Polasek Murder Trial: Continuing Coverage

The last piece of evidence the jury heard in the Billy Polasek murder trial last week was a recorded jail phone call between Polasek and another convicted murderer, Dylan Nelson.

A different Fayette County jury convicted Nelson last September for the 2017 murder of La Grange plumber Jeremy Cornwell. Nelson and Polasek were in the Fayette County Jail at the same time. Nelson called Polasek from jail on July 3, 2021, during one of the times Polasek was free on bond.

The prosecution played the tape while questioning the final witness in the trial, assistant county attorney James Herbrich.

Herbrich testified that his boss, Fayette County District Attorney Peggy Supak, recused her office from the case after the incident in 2019 when Polasek tried jumping out of a courtroom window.

Herbrich said Supak, himself, and numerous other county employees watched the episode unfold inside the courtroom that day. Herbrich said he and his co-workers were subject to being called as potential witnesses in the trial. Herbrich said Supak asked the Texas Office of the Attorney General to prosecute the case to avoid a possible conflict of interest.

The prosecution played the phone call during the punishment phase of the trial. The phone call started with an automated warning from the jail phone monitoring system telling the parties on the line that the call is being recorded and may be used in criminal proceedings. The call begins with Nelson informing Polasek of some incidents that happened at the jail while he has been out.

“It’s good to hear your voice,” Polasek told Nelson.

Polasek went on to say that he’s “high on ‘shrooms,” using a slang term for psychedelic mushrooms.” He later attempts to clarify that remark by saying he’s “frying some mushrooms.”

The jury did not hear the entire conversation. However, prosecutor Andrew Rountree told the jury that part of it included Polasek advising Nelson to “go crazy in the courtroom.”

Toward the end of the punishment phase, the prosecution and defense argued about whether Polasek could be rehabilitated in jail, specifically in one of the state’s Substance Abuse Felony Punishment Facility (SAFP).

“In your job, do you send people to prison on a regular basis?” Rountree asked Herbrich.

“Not as often and I’d like to,” Herbrich said.

Rountree then asked Herbrich whether he though Polasek could be rehabilitated through the SAFP program.

“I believe he would be a failure,” Herbrich said.

The jury ultimately sentenced Polasek to life in prison.

Medical Examiner in Case Embroiled in Controversy

Also during the trial that ended last week, the prosecution never called as a witness Dr. Samuel Andrews, the former Travis County medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Logan Atkins back in 2016.

That’s because Andrews was embroiled in a controversy after he left the Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office in 2018 – so much so that the Travis County DA would not longer sponsor his testimony in murder trials.

Polasek’s defense attorneys alluded to the controversy surrounding Andrews during the Polasek trial last week. Ultimately, it did not cost the State a conviction. But the Andrews saga illustrates how a medical examiner’s reputation can compromise a successful prosecution.

Andrew’s first troubles began when he changed his mind about his own autopsy findings in a 2017 Travis County murder trial. The flip-flop resulted in the defendant receiving a lesser conviction for Class A misdemeanor assault. That case also involved a fatal head injury.

According to the Austin American-Statesman, Andrews initially concluded the victim in that case, Stephen Sylvester, died from a ruptured artery in his neck.

At trial, however, Andrews said he changed his mind after more closely examining autopsy photos and finding blood at the base of the brain. Lawyers for the defendant, Bryan Canchola, learned that Andrews had a similar change-of-mind in a previous case in New Mexico. The judge tossed Andrews’ testimony and ordered the state to drop the murder charge against Canchola.

Despite the setback, Andrews became the Lubbock County Chief Medical Examiner in the fall of 2018.

KCBD News 11 of Lubbock has reported extensively about the troubles at the Lubbock Co. Medical Examiner (ME) Office during Andrews’ tenure. In February of 2019, according to KCBD’s reporting, a former employee of the Lubbock County ME sued Andrews for wrongful termination after she allegedly reported him for unethical practices. Andrews technically worked for National Autopsy Assay Group (NAAG), a Californiabased company that operated the Lubbock County ME Office The lawsuit alleged Andrews and another colleague harvested organs from a child without consent from the child’s parents.

The suit also alleged that Andrews allowed a doctor who was not licensed in Texas to perform autopsies. The Texas Medical Board investigated that claim and cleared both Andrews and his colleague of any wrongdoing.

However, KCBD News also reported on a Lubbock County Commissioner who accused Andrews of harvesting tissue and organs during autopsies for lucrative medical research by NAAG without consent from next-of-kin.

The accuser, Lubbock County Precinct 2 Commissioner Jason Corley, even demanded to witness autopsies done by Andrews on infants and children to “reassure my voters that this was not going on in Lubbock County,” he said.

The lawsuit was dismissed by a Lubbock County district judge in June 2019. NAAG announced in May 2019 that they would end their contract with Lubbock Co. in September of that year, citing a “toxic political environment,” according to a report from KCBD News. Three months later, however, the Texas Rangers, FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office raided the Lubbock County ME Office, about a week before Andrews officially resigned from his post.

Not much has been said about the nature of the raid or investigation. The Record was able to find a letter from a former Lubbock County forensic pathologist to the Lubbock County District Attorney accusing Andrews of “financial violations.”

The letter by Dr. Stephen Pustilnik alleged that Andrews held ownership interest in NAAG when he worked for Travis County as an assistant medical examiner. Pustilnik claimed that Andrews asked his superiors to ship a brain to the NAAG lab in California for a neuropathologic examination. Pustilnik said that Andrews “obfuscated” his relationship with NAAG to his Travis County superiors in order to gain payment approval for the exam. Pustilnik said in the letter that all of the allegations were reported to law enforcement.

Around the time Pustilnik wrote that letter in February 2019, the Travis County District Attorney’s office decided it would no longer call Andrews as a witness in cases involving his autopsies. The Statesman reported at the time that there was “no reason, at least for now, to believe Andrews botched any autopsies while he was working in Travis County.” Nonetheless, the Travis County DA began to “appoint a second medical examiner to review Andrews’ autopsy reports in all pending cases. If the second examiner affirms Andrews’ previous findings, that doctor will then be permitted to testify at trial in place of Andrews.”

That’s what happened in the Polasek trial. Another forensic pathologist, Dr. Satash Chundru, signed off on Andrews’ autopsy of Atkins for the trial.

Polasek’s defense called their own medical expert, Dr. Mark Shuman, who disputed Andrews’ findings. Shuman testified that it was possible Atkins suffered some of the head injuries found in the autopsy up to three days before he died, when Polasek was not with Atkins. It wasn’t enough to derail the prosecution’s case against Polasek, however.

Dr. Andrews is currently listed as a deputy medical examiner in Tarrant County, and he is also listed as the “Traditional and Virtual Autopsy Team Lead” for NAAG Pathology Labs.

The Record attempted to contact Andrews through NAAG and the Tarrant County ME’s Office. We have not heard back from him.