Waukesha — A 34-year-old Waukesha woman was convicted Thursday of two counts of first-degree reckless homicide in connection with providing methadone on separate occasions to two people who overdosed and died.
Nina E. Pudil was found guilty by Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge J. Mac Davis after she entered Alford no contest pleas to the charges.
In an Alford plea, a defendant does not acknowledge guilt but concedes there is sufficient evidence for conviction.
In April, Pudil was charged in connection with the death of Donald G. Arnold, 40, who was found dead March 31, 2007, at the Airport Lodge in the City of Pewaukee, where he lived, according to a criminal complaint.
Pudil was accused of giving Arnold liquid methadone and was with him the night before he died, the complaint states.
Pudil also was charged in February in the methadone overdose death of Nola K. Heinowski, 46, of Waukesha. Pudil was accused of selling liquid methadone to the Heinowski, who was found dead at her home Oct. 15.
The Alford no contest pleas were entered by Pudil as part of an agreement in which eight other felony drug-related charges filed against Pudil in a separate case were dismissed. Those charges included manufacturing and delivering suboxone and oxycodone, maintaining a drug trafficking place and obtaining a controlled substance by fraud.
Assistant District Attorney Kevin M. Osborne said the state would recommend that Pudil be sentenced to 15 years in prison and 10 years of extended supervision when she is released.
Davis does not have to follow that recommendation and could sentence Pudil to 25 years in prison on each of the homicide convictions.
Part of the reason Pudil, who has no prior criminal record, entered pleas to the homicide charges was to reduce her possible prison term, her attorney, Mark Powers, said.
In addition to a potential 50 years in prison on the homicide charges, Pudil was facing a maximum 67 1/2 years in connection with the eight other drug-related charges.