Overdose death trial underway in Oneida County court

A jury of six men and eight women are hearing the case of a 25-year-old Rhinelander woman charged with first-degree reckless homicide/drug delivery in connection with the overdose death of 29-year-old Kyle Polinski on April 18, 2022.

The jury, which includes two alternates, was impaneled Tuesday afternoon following a selection process that lasted several hours. Judge Daniel Overbey of Vilas County is presiding over the case in Oneida County Circuit Court Branch I.

The defendant, Jasmine Lariviere, was originally scheduled to stand trial in July 2023 but a witness availability issue resulted in a delay. Then a new judge had to be assigned when interim circuit judge Mary Roth Burns left office on July 31. 

Burns was replaced by Judge Michael Schiek who won the April 2023 election to replace Judge Patrick O’Melia who retired in the summer of 2022. However, because Schiek was serving as district attorney when Lariviere was charged, he was required to recuse himself. 

Lariviere and her codefendant, Malik I. Jones, 25, were charged with reckless homicide, as party to the crime, in September of 2022 after toxicology results showed Polinski died from fentanyl toxicity. 

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid analgesic 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine.

Jones, who is expected to testify during Lariviere’s trial, is serving a prison sentence after taking a plea deal last April.

The transfer of the case to Overbey took place in August and the trial was later rescheduled for April 9-12.

After the jury was seated, Oneida County assistant district attorney Mary Sowinski delivered her opening statement. 

She told the jury they were about to learn about the final hours of Polinski’s life and what took place after he was found “fallen over on his bed with evidence around him of the use of drugs.”

Among other witnesses, she said the forensic pathologist who conducted the autopsy will explain “how he knows it was fentanyl that killed Mr. Polinski.”

“Make no mistake, ladies and gentlemen, and the judge has told you and will continue to tell you throughout this trial, selling drugs that kill people is a crime,” she added.

The prosecutor also said she intends to detail for the jury the investigation that led law enforcement to Lariviere (and Jones) and how the defendant was tied to Polinski via evidence obtained through cellphone extraction and a subpoena for the contents of a Snapchat account. She also noted that Lariviere admitted to police that she sold fentanyl to Polinski the night before he died.

In his opening statement, defense counsel Antoni Apollo asked the jury to listen carefully to the testimony and evaluate its completeness. He stressed that the jury’s job is not to judge Lariviere’s life decisions but to determine whether the state has provided sufficient evidence of her guilt.

“The question is has the state proven each and every element of the specific criminal offense beyond a reasonable doubt,” he said.

The first witness called was the long-term partner of Polinski’s mother, who testified that he saw headlights in the driveway of their residence the night before Kyle Polinski was found dead. 

He also recounted the moment the next morning when he heard his partner’s anguished scream after she found her son’s lifeless body.

“I knew right away that something was wrong,” he testified.

Under cross-examination, he conceded that he could not identify the vehicle he saw in his driveway and can’t be sure whether Polinski left the residence at some point that evening. 

The final witnesses of the day were investigator Luke Linsmeyer of the Oneida County sheriff’s office, who was the first officer on scene, and assistant county medical examiner Lucas Johnson who also responded to the scene.

Linsmeyer testified that a lighter and a piece of tinfoil were found on Polinski’s person and there were indications that the death was very sudden.

Testimony was scheduled to continue Wednesday and Thursday. The jury is expected to get the case on Friday.

If convicted of reckless homicide, Lariviere faces a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison. 

Heather Schaefer may be reached at [email protected].