The three sons of Kouri Richins told a Utah court they are afraid of their mother and would not feel safe if she were released from prison, according to a prosecution sentencing memo filed before her Wednesday hearing. Richins, a 35-year-old children’s author and former real estate agent, was convicted in March of aggravated murder for killing her husband Eric Richins in 2022, along with insurance fraud, forgery, and attempted murder for a prior poisoning weeks earlier.
The oldest child, now 13, wrote that he does not miss his mother and fears she would target his family if she were ever free. “I’m afraid if she gets out, she will come after me and my brothers, my whole family,” he said in the memo. “I think she would come and take us and not do good things to us, like hurt us.” Prosecutors allege the boy suffered emotional and physical abuse from Richins, citing findings by the Utah Division of Child and Family Services contained in a sealed court document. A spokesperson for the agency declined to comment.
The middle child, now 11, refuted his mother’s claim that she slept in his room on the night his father died. Instead, he recalled being put to bed early without a bath, hearing a television blaring from inside his parents’ locked bedroom, and being yelled at by his mother when he used a broom handle to try to reach a key to the door. Richins later told a 911 operator she had found her husband cold to the touch. The 11-year-old told the judge he misses his father — the camping and fishing trips, sports coaching, and the milestones his father will never see. “With (her) in jail, I will be able to continue to feel safe and live a happy and successful life without fear of (her) hurting me or anyone I love,” his statement read.
The youngest son, whose current age was not included in the memo, said he feels “hateful and ashamed” when people bring up his mother “because she took away my dad.” He added that he would be “so scared” if she were released. “Once she is gone I will feel happy and I will feel safer and relaxed and trust people more,” he wrote.
Prosecutors said Richins, who was millions of dollars in debt and planning a future with another man, opened multiple life insurance policies on her husband without his knowledge and mistakenly believed she would inherit his roughly $4 million estate. She laced his cocktail with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City, then self-published a children’s book about a boy grieving his father’s death shortly before her 2023 arrest.
Her aggravated murder conviction alone carries a penalty ranging from 25 years to life in prison or a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty. The sentencing hearing falls on what would have been Eric Richins’ 44th birthday. Richins’ attorneys declined to comment before the hearing. She also faces more than two dozen financial-crimes charges in a separate case that has not yet gone to trial.