A grand jury has declined to indict in the killing of the girlfriend of a former Tarrant County judge who law enforcement authorities allege brought fentanyl pills to the ex-lawyer. He died of an overdose in Grapevine last year.
Kami Ludwig was charged in February with the murder of William Shane Nolen, a former judge at the 323rd District Court.
Ludwig bought pills laced with fentanyl and delivered them to Nolen, Grapevine police alleged in a case based in part on Ludwig’s cellphone records that a detective reviewed pursuant to a search warrant.
Ludwig, 35, was indicted Wednesday on two counts of possession of a controlled substance.
The indictment process means that fewer than nine grand jurors concluded there is probable cause to believe Ludwig committed murder.
“We are grateful to the grand jury for their careful review of this case, which led to the decision not to charge my client with fentanyl homicide,” Ludwig’s attorney Tiffany Burks wrote in a statement to the press. “Any drug overdose that results in death is a tragedy. We continue to extend our deepest condolences to the friends and family who mourn the loss of former Judge Shane Nolen.”
A state law that took effect last year allows someone who knowingly provides fentanyl to someone who dies from exposure to the synthetic opioid to be prosecuted for murder.
Nolen was dismissed from the court, which handles juvenile cases, in November 2019 after he violated court orders as a defendant in a lawsuit filed in Denton County by the Department of Family and Protective Services.
Nolen died in bed in the master bedroom of his home in the 4100 block of Mapleridge Drive, with white foam around his nose and mouth, Grapevine police said. Ludwig reported the overdose to police about 4:45 a.m. on Nov. 20.
The Tarrant County coroner’s office concluded that Nolen’s cause of death was mixed drug intoxication. The office identified the drugs as fentanyl and the antidepressant trazodone. Nolen was 47.
A blue, fentanyl-laced M-30 pill was on the stairs leading to the second floor and pills believed to be Xanax were scattered on the floor next to the bed where Nolen’s body was found, according to the affidavit statement in support of the arrest warrant in the case. Next to Ludwig’s bag on the master bathroom sink was a cut straw, powder residue, a small plastic baggie containing a substance believed to be cocaine and other plastic baggies containing pills that resembled M-30s, according to the affidavit.
Nolen’s 9-year-old son was alone in the house when authorities arrived.
According to Grapevine police, 0.614 grams of cocaine, 4.08 grams of fentanyl, 0.348 grams of oxycodone and 7.7 grams of generic Xanax were found in the former judge’s home.
Ludwig was released on bail. The district attorney’s office alleged that on March 28, Ludwig submitted a urine sample that tested positive for the use of norfentanyl and on February 13 submitted a sample that tested positive for the use of a substance not identified in a notice of violation of bond.
