A Utah jury on Monday convicted Kouri Richins of aggravated murder in the March 2022 death of her husband, Eric Richins, concluding that she administered fentanyl in his final hours. The jury took just under three hours to return guilty verdicts after testimony and evidence presented in the case outside the ski town of Park City, Utah.
Prosecutors said Richins, a Utah real estate agent who had self-published a children’s book about grief after her husband’s death, planned her husband’s killing and then attempted to conceal what happened. They told the jurors they had heard, in a 911 call played during the trial, “the sound of a wife becoming a black widow,” according to prosecutor Brad Bloodworth.
Prosecutors said Richins slipped five times the lethal dose of fentanyl into a cocktail he consumed, and they also argued she tried to poison him weeks earlier, including on Valentine’s Day, when she allegedly used a fentanyl-laced sandwich that made him black out. Jurors also convicted Richins on additional felony counts tied to alleged forgery and fraud, including a charge involving her claimed insurance benefits following Eric Richins’ death, and an attempted murder count connected to the earlier poisoning effort.
Richins, 35, did not testify during the trial, and she did not call witnesses in her defense. The guilty verdicts came as jurors heard that prosecutors attributed a financial motive to the case, including allegations that Richins was $4.5 million in debt and that she planned a future with another man. Prosecutors also alleged that Richins opened life insurance policies on her husband without his knowledge and that the benefits totaled about $2 million.
The prosecution’s narrative also included an allegation of an extramarital relationship. Prosecutors said jurors were shown text messages in which Richins fantasized about leaving her husband, gaining millions in a divorce, and marrying Robert Josh Grossman.
A digital forensics analyst testified about searches on Richins’ phone that prosecutors said included queries such as “what is a lethal.dose.of.fetanayl (sic)” and questions about how poisoning would be recorded on a death certificate, according to the Associated Press account of the proceedings. In addition, investigators presented the earlier 911 call and other evidence as part of the state’s case that Richins sought to create an appearance of a different cause of death.
Richins’ lawyers disputed the prosecution’s account, including by challenging the credibility of the state’s star witness, Carmen Lauber, a housekeeper for the family. Defense attorney Wendy Lewis argued that Lauber, who received immunity for her cooperation, did not deal fentanyl and was motivated to lie to avoid consequences, with the defense pointing to shifts in Lauber’s statements after investigators concluded Eric Richins died of a fentanyl overdose.
The defense also argued that the couple’s opioid connection, if any, had to do with Eric Richins’ pain medication history. The lawyers said Eric Richins was addicted to painkillers and that he had asked his wife to procure opioids for him, despite body camera footage showing Kouri Richins telling police that her husband had no history of illicit drug use.
Prosecutors also confronted jurors with how Richins used a children’s book about grief after her husband’s death. Investigators said Richins self-published the book and promoted it on local TV and radio stations, which prosecutors cited as evidence of planned conduct and a cover-up. Investigators also said Richins paid a ghostwriting company to pen the book and that her mother sent copies to the Summit County Sheriff’s Office in an anonymous package with a note describing it as reflecting “true Kouri, a devoted wife and adoring mother.”
After the verdict, Richins faces a sentence of 25 years to life in prison for the aggravated murder conviction. Sentencing is scheduled for May 13. The Associated Press report also said Richins is facing 26 additional money-related criminal counts in a separate case that has not yet gone to trial.