SUMMIT COUNTY, Utah (TCN) — Kouri Richins has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for murder in the March 2022 death of her husband.
Richins, 35, was arrested on May 8, 2023, and charged with murder in the death of her husband, Eric Richins. Kouri Richins had called 911 on March 4, 2022, to report that her husband was unresponsive. He was pronounced dead at the scene and an autopsy determined he had died from a fentanyl overdose; KTSU reports he was found with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl in his system.
Richins, a real estate agent, brought her husband a Moscow Mule cocktail in bed, purportedly to celebrate that she had closed on a house, the investigation revealed. She then stated that she had gone to sleep with one of her children in their room because they were having a night terror. She alleged that when she came back into her own room hours later, her husband was cold to the touch.
A search warrant uncovered communication between Richins and a person who was reportedly selling her hydrocodone and fentanyl, which she referred to as “the Michael Jackson stuff.” After a Valentine’s Day meal in 2022 made him sick, Eric Richins reportedly told a friend he believed his wife was poisoning him. On March 7, 2023, Kouri Richins released a self-published, ghostwritten children’s book called “Are You with Me?” that deals with grief and the loss of a father.
On May 13, Kouri Richins was sentenced to life without parole for the aggravated murder of Eric Richins after being found guilty in March, KSTU reports. The date of the sentencing would have been Eric Richins’ 44th birthday, USA Today reports.
In addition to the life sentence for aggravated murder, she was sentenced to five years to life for attempted aggravated murder, up to five years for forgery, and one to 15 years for two counts each of insurance fraud, per KTSU. Judge Richard Mrazik ordered all of the sentences to run consecutively.
In court, a forensic accountant testified that before Eric Richins’ murder, the family’s financials were “imploding” because Kouri Richins had taken out millions of dollars in loans to support her real estate business. Following her husband’s death, Kouri Richins reportedly spend $1.3 million of life insurance money in just a few months and reportedly asked an affair partner if he had ever killed someone, and if so, how it had made him feel, according to USA Today.
Eric Richins’ sister, who has been caring for the couple’s children, testified that her brother told her he did not want to divorce Kouri Richins because he believed she was dangerous and did not want his children to be with her half the time, according to the New York Post.
Kouri Richins’ sons also testified that their mother mistreated them and neglected their family pets and that they would not feel safe unless she was imprisoned for life, per the Post. According to USA Today, Kouri Richins’ 13-year-old son’s statement said, “I’m afraid if she gets out, she will come after me and my brothers, my whole family. I think she would come and take us and not do good things to us, like hurt us.”
Richins maintained her innocence throughout the proceedings, per the Post. Her defense attorney, Wendy Lewis, said, “A sentence of life without parole is saved for the most heinous crimes. …This simply is not the type of crime that we see get life without parole.”
KTSU reports a restitution hearing has been scheduled for July 31. The New York Post reports Richins will go to trial a second time for her financial crimes.
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