Kathy Augustine's husband arrested, charged with murder

RENO, Nev. (AP) " The husband of the late State Controller Kathy Augustine was arrested in Virginia today and charged with her murder.

Chaz Higgs was arrested in Hampton, Va., on a warrant issued in Reno charging him with first-degree murder, Reno police said. He apparently was driving there to visit his father and stepmother.

The warrant was issued 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.

Augustine died at Washoe Medical Center in Reno on July 11. That was three days after Augustine, 50, was found unconscious in her Reno home by Higgs, a critical care nurse at Carson-Tahoe Regional Medical Center.

Higgs, 42, told the media 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.