Nurse charged with murder in friends death in California.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Kristie Koepplin

An Arizona nurse has pleaded not guilty of murder, in a California court, based on her allegedly injecting her friend with assisted suicide drugs.

According to an article by Kim Bellware published in the Washington Post:

Kristie Jane Koepplin, 58, of Peoria, Ariz., pleaded not guilty in an Orange County, Calif., court Monday, two weeks after she was arrested in Arizona and extradited to face a felony murder charge in the death of 57-year-old Matthew Peter Sokalski. Koepplin was released from custody Monday after posting $1 million bail but can’t leave California or practice nursing as conditions of her release, according to Kimberly Edds, a spokeswoman for the Orange County District Attorney’s Office. 

In a brief statement Monday, Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer alleged that Koepplin helped Sokalski die in April 2018 by injecting him with drugs. The Orange County Sheriff’s Department opened an investigation into Sokalski’s death after his body was discovered by staff at a hotel in Mission Viejo, Calif.

Information is not clear in this case but the lawyer for Koepplin claims that she wasn't even at the death. The Orange County Prosecution office stated:

“We only file cases if we can prove the facts beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.”

It is interesting that Spitzer told the Washington Post that:

It is beyond disturbing that someone who is trained as a nurse to aid the sick and the dying would twist their duty to willingly end the life of another human being.”

Assisted suicide is legal in California but this case does not fit the criteria of the assisted suicide law.