A Utah lady who printed a youngsters’s e book about grief after the loss of life of her husband was convicted Monday of aggravated homicide in his loss of life after poisoning him with fentanyl, prosecutors mentioned.
Kouri Richins, 35, slipped 5 occasions the deadly dose of the artificial opioid right into a cocktail that her husband Eric Richins drank in March 2022 at their house exterior the ski city of Park Metropolis, in response to prosecutors. They mentioned she was US$4.5 million in debt and falsely believed that when her husband died, she would inherit his property price greater than $4 million.
“She wished to depart Eric Richins however didn’t need to go away his cash,” Summit County prosecutor Brad Bloodworth mentioned.
Jurors deliberated for simply over three hours on Monday earlier than discovering Richins responsible of first-degree aggravated homicide, forgery and insurance coverage fraud within the loss of life of her husband after claiming insurance coverage advantages following his loss of life.
Richins, who pleaded not responsible to all costs, stared on the flooring and took deep breaths because the decide learn the decision.
“We the jury unanimously agree that the prosecution has proved the next circumstance … past affordable doubt: The murder was dedicated for pecuniary achieve and the murder was dedicated by the use of the administration of any substance administered in any deadly quantity, dosage or amount,” Decide Richard Mrazik learn on behalf of jurors.
Richins was additionally convicted of different felonies, together with tried homicide, for making an attempt to poison her husband weeks earlier on Valentine’s Day with a fentanyl-laced sandwich that made him black out.
Defendant Kouri Richins, left, accused of poisoning her husband in March 2022, listens to closing arguments in Third District Court docket, Monday, March 16, 2026, in Park Metropolis, Utah.
David Jackson/Pool Picture by way of AP
After the decision was learn, members of the family on either side of the case left the courtroom hugging and crying.
“Actually I really feel like we’re all in shock. It’s been a very long time coming,” Eric Richins’ sister, Amy, informed The Related Press, including that the household can now give attention to honouring her brother and supporting his sons. “Simply very completely satisfied that we obtained justice for my brother.”
Richins’ sentencing was scheduled for Might 13, the day her husband would have turned 44. The aggravated homicide cost alone carries a sentence of 25 years to life in jail.
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What occurred in the course of the trial?
The scheduled five-week trial was reduce quick after Richins waived her proper to testify and her authorized crew abruptly rested its case with out calling any witnesses. Her legal professionals mentioned they had been assured that prosecutors, who referred to as greater than 40 witnesses, didn’t produce sufficient proof over the previous three weeks to convict her of homicide.
The prosecution alleged that Richins, who labored as an actual property agent targeted on flipping homes, was in debt and planning a future with one other man.
She had opened quite a few life insurance coverage insurance policies on her husband with out his data, with advantages totalling about $2 million, prosecutors mentioned.
Richins additionally faces 26 different money-related prison costs in a separate case that has not but gone to trial.
On Monday, prosecutors confirmed the jury textual content messages between Richins and Robert Josh Grossman, the person with whom she was allegedly having an affair. The textual content messages confirmed Richins fantasizing about leaving her husband, gaining hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in a divorce and marrying Grossman.
A digital forensic analyst additionally testified that web search historical past from Richins’ telephone included “luxurious prisons for the wealthy America,” “what’s a deadly.dose.of.fentanayl,” and “if somebody is poisoned what does it go down on the loss of life certificates as.”
Summit County prosecutor Bloodworth performed the jury a clip of Richins’ 911 name from the evening of her husband’s loss of life.
Summit County prosecutor Brad Bloodworth presenting the state’s closing arguments within the trial of Kouri Richins, accused of poisoning her husband in March 2022, Monday, March 16, 2026, in Third District Court docket in Park Metropolis, Utah.
David Jackson/Pool Picture by way of AP
That’s “not ‘the sound of a spouse changing into a widow,’” he mentioned, quoting the defence’s opening assertion. “It’s the sound of a spouse changing into a black widow.”
Richins’ lawyer Wendy Lewis mentioned the prosecution “appears at details a technique and sees a witch, however if you happen to take a look at these details one other means, you see a widow.”
The defence targeted on making an attempt to discredit the prosecution’s star witness, Carmen Lauber, a housekeeper for the household who claimed to have offered Richins fentanyl on a number of events.
Lewis argued Lauber didn’t deal fentanyl and was motivated to lie for authorized safety. Lauber had claimed in early interviews that she by no means dealt fentanyl however later mentioned she did as soon as investigators informed her that Eric Richins died of a fentanyl overdose, the defence mentioned.
Richins had requested Lauber for “the Michael Jackson stuff,” which Bloodworth mentioned doubtless refers back to the drug mixture that killed the singer.
“She is aware of she needs it as a result of it’s deadly,” he argued.
Lauber was already in a drug court docket program as an alternative choice to incarceration on different costs when authorities arrested her in reference to the Richins case, investigators mentioned. She had additionally violated some circumstances of drug court docket.
Lauber was granted immunity by prosecutors for her co-operation within the case. She testified that she felt a have to “step up and take accountability of my half on this.”
Youngsters’s e book turns into a device for prosecutors
Shortly earlier than her arrest in Might 2023, Richins self-published the kids’s e book Are You with Me? about dealing with the lack of a mother or father. She promoted it on native TV and radio stations, which prosecutors pointed to in arguing that Richins deliberate the killing and tried to cowl it up.
“We wrote this e book and we’re actually hoping that it supplies some consolation for not simply, clearly, our household, however different households which can be going by way of the identical factor,” she informed radio station KPCW earlier than her arrest, the BBC reports.
She devoted the e book to her “wonderful husband and a beautiful father.”
Summit County Sheriff’s detective Jeff O’Driscoll, the lead investigator on the case, testified that Richins paid a ghostwriting firm to put in writing the e book for her.
O’Driscoll mentioned that shortly after Richins’ arrest, her mom despatched the e book to the sheriff’s workplace in an nameless package deal with a word saying it exemplified the “true Kouri, a loyal spouse and adoring mom.”
Prosecutors additionally confirmed the jury excerpts of a letter present in Richins’ jail cell that they mentioned appeared to stipulate testimony for her mom and brother. Within the six-page letter, Richins instructed her brother to inform her former lawyer that Eric Richins confided in him about getting fentanyl from Mexico and “will get excessive each evening.”
Defence legal professionals mentioned the letter contained a fictional story their shopper was engaged on. They argued that Eric Richins was hooked on painkillers and requested his spouse to acquire opioids for him.
Nonetheless, Richins informed police on the evening of her husband’s loss of life that he had no historical past of illicit drug use, in response to physique digital camera footage proven in court docket.
— With information from The Related Press
