What began as a quiet celebration at a Utah couple’s home in 2022 ended hours later with the husband dead in their bedroom and prosecutors alleging his wife slipped him a fatal dose of fentanyl.
Nearly four years after Eric Richins died, Kouri Richins is on trial on charges of aggravated murder, attempted criminal homicide, false/fraudulent insurance claim and forgery. She has pleaded not guilty.
The case drew national attention after Kouri Richins published a children’s book about grief following her husband’s death and later proclaimed her innocence on NBC’s “Dateline.”
Family and friends have said that the couple appeared to have a “perfect” marriage and seemed to have it all. Kouri Richins had a real estate company, and her husband owned a stone masonry business. The pair shared three children.
But court documents alleged that Kouri Richins had significant debt, fraudulently took out life insurance policies on her husband and attempted to poison him multiple times.
In opening statements, chief prosecutor Bradley Bloodworth said the “evidence will prove that Kouri Richins murdered Eric for his money and to get a fresh start at life.”
Bloodworth said that before Eric’s death, Kouri Richins’ boyfriend had texted her an image of two people kissing. She replied, “Love you,” before making her husband a drink, he said.
He also told the jury that at the time of Eric’s death, Kouri Richins was in debt. Eric’s estate was worth $4 million, and she believed that she would inherit it all, Bloodworth said.
“She needed Eric Richins' money to have her fresh start at life,” he said.
Kouri Richins' attorney Kathryn Nester began her opening statement by playing a call Kouri Richins made to a 911 dispatcher saying that Eric wasn’t breathing. Kouri Richins appeared to be crying on the call.
“Those were the sounds of a wife becoming a widow,” she said.
Nester said that before Eric’s death, the couple had a “celebratory shot” of alcohol, and Kouri Richins made a Moscow Mule. Nester said they did not finish the drinks, and the cups were never tested for evidence by law enforcement.
She told the jury that an empty pill bottle, with an expiration date of 2016, was also found by Eric's body.
“Between 9 p.m. and 3 a.m., somewhere in that time, Eric Richins died,” she said. “Somewhere in that time, he ingested a fatal dose of fentanyl. What you will never hear, after four years of investigation … is how that fentanyl got inside of him because there is zero evidence of that.”
Celebratory drink ends in death
Kouri Richins told investigators she found her husband unresponsive in the couple’s bedroom on March 4, 2022, after they had celebratory drinks at their home to mark her recent sale of a property.
According to court documents, Richins said she made her husband a Moscow mule in the kitchen and brought it to their bedroom, where he drank it. She said she went to sleep in their child’s bedroom, and when she woke up and went to her room, Eric was cold to the touch.
Emergency personnel found him at the foot of the bed and administered CPR, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
A medical examiner said Eric, 39, had five times the lethal dosage of fentanyl in his system, and that it was “illicit,” not medical-grade fentanyl, according to the court documents. The medical examiner concluded the drug had been orally ingested.
About a year after Eric’s death, Richins published a children’s book titled “Are You With Me?” about helping children cope with grief. She promoted it on local news station KTVX-TV of Salt Lake City, saying she wrote the book after she saw her three children struggle with their father’s death.
In May 2023, a month after that interview, she was arrested and charged in connection with his death.
Richins’ attorneys have pushed back on the narrative that fentanyl was slipped into the Moscow mule, saying prosecutors have never formally stated that theory on the record.
A poisonous sandwich and fraudulent life insurance policies
Court records detailed other times Richins allegedly tried to poison her husband. Prosecutors alleged that she purchased fentanyl pills from her housekeeper. (The housekeeper had allegedly said she procured the pills from a man named Robert Crozier, who has denied giving the housekeeper fentanyl.)
One alleged attempt occurred on Valentine’s Day 2022, according to the filings.
Prosecutors say Eric Richins broke out in hives after eating a bite of a sandwich Kouri Richins made. He used his son’s EpiPen, took some Benadryl and later told a friend that he believed his wife was trying to poison him, according to court filings.
Another alleged incident occurred years earlier during a trip to Greece, when Eric became violently ill after drinking something his wife gave him. He later told his sister that he believed Kouri had tried to kill him, the affidavit said.
Skordas has previously said that Eric stayed in the marriage for the children.
According to an amended court document, Eric had consulted a divorce lawyer and an estate planning lawyer in 2020. Without his wife’s knowledge, he changed his will and formed a living trust, placing his estate under the control of his sister Katie Richins-Benson, the filing stated.
He also transferred his partnership interest in his business to the trust and designated the trust, instead of his wife, as the beneficiary of his $500,000 life insurance policy, it said.
Prosecutors allege that Richins purchased at least four life insurance polices on her husband totaling nearly $2 million between 2015 and 2017. He did not know about the policies, according to the filing, which stated that she had debt of more than $1 million at the time of his death.
Delayed trial and jailhouse recordings proclaiming innocence
Defense lawyers tried repeatedly to have the trial moved out of Summit County, citing extensive national media coverage, but all of their motions were denied. Some prospective jurors said during jury selection that they had seen media coverage about the case, but did not have strong opinions about it, NBC affiliate KSL News of Salt Lake City reported.
Judge Richard Mrazik told them not to discuss or research the case.
Richins has repeatedly denied her involvement in her husband’s death. In 2024, she briefly spoke about the case in recordings shared with NBC’s “Dateline.”
“I’m anxious to prove my innocence. I’m anxious to get to trial. And I’m ready to give this one heck of a fight,” she said. “You took an innocent mom away from her babies, and this means war.”
In a six-page letter found hidden in a book in her Summit County jail cell, Richins referred to Eric’s death as an “accidental overdose.” Prosecutors say the letter, written to her mother, was an attempt to coach her brother on how to “testify falsely” by suggesting Eric purchased the drugs from Mexico.
Prosecutors have asked the court to admit portions of the latter at trial, arguing it demonstrates Kouri Richins’ attempt to “solicit false testimony, which reveals her consciousness of guilt.”
