Utah prosecutors have added an attempted murder charge against grief author Kouri Richins, who is already awaiting trial for the murder of her husband with a fentanyl-laced Moscow Mule in 2022.
New charging documents, filed Monday, say that Kouri Richins gave Eric Richins a sandwich on Valentine’s Day 2022 — two weeks before his death — and it caused such a violent reaction that he had to use an EpiPen and take Benedryl, NBC News reported.
The episode is not new. Police wrote about it in an affidavit filed when Kouri Richins, who wrote a book about handling the sudden death of a loved one after her husband’s death, was arrested last year, as CrimeOnline reported. Eric Richins was found dead in March 2022 after drinking a cocktail prepared for him by his wife.
An autopsy found that he had five times the lethal amount of fentanyl in his system and that it was “illicit” and not medical grade. Prosecutors also say that Kouri Richins bought the fentanyl before Valentine’s Day.
While the earlier documents said Kouri Richins made the sandwich, the new charging documents say that Eric told two friends that she had left him his favorite sandwich from a local diner with a note.
The documents say that Eric texted his wife, who had left their house, and told her wasn’t feeling well and that he was going to the hospital if he didn’t feel better soon. She replied that he should take a nap.
Later, he told a friend that he broke out in hives after taking one bite of the sandwich. “You almost lost me,” he said, adding that he used his son’s EpiPen and took Benedryl to help him breathe.
“Eric Richins told Witness 1 that he had almost died,” the documents say. “Witness 1 could hear the fear in Eric Richins’ voice and tell that Eric Richins was scared.”
According to the documents, Eric Richins told the second friend he thought his wife had tried to poison him.
In addition to attempted murder, Kouri Richins was charged Monday with two counts of mortgage fraud, two counts of insurance fraud, and three counts of forgery. Prosecutors say that she was in financial trouble and forged loan applications and made fraudulent insurance claims after her husband’s death.
The month before the sandwich incident, Kouri Richins logged into her husband’s life insurance policy and changed the beneficiary from his business partner to her. She did the same for the business partner’s policy, changing the beneficiary from Eric Richins to her. The insurance company contacted the two men about the online change, and they quickly reversed the changes.
Kouri Richins has loudly proclaimed her innocence and at times implied that her husband was a drug addict.
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[Featured image: Kouri and Eric Richins/Facebook]
