A verdict has been reached in the trial of Kouri Richins, a Utah mother accused of murdering her husband and later publishing a children’s book about grief.
The jury deliberated for about three hours on Monday before returning the verdict, which is set to be announced shortly.
Richins, 35, faces multiple felony charges for allegedly poisoning Eric Richins, her late husband, in March 2022. Prosecutors said she mixed and served him a Moscow Mule cocktail she had allegedly spiked with a lethal dose of fentanyl at their home just outside of Park City. The drink contained nearly five times what is considered a deadly amount of the opioid, court filings showed.
The most serious counts against Richins, for aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder, would carry maximum sentences of life in prison. Richins also faced additional charges for mortgage fraud and forgery, after she allegedly signed to close on a multimillion-dollar real estate deal the day after her husband died. She had pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.
Richins’ trial began in February at the Summit County Courthouse in Park City and lasted for about three weeks. The case included 13 days of testimony, during which her defense team did not call any witnesses. Richins declined to testify at the trial, where the prosecution painted her as a killer set on taking her husband’s money.
Spenser Heaps / AP
During the investigation into Eric Richins’ poisoning, his family members told law enforcement that they suspected his wife was involved, with the man’s sister recalling that he had believed Kouri Richins tried to kill him during a trip to Greece several years prior, according to court filings. In another incident, the documents said Eric Richins broke out in hives and experienced difficulty breathing after eating a sandwich that his wife had made for him on Valentine’s Day 2022, shortly before his death.
At Richins’ trial, one of her neighbors testified that Richins had told her around Christmas 2021 that it would be better if her husband were dead, after the couple had had a fight.
Court filings also showed that Eric Richins was considering divorcing his wife when he was killed, and had argued with her over whether to purchase a $2 million mansion that she could “flip” for her real estate business. Kouri Richins was a beneficiary of multiple life insurance policies on her husband, of which prosecutors said she had bought four, without his knowledge, between 2015 and 2017. He had tried to remove her from his life insurance policies and his will not long before he died. The day after his death, she allegedly signed papers to finalize the purchase of that mansion property.
Within the year, Richins was garnering attention for a children’s picture book she authored called “Are You with Me?” that centered on ways to cope with the loss of a loved one. She appeared on a local Utah television station while promoting it, and described the challenges that she and her three sons confronted while navigating their own personal grief. In that appearance, Richins said their father’s passing was unexpected.
She was arrested in May 2023.
