A Utah jury convicted Kouri Richins of murder Monday after a weekslong trial in which prosecutors accused the children’s grief author and mother of three of fatally poisoning her husband with fentanyl.
Richins, 35, was found guilty of aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, fraud and forgery in a unanimous verdict.
Richins, wearing a floral blouse, lowered her head as the judge read the verdict. Her sentencing was scheduled for May.
Richins‘ trial was expected to last through March 26 but concluded Monday with closing arguments. She did not testify at her trial, and her defense team rested without calling any witnesses.
Richins was arrested in May 2023, a little over a year after Eric Richins died in their home on March 4, 2022. She told investigators that she had made him a drink to mark her recent sale of a property for her real estate business and found him unresponsive in their bedroom.
A medical examiner said Eric, 39, had five times the lethal dose of fentanyl in his system when he died, according to court documents. The medical examiner said the drug had been orally ingested and that it was “illicit” and not medical-grade fentanyl.
A year after Eric’s death, Richins authored a children’s book about grief, which she dedicated to her “amazing” husband.
She was charged with aggravated murder, attempted criminal homicide, false/fraudulent insurance claim and forgery.
“For nearly three years, the public has heard accusations about Kouri. Those accusations created a narrative that spread far beyond this courtroom,” Richins’ attorneys, Wendy Lewis, Kathy Nester and Alex Ramos, said in a statement Monday after closing statements.
“But in court, accusations are not enough. The law requires proof. … Kouri has maintained her innocence from the very beginning. … Kouri should finally be able to go home to her three young boys and begin rebuilding her life.”
Prosecutors called more than 40 witnesses, including Eric’s friends and family, investigators, and a housekeeper who testified about selling Richins fentanyl pills.
The housekeeper’s testimony was pivotal to the case. Carmen Lauber, who cleaned a home for Richins, told the court that she sold pills to her multiple times in early 2022.
After Eric’s death, Lauber said she talked to Richins over the phone.
“I said, ‘Please tell me these pills were not for him.’ She said, ‘No they were not. Eric passed away from a brain aneurysm,’” Lauber told the court.
She testified that investigators eventually told her that Eric had died from an overdose.
“That hit hard,” she said. “Only for the fact that if that’s what happened, I needed to step up and take accountability of my part in this.”
“At first, it took a minute to process everything,” she said, wiping away tears.
The Prosecution also called Richins’ former boyfriend as a witness. Robert Josh Grossman became emotional while testifying about their affair and hopes of a future together. He told the court that the relationship ended a few months after Eric’s death, and at the time, he didn’t believe she was involved.
