Children's Book Author Found Guilty of Murdering Husband
A Utah mother who wrote a children's book about grief following her husband's sudden death has been convicted of his murder after a jury found that she had poisoned him with a lethal dose of fentanyl.
Kouri Richins, 35, was found guilty on Monday of aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, two counts of insurance fraud and forgery in connection with the death of her husband Eric Richins in March 2022. The jury deliberated for just three hours. She faces a sentence of 25 years to life in prison, with sentencing scheduled for 13th May — what would have been Eric's 44th birthday.
Prosecutors painted a picture of a woman trapped by debt and desperate for a way out. Richins had racked up millions in debt through a failing house-flipping business, with her net worth at negative $1.6 million the day after her husband died, and was simultaneously having an affair and harbouring plans for a future with another man. Eric's life was insured for approximately $2.2 million across several policies. "She wanted to leave Eric Richins but did not want to leave his money," Summit County prosecutor Brad Bloodworth told the jury. "Kouri Richins is an intensely ambitious person. She is a risk-taker. There was a way forward — Eric had to die."
The prosecution called more than 40 witnesses over 13 days. Among the most damaging pieces of evidence was Richins' own online search history, recovered from a phone she began using after her husband's death. Searches included "what is a lethal.dose.of.fetanayl," "if someone is poisned what does it go down on the death certificate as," and "women's prisons in Utah." Also presented were text messages between Richins and her then-boyfriend Robert Josh Grossmann, in which she wrote: "If he could just go away and you could just be here! Life would be so perfect!!!"
Prosecutors alleged that Richins first attempted to kill her husband on Valentine's Day 2022 by lacing his sandwich with fentanyl. Eric called two friends that day saying he felt like he was going to die. He told one of them he believed his wife was trying to poison him. Two weeks later, she allegedly obtained more fentanyl. On 4th March 2022, she called police in the middle of the night to report finding him unresponsive. A medical examiner subsequently found that Eric Richins had five times the lethal dose of fentanyl in his system.
A housecleaner who worked for Richins testified that she had been asked to source pills and bought fentanyl from a man at a Utah petrol station on two occasions before Eric's death. Investigators also recovered a handwritten letter from Richins' jail cell in which she attempted to shift blame for the drug purchases onto her late husband, which she had never told police during the original investigation. "Four months after she's been arrested for Eric Richins' murder, a year and a half after she murdered him, she knows that she bought fentanyl and she has to explain it," Bloodworth said. "And how does she explain it? She blames it on Eric."
The defence chose not to call any witnesses and did not put Richins on the stand. Her attorneys argued that the investigation had been sloppy and biased. "They cannot tell you how Eric ingested that fentanyl," defence attorney Wendy Lewis said in her closing argument. "They haven't done their job, and now they want you to make inferences based on paper-thin evidence."
The case drew widespread attention partly because of the book Richins published in January 2023 titled Are You With Me? which she described as a way to help her three young sons and other families cope with bereavement. She dedicated it to Eric, calling him "my amazing husband and a wonderful father." She was arrested two months later.
After the verdict, Eric's sister Amy Richins thanked everyone who "worked tirelessly to bring justice for Eric," adding: "Our focus is now on honoring Eric's life and supporting his boys, as we all continue to heal."
