the jury began to deliberate into a second day there was some Wonder
00:35:55
that's when I got worried I was wondering what you know I'm like you know what's the the hold
00:35:59
[Music] up go behind the scenes with the 48 Hours postmortem [Music] podcast Madam forers has the jury
00:36:17
reached their verdicts yes your honor on November 14th of 2023 after 10 and 1 half hours of
00:36:25
deliberation Jesse cret steadied herself as Judge Jennifer Doro read the jury's verdicts we the jury find the defendant
00:36:35
Jesse R KFI guilty of first-degree intentional homicide the case from anyone Jessie
00:36:43
broke down as the judge continued Jesse was crying uncontrollably keski was also convicted
00:36:51
on the two counts of felony theft for stealing money from Lynn before and after she
00:36:58
died I was just overcome with emotion it also makes you reflect on The Last 5 Years and with the lies and the deceit
00:37:06
but before sentencing the case took a bizarre turn when an envelope containing 37 pages of these handwritten letters
00:37:15
and documents was received by a friend of Jesse's who then turned it over to the Sheriff's Department the letter
00:37:23
requests a friend of Jesse to fake evidence create a voice record rep in pretending to be Lyn hearnen to send all
00:37:30
of this to the judge in this case to local media even to the governor to try to prove Jesse's innocence prosecutors
00:37:37
said the documents were written by keski on the back of her trial notes giving directions to her friend on how to
00:37:45
impersonate Lynn and fabricate materials and submit them to the court keski allegedly asked her friend to quote make
00:37:54
a voice tape pretending to be Lyn writing she has an older raspy female voice keski allegedly directed her
00:38:03
friend to say quote I cannot go on anymore I chose to drink Visine and end My Life Jesse denied writing the
00:38:12
documents and the sheriff's department began an investigation into their origin and the results of that
00:38:21
investigation were revealed on April 5th 2024 when keski was Back back in judge D's court for sentencing all right
00:38:32
prosecutors played video recorded in K's bunk room at the wakashaw county jail a
00:38:38
few days before those documents were turned over to authorities so what I'm playing is jail video from Miss KES pod
00:38:48
they said it showed keski putting papers into an envelope leaving it on the bed of another inmate who later takes it to
00:38:56
a mail drop off the prosecution said this proved keski wrote those documents miss keski this is
00:39:04
your opportunity to address the court what if anything would you like to say keski again denied she was the author of
00:39:13
those documents she spent almost two hours without a break proclaiming her innocence insisting the only thing she
00:39:21
was guilty of was being a loyal friend let's be very clear here there wasn't no murder I did not commit murder I did not
00:39:29
poison Lynn give her pills or anything else it is a lot to be accused and convicted of murder when I didn't do it
00:39:37
you're holding me responsible for what she did Judge Doro said she believed Lynn's death was premeditated Tetra
00:39:45
hydraline was not something we expected to find and I do believe it was something you miss KFI banked on no one
00:39:59
testing for I have to ask out loud it's in a rhetorical question but were you poisoning Lyn hearnen all along
00:40:10
following your release from prison no I'm not asking for an answer this is my time so do not interrupt me
00:40:20
keski was sentenced to life in prison on the intentional homicide charge and 10 years for the two theft
00:40:28
charges the soonest she could be paroled would be after 40 years when she would be nearly 80 years
00:40:37
old Jesse poisoned Lynn like she was eroded Lyn hearn's friend Jim kellerer had a few final words for Lynn's killer
00:40:49
the devil awaits you I hope you rotten hell Lyn Hearn is an angel in heaven may you rest in peace Lynn you're dearly
00:40:56
missed and always will be I'm so very sorry God [Music] [Music] bless a beautiful heart a gentle gentle
00:41:26
spirit a woman found dying from a gunshot wound crime scene evidence that doesn't add up there's definitely
00:41:31
Mysteries involved in this case then prosecutors take a creative approach a psychological autopsy 48 hours Saturday
00:41:39
on CBS and streaming on Paramount Plus [Music] hello everyone and welcome back to
00:42:01
another episode of postmortem I'm your host an marie green and today we are talking about the homicide of Lyn
00:42:08
hearnen who was poisoned with a really unusual substance one that the medical examiner said she had never seen pop up
00:42:15
in a toxicology report before so joining me today are a CBS News correspondent Jerica Duncan and 48 Hours producers
00:42:23
Susan Mali and Lauren Clark who reported and produced this episode welcome everyone so good to be here thanks for
00:42:30
having us hi am Mar um so listen if you haven't listened to the hour yet or you need a refresher why don't you head on
00:42:36
over to the podcast feed to check out the showcast and then come back here because we're going to take a deep dive
00:42:43
one of the most interesting parts of this case was how prosecutors say Lynn was killed they believe that Jesse keski
00:42:50
poisoned Lynn hearnen with ey drops dka I had never heard of this before have you heard of this before so
00:42:58
interestingly enough I do remember seeing a piece um that Peter VanZant did on a gentleman named Steve Clayton and
00:43:05
essentially he was poisoned by tetrah hydrosaline which is a substance that's found in ey drops commonly and it's very
00:43:16
bizarre I think I have heard it in the context of people worried about it being used it as like a date rpe drug you know
00:43:23
this idea when you go to a bar you don't leave your glass or or anything unattended and come back to it but I
00:43:29
hadn't heard it in this way um and because it's a slow progression in terms of some of the symptoms or how one would
00:43:37
feel you may not even know what's happening and that's also what's so weird and scary about how all of this
00:43:43
unfolded typically this is something that you would never even think would be ingested obviously in the directions it
00:43:49
would say for for topical use only in your eyes and there are poison warnings on most over-the-counter eye drops which
00:43:56
is C what was used here and to D's point it it generally depresses the central nervous system it can it can make one
00:44:06
less aware and kind of out of it but when used in large quantities it can be lethal now kfy claims that Lynn wanted
00:44:14
to kill herself because of her deteriorating Health Susan and Lauren when you first started reporting this
00:44:20
case how believable did you find kev's story that Lynn intentionally poisoned herself by drink
00:44:27
Visine suicide is a is a difficult topic for any of us to to discuss but the fact
00:44:33
of the matter is we have to come in with an open mind and we have to look at both
00:44:38
sides the prosecution and the defense uh I cannot come in and think oh well if she was accused of something she must
00:44:44
have done it plenty of people do think that but it is our job to not do that when I first came on to the story The
00:44:52
Trial was still in progress the trial had kicked off in October of 23 uh the first thing I said well how sick was she
00:44:59
and then you kind of go into the medical history and then you try to develop a character study of was she depressed
00:45:06
could she have been at the point where she wanted to die by Suicide that is what the First Responders thought which
00:45:12
is an important fact here when they arrived at the death scene that was their first impression and so I have to
00:45:19
give weight to that as well because that scene definitely played out as something
00:45:23
that maybe someone was depressed or OD or you know took too many pills the pill bottles were there there were they were
00:45:32
crushed up powder so you you look at it initially you know that this woman didn't have a lot of people in her life
00:45:41
she was the only child her parents had died um again their job at that moment is just kind of looking at what the
00:45:49
evidence that is there to try to discern what may have happened but it's in the toxicology that really is allowing us to
00:45:58
take more of a microscopic look and then when you look at those levels and you realize they're not normal it definitely
00:46:05
raises more questions then you look at Financial records and there's more questions yeah and so another question
00:46:12
that I had was Jesse kesy did she start helping Lynn out because she cared for her or was this a hustle from the very
00:46:23
beginning I think that's a great question and it was one of the questions that I had was this always a grift and
00:46:30
unfortunately there is no way for us to know the answer for sure we know that uh
00:46:34
kfi's mother was very good friends with Lynn from back in the 80s uh Jesse grew up from the time she was a little girl
00:46:40
knowing her as Aunt Linny and they had a tight friendship uh as you also know from watching the show uh keski had a
00:46:48
record for identity theft and forgery she was got out of prison in 2016 which coincided with the time that
00:46:56
ly's Health already having problems began to sharply decline Jesse kvy was never charged with poisoning Lyn at any
00:47:05
point before October 3rd 2018 she was charged with homicide for that day for Linn hernan's death so as we discuss
00:47:14
about potentially her health issues and her steady decline we do so because at the sentencing the judge gave a gave a
00:47:23
very lengthy statement in which she the Judge Jennifer Doro said I cannot help but wonder if you had been poisoning her
00:47:33
all along and this was the judge saying that on the record after having listened
00:47:37
to all the testimony of several weeks of trial so do we know whether or not she had been ingesting this stuff all along
00:47:45
we really don't know I mean it's you know Lynn had had other health issues uh especially in the last few years of the
00:47:51
of her life she had a lot of back pain she had a lot of gastrointestinal issues and it was something she would go to to
00:47:56
the hospital for they would run some tests she didn't always want certain tests to be run um so they could never
00:48:02
really fully figure out what the source of those gastrointestinal issues were tetrah hydraline is not something that's
00:48:08
usually tested for in a hospital setting you know when you get your regular blood
00:48:11
panel that's usually not on there because most people don't ingest it uh so we really don't know how long she had
00:48:18
possibly been ingesting it for there was absolutely no way to go back in time and
00:48:22
and in any way try to to find out if that is the case but it is something the judge said on the record so that's why
00:48:27
we're discussing it what was particularly heartbreaking about this case and about ky's behavior and that
00:48:31
she targeted Lynn is that she seemed so close to her um Lynn trusted her she treated her like a daughter um and even
00:48:42
though you know daica you said she didn't have a lot of people around her it seemed like the people that she did
00:48:46
have around her really really cared for her and so why kill her we don't really know to this day I
00:48:54
mean I feel like only Jesse keski really truly understands the depths of whatever
00:49:03
she was thinking and you know even right now she will tell you she didn't do it she still believes that the prosecutors
00:49:12
got it wrong police got it wrong um but never really offered up explanation about why certain things
00:49:21
that were found didn't add up you know the friends of Lynn were her family and I think because she was so isolated from
00:49:31
the world if you will this wasn't someone that was a member of this group and that group and worked here and you
00:49:36
know she kind of kept a very close tight Circle which does in some ways as you point it out make you a Target When
00:49:43
You're vulnerable um and you know you live alone and you you want people need people right so this 48 Hours was put
00:49:51
together a little differently because it started with the with the trial and normally it doesn't
00:49:57
why did you all choose to tell the story in this way uh so for lack of a better word this was a good trial and anybody
00:50:05
who follows true crime or follows hopefully 48 Hours loyally not all trials are as exciting as you would hope
00:50:12
they would be sometimes they really are like watching paint try so we wanted to give the viewer the opportunity to be
00:50:20
the 13th juror to sit there and listen to the the testimony and view the evidence in the order that the jury did
00:50:29
we're going to start at the beginning and we're going to take you through this now obviously we have time constraints
00:50:34
this trial lasted for weeks uh so we have to condense it and make some tough choices about what to include and what
00:50:39
to leave out but to the credit of my wonderful staff and our my my my correspondent to my right we picked the
00:50:45
best of the best and we we tried to give a fair shake to both sides and it was because the trial was just so
00:50:52
fascinating first of all you had a true uh quandry as as to whether this was homicide or suicide going in secondly
00:51:01
you had people on both sides of the aisle with valid things to say about ly hernan's health and mental status and
00:51:10
thirdly you had kvki herself who did not testify at her own trial but you had these hours and hours of interrogations
00:51:18
where the jury got to hear her talk and basically represent herself and her side
00:51:23
of the story to the jury without intending it to do it you know one of the red flags always is if you're a for
00:51:29
48 hours fan red flag is when a suspect goes through multiple interrogations and
00:51:35
they change their story and that is definitely something that we saw with kvki she talked to detective several
00:51:43
times she seemed very open to talking but then she started changing her story what did the defense say about that how
00:51:50
do they explain that they honestly never really addressed that directly in the trial I love that you brought that up
00:51:58
because there was a preponderance of recordings of those interrogations which which happened over several days of
00:52:05
keski and there's two things to point out one is that she never asked for an attorney and two she kept asking to go
00:52:13
back and speak to the detectives again and again day after day and I will tell you having worked at the show for over
00:52:19
two decades you never see that usually when someone's brought in they sit there with hunch shoulders you can barely
00:52:27
understand what they're saying they respond in one-word answers and usually they ask for an attorney and that's the
00:52:33
end of it this was so striking to me because kfy came in and she was downright buoyant she was pey and joking
00:52:43
with the guys and and and very seemingly forthcoming and really just was was her
00:52:50
attitude was one I guess we were supposed to assume of innocence and then is the days when on as you said her
00:52:59
story began to change and she would augment what she was saying clearly by what she thought they wanted to hear and
00:53:06
she would give out a little more information and a little more information but it was always
00:53:10
disinformation it was always a redirect and you can just see her thinking on her
00:53:15
feet like what what am I going to say next and how okay I've said this thing but now I have to alter it a little bit
00:53:20
to get over here and it is it's just an incredible study in in how her mind worked
00:53:34
welcome back so we see a lot of footage from these police interrogations during the hour but what we didn't see was some
00:53:41
of the other evidence of KK's Financial crimes presented at trial like a recorded phone call that she made to a a
00:53:49
banking institution basically impersonating Lynn let's listen to some of the audio of that call that was not
00:53:56
included in the episode my name is how can I help you today yes I'm calling I usually use my
00:54:04
mobile online app um and I'm trying to go under the regular online app and I am not sure what I had originally set my
00:54:13
three security questions up under um I know one of them for sure I can't remember the other two and I'm trying to
00:54:19
log on I'm having an issue with this oh I'm sorry to hear about this let me just
00:54:24
check what I can best do do here for you and don't you worry we'll definitely fix
00:54:28
this problem before we end this call so could you could you please verify your complete name exactly as it appears on
00:54:34
your preferred Master Card I'm sorry Lynn a hearnen thank you Miss hearnen do you have your card
00:54:52
handy I do Lauren I want to hear the rest of that phone call I want to find out if she was successful at all um I
00:55:01
mean do you know did did her voice sound particularly different than how she normally talks it does sound like she's
00:55:08
talking a little slower um what's interesting is uh you know this call was made while Lynn was still alive there
00:55:17
were a couple calls from that day where allegedly Jesse is calling this financial institution saying you know I
00:55:25
can't remember my past word I'm having trouble with the online account or I usually use this way and this way it's
00:55:30
just not working um and it go it goes on there like I said several recordings on
00:55:35
two separate occasions while she was trying to gain access to these accounts and the other thing we knew
00:55:41
from talking to her friends is that Lynn just was not someone that would go online you know to use the app she
00:55:47
didn't have a smartphone she was old school so this idea that she's asking questions about something that would
00:55:54
force her to use a smartphone or be on a computer didn't quite make sense according to her friends this was
00:56:00
someone that would physically go to the financial institution to handle business
00:56:06
well what I kept on wondering is keski has access to these bank accounts she's got a regular stream of money coming in
00:56:16
why would you end this gravy train it seemed like she was doing fine with Lyn alive I think what what prosecutors
00:56:25
alleged was that the the gravy train was running out Lynn's money was kind of used up her credit was damaged there
00:56:32
wasn't much more to take from Lynn in life but ly did have some assets she owned her condo and our wonderful
00:56:39
broadcast associate Mariah Johnson found a Facebook post where Jesse had posted in just weeks after Lynn's death trying
00:56:46
to clear out her condo for sale and you know it's down to the pots and pans writing make me an offer Lynn's friends
00:56:53
alleged that she was trying to just sell anything that she could make money on well according to a court filing keski
00:56:58
tried to pawn some of her more valuable items it was a gold um bracelet again it
00:57:05
speaks to this level of greed maybe is the right word um to get what she could early on and again we don't know how
00:57:16
we'll deal with different things and situations until we're actually in them but it's hard to really wrap your head
00:57:22
around especially when you wouldn't do something like that right um so I want to bring up some of these other things
00:57:27
that didn't make it into the hour because they're fascinating what's this business about exonerating evidence so
00:57:32
so yeah we couldn't really have time to get into this fully in the hour because it takes a lot of explanation but
00:57:38
basically you know while Jesse was in custody during the investigation she claimed that there existed exonerating
00:57:44
evidence out there that that proved that Lynn had um wanted to take her own life
00:57:50
for a while and had left notes and that she had even left a voice recording and she told every the investigators that
00:57:57
these were buried in a public park and if they would just let her go that she could take them there and she would show
00:58:03
them where it was all buried now the Sheriff's Office did not let her go to go to the park what they did is they set
00:58:11
up basically a video call where they had deputies out in this park searching around with Jesse in the uh interview
00:58:18
room kind of guiding them you know they're out there with shovels they're going through like brush and she's you
00:58:23
know just kind of like ah this looks different I don't know no that Bush was that bush really there that looks so
00:58:28
overgrown and it goes on for a while and I'm sure you're going to be shocked to hear they did not find anything wow um
00:58:35
so on November 14th 2023 the jury found kvy guilty of first-degree intentional homicide and two counts of felony theft
00:58:45
but then before she sentenced there's this huge twist cuz it's 48 Hours of course there's a Twist a friend of kesy
00:58:53
turns in an envelope containing 37 handwritten letter and documents and they direct the friend to create various
00:59:00
pieces of evidence including a voice recording pretending to be Lynn it almost felt to me like if you wanted to
00:59:09
fake a suicide but you forgot the suicide note and you were trying to backtrack but what did you guys think
00:59:18
when we found out we we were all ready to cover the sentencing hearing we had travel boat for someone to be there we
00:59:24
had Cruise ready we were going to do interview after because people could finally talk to us and then a week
00:59:29
before that sentencing date was on the calendar we started to see these unusual filings put in the court record um and
00:59:35
the 48 Hours team was kind of like what's what are these and then we got through these documents and we were all
00:59:40
individually reading them at the same time and texting and messaging each other being like what what is this it
00:59:47
was surprising to see pop up and we kind of had to unravel what they meant but I
00:59:51
just can't overstate how bizarre it was to see the these pop up after conviction
00:59:57
had already gone through and then on top of it in the letter she basically throws
01:00:00
her lawyers under the bus right a prosecutors alleged that keski said that it was one of her own attorneys that
01:00:07
they gave her the idea it was their idea to write those uh those directions to her friend now her attorney then has to
01:00:14
file a motion to be removed from the case as citing ethical concerns and prosecutors don't believe that her
01:00:20
attorneys actually had anything to do with this but obviously it complicates things this leads to a delay in the
01:00:27
sentencing and now she needs to find new attorneys but finally the sentencing takes place and the judge uh sentences
01:00:34
kvki to life in prison what was the reaction like in the courtroom I think people became fatigued
01:00:43
because the first thing that we need to talk about in the sentencing is that it went on for six and a half hours and I
01:00:50
had mentioned earlier I've I've been at 48 for a long time 24 years to be exact I've sat in and watched online a lot of
01:00:58
sentencings this sentencing began on April 5th 2024 at 9:00 a.m. Central Time so 10 a.m. here in New York where I was
01:01:05
watching it online and I thought I'm going to be done by lunch I was not done by lunch there were a few brief Victim
01:01:11
Impact statements from some of the folks that you've met on our own show there were a few statements on behalf of keski
01:01:19
and then the judge gave the floor to kreski herself and what I could not have known is that she had in front of her on
01:01:27
the defense table a pile of papers which she had written out long hand and she spoke for 2 hours straight
01:01:37
without a break took a sip of water every now and then of course she claimed innocence of course she claimed that
01:01:43
that Lynn had died by Suicide she went into great detail about her friendship with with Lynn she gave vignettes from
01:01:50
her childhood it went on for so long that the judge then had a break for a 90-minute lunch break because everybody
01:01:56
just needed to kind of compose themselves and get it together and of course the judge was then going to come
01:02:00
back and pronounce sentence but before she did she gave a statement and we've talked about this earlier that she
01:02:08
wondered if in fact Miss kvky had been poisoning Lynn all along but the judge gave great detail as to why she gave
01:02:17
such a lengthy sentence uh keski is going to be nearly 80 years old by the the time that she's even eligible for
01:02:25
parole and the judge she actually had a target age that she iterated from the bench that I want you to be in there
01:02:32
till your 80s she got 10 years for the two Financial charges and she was sentenced to life with the possibility
01:02:38
of parole after 30 for the for the um homicide I'm sure she's going to try to appeal and do whatever she can to to
01:02:45
make sure she gets out before she's 80 years old um but there are people that we've all I feel like covered who will
01:02:53
say to The Bitter End I did didn't do it I didn't do it and you you're wrong it must have been infuriating for some of
01:03:03
Lynn's friends to listen to kvi on the stand having having given up her opportunity to testify during the trial
01:03:12
to then speak on behalf of their friend their dead friend who they loved I mean I did you get a chance to talk to any of
01:03:20
the friends about that 2hour sentencing statement our uh field producer in the field Charlotte Fuller was there at the
01:03:30
sing hearing and she talked to several of lind's other friends afterwards there was a brief press conference that they
01:03:37
also gave um they didn't really want to react to Jesse kvy statement they they want to focus on Lynn they want to focus
01:03:47
on who their friend Lyn hearnen was they say they have gone through a lot of drama over the last five years and
01:03:53
hearing a lot of different stories that you know evolved over time and they've had to keep up with a lot and
01:04:00
they are done they they want to remember Lynn as they knew her as they loved her they
01:04:07
want to find ways to honor her and they don't want to focus on Jesse kvki you know if I took away anything
01:04:14
personal from this story I was kind of struck by the fact that Lynn is an only child and both of her parents had passed
01:04:20
away because I'm an only child and both my parents are alive but my father's also an only child and I have an only
01:04:27
child and I've seen relatives become very sick and their Circle becomes smaller and smaller I thought to myself
01:04:37
you know if there's one thing to remember that the people who love you they want to surround you they want to
01:04:44
support you and when you make your circle that small you can also make yourself very
01:04:50
vulnerable to someone who could take advantage very well said I mean we do these stories obviously because there's
01:04:57
an element of of interest and wow and oh my goodness but when you can see yourself and some of these very people
01:05:05
that we do stories on I think it it really hits home J Susan Lauren this has been great talking to you in a great 48
01:05:13
Hours as usual thank you so much yes the pleasure is all mine thanks for having us yes thank you all right everyone join
01:05:21
us next Tuesday for another postmortem and watch 48 Hours on Saturdays 109 Central on CBS and of course streaming
01:05:28
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01:05:34
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