Richins, 35, is scheduled to go on trial for the death of her husband, Eric Richins, after prosecutors accused her of killing him with fentanyl. A jury of 12 is set to decide the case in a monthlong trial starting Monday in Utah, nearly a year after her husband died and years after she promoted a children’s book about coping with a parent’s death.
AP previously reported that, following the death of her husband, the Utah mother of three self-published and promoted “Are You With Me?”—a book Richins said helped her sons process the sudden loss. After the book’s publication in 2023, she was arrested in her husband’s death and charged with murder.
According to prosecutors, Eric Richins died at their home in March 2022 after Richins called 911 and told investigators she had found him “cold to the touch” at the foot of their bed. A medical examiner later found what prosecutors described as five times the lethal dose of fentanyl in Eric Richins’s system, according to court and police reporting summarized by AP.
Prosecutors’ case also includes what charging documents describe as a prior attempt on Eric Richins’s life. They allege that on Valentine’s Day, Eric Richins told friends he developed hives and blacked out after taking one bite of a sandwich Richins had left for him, and that he later injected himself with his son’s EpiPen and took Benadryl before waking and calling a friend to say, “I think my wife tried to poison me,” as described in written testimony.
AP reported that prosecutors allege the Valentine’s Day episode was linked to drugs Richins had purchased, including an account that police say she bought fentanyl pills from the family’s housekeeper. Charging documents further allege that the following day, Richins texted a person described as her alleged lover, saying, “If he could just go away … life would be so perfect.”
The trial is also expected to center on witnesses tied to the alleged fentanyl supply. AP reported that prosecutors may rely on the housekeeper, Carmen Lauber, who told police she gave Richins fentanyl pills purchased from a dealer before Valentine’s Day, and that the housekeeper later told investigators Richins asked her to procure stronger fentanyl. AP also reported that Lauber is not charged in connection with the case and that detectives said at an earlier hearing she had been granted immunity.
AP reported that prosecutors could further call a dealer Lauber said he sold her drugs. AP said no fentanyl pills were ever found in Richins’s home, and that the dealer later told detectives in 2023 that he had sold Lauber fentanyl, but subsequently said in a sworn affidavit that he only sold Lauber OxyContin. Defense attorneys are expected to argue that Lauber did not provide fentanyl to Richins and that she was motivated to lie for legal protection.
Prosecutors also allege that financial pressure and planning provided the motive for the death. AP reported that charging documents indicate Eric Richins met with a divorce attorney and an estate planner in October 2020, after he discovered Richins made major financial decisions without his knowledge, including a negative bank account balance and lenders owed more than $1.8 million. Prosecutors say Richins believed she would inherit Eric Richins’s estate under the prenuptial agreement and that she opened numerous life insurance policies on him without his knowledge, with benefits totaling nearly $2 million.
In addition, AP reported that prosecutors accuse Richins of forging loan applications and fraudulently claiming insurance benefits after her husband’s death. Richins has pleaded not guilty to nearly three dozen counts, including aggravated murder and attempted murder, and prosecutors’ allegations include forgery, mortgage fraud and insurance fraud.
Richins’s defense attorneys, Wendy Lewis, Kathy Nester and Alex Ramos, said they are confident the jury will rule for Richins after hearing her side. In a statement, her legal team said, “Kouri has waited nearly three years for this moment: the opportunity to have the facts of this case heard by a jury, free from the prosecution’s narrative that has dominated headlines since her arrest,” and added, “What the public has been told bears little resemblance to the truth,” AP reported.