RENO, Nev.-
The husband of the late State Controller Kathy Augustine was arrested in Virginia Friday and charged with her murder.
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 a powerful drug in Augustine’s system that would have paralyzed her, police said.
Higgs was arrested in Hampton, Va., where he had apparently drivern 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, 42, told reporters she 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.
Three days after her death, Higgs tried to commit suicide. He was released from a hospital later that day, and didn’t attend his wife’s funeral the following day.
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