Manslaughter charge dismissed, an Anchorage nurse practitioner accused in overdose death goes back to court

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Next week, an Anchorage nurse practitioner who formally faced manslaughter charges will appear in court, no longer charged with an Anchorage woman’s death.

Kris Kile now only faces charges of misconduct involving a controlled substance in the second and third degree related to oxycodone, fentanyl and meperidine.

Thursday morning, Kile was in court for a status hearing where the judge ordered everyone in court to begin jury selection — and possible opening statements — on Monday.

The manslaughter charge was dismissed after a judge’s suppression order was issued when key evidence was destroyed by Anchorage police and labs, according to online records and the former prosecuting attorney on the case, James Fayette.

“The police department and the medical examiner’s office had destroyed evidence that was seized in the investigation of the death of Courtney Jones because the case wasn’t charged right away,” Fayette said.

Courtney Jones, 22, died in 2015 after police say she had been using opioids, which Kile, a nurse at the time, was accused by police of giving Jones. It’s unclear if those charges against Kile will be filed again, according to court records reviewed by Alaska’s News Source Investigates.

Jones died in 2015, but it wasn’t until 2020 when the prosecutor, Fayette, faced Kile in court on a manslaughter charge.

“They will not be able to recharge,” Kile wrote in an email to Alaska’s News Source Investigates.

She also said the “entire case was built on false pretenses,” and “This case isn’t just about me. It’s about every provider who could be criminalized for doing their job. And every citizen who thinks the State should be held accountable.”

When asked if her position was that she did not give oxycodone to Jones, Kile didn’t answer the question and instead replied to a different question.

Fayette said he was unable to talk about the case since it is still in the court system and then threatened to sue Alaska’s News Source if any accusations about him from Kile were repeated.

“Don’t interrupt me,” Fayette said at one point. Followed by “tread carefully.”

“If you defame me I’ll consider my legal options.”

He has since retired from the Department of Law.

Between November 2023 and April 2024, court records show multiple hearings between Kile and the state, including the Court of Appeals siding with Anchorage Superior Court Judge Catherine Easter’s ruling that the state suppressed evidence against Kile based on their “failure to preserve” principles.

Kile was accused by police of giving Jones and others vast quantities of prescription opioids, sometimes taking refill requests through Facebook. The medical examiner ruled Jones died from opioid overdose in 2015 from “multi-drug intoxication” and “pulmonary edema” caused by “oxycodone, diazepam, and ethanol,” according to court documents.

According to news reports at the time, based on the indictment in 2020, Kile was referred to by Jones as “candy man,” according to the indictment. According to the indictment, Kile owned and operated Surgical Specialists of Alaska, offering “advanced treatment options for Orthopedic Trauma, Orthopedic Surgery and Arthroscopy, Orthopedic Sports Medicine, and Primary Care.”

It was also reported at the time that Jones was Kile’s employee and a friend. Kile disputes the two were friends. According to Jones’ family and the indictment, Jones was being treated as a patient by Kile.

On March 6, 2020, Anchorage prosecutors indicted Kile on 18 felony counts, including manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide, plus more than a dozen drug distribution counts. But, that was after two state prosecutors declined charges against Kile in 2015.

The case never went to trial.

Later, according to court records, the Anchorage Police Department returned a phone belonging to Jones — which contained text messages between Kile and Jones — to Jones’ mother, who then sold the phone.

It wasn’t until several years later, when news reports at the time said Kile was being investigated for Medicaid fraud, that the death of Jones was investigated again, which then led to manslaughter charges against Kile in 2020.

But, in the meantime, evidence was gone.

In August 2015, according to court documents, “the police department intentionally destroyed all physical evidence related to the investigation. Among the Physical evidence destroyed was the CD containing the data download from the phone.”

Documents go on to say that “blood, urine and vitreous samples were sent to an outside laboratory for testing. Because nobody requested that the laboratory preserve these samples, they were likely discarded as a matter of lab policy sometime in 2016.”

The court emphasized the state intentionally destroyed evidence in this case, although there was “no evidence to suggest that this was done with the intention to hide evidence.” The court specifically found that “the State likely did not act in bad faith when destroying the evidence,” according to court documents.

The court concluded this violated Kile’s ability to defend herself.

“Kile’s due process rights are implicated by the destruction of this critically important evidence,” the judges wrote, citing the forensic examination of Jones’s iPhone, including text message screenshots; an autopsy toxicological sample included in the autopsy report; and prescription drugs collected as part of the investigation.”

The court concluded that the destruction of evidence violated due process rights to the defendant because it deprived the defense the ability to test evidence, and Fayette said he had to drop the manslaughter charge because of the judge’s ruling.

That ruling came more than three years after Kile’s nursing license was suspended in November 2020 because of an “immediate threat to the public” and “drug violation or other violation of drug statutes.” An online search shows the license is still not valid.

Alaska’s News Source became aware of the change in the case’s status when Kile emailed the newsroom, requesting two stories from 2022 be removed from the station’s website.

In an interview with Alaska’s News Source in March 2020, Jones’ family said Kile had attended Jones’ funeral.

“Like, this woman showed up to my little sister’s funeral talking to my mom about, I’m sorry about your daughter’s overdose ... it was her fault,” Warren Bailey said at the time.

Jones’ mother has messaged with Alaska’s News Source about the death of her daughter, but said she will be unable to be in court and has been anxious over the past several years dealing with the back-and-forth of the case.

Court documents say Courtney’s mother “dutifully attended years of never-ending pre-trial hearings. At many of those hearings, the decedent’s mother expressed polite, but pointed dissatisfaction with the glacial pace of this litigation. In 2022 she told the court ‘she intended to move on,’ and would not attend future court dates.

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