The former boyfriend of Kouri Richins, the Utah grief author on trial in the 2022 poisoning death of her husband, got emotional Wednesday while testifying about their relationship in the months before and after Eric Richins died.
Robert Josh Grossman read through several pages of text messages between him and Kouri Richins, who is accused of poisoning her husband with a fatal dose of fentanyl.
Eric Richins was found dead at the couple's home on March 4, 2022, after having a drink to celebrate her closing on a home for her real estate business.
Grossman shifted several times in his seat and repeatedly muttered, "oh boy," as the text messages were shown to the court. At one point, he put his head down and wiped away tears.
Judge Richard Mrazik asked Grossman if he needed to take a break.
"I don’t know what I need," Grossman responded.
The judge called for a 5-minute recess.
Grossman testified that he met Kouri Richins in South Carolina after he responded to a help-wanted ad for a house she was flipping. He eventually moved to Utah to work with her, he told the court. He said their relationship became romantic just before the move in early 2020.
He said Kouri Richins let him stay at one of the houses she was flipping in Utah, would give him money and purchased two trucks for him.
"I liked her," he said.
In some of the text messages, the pair discussed a possible future together.
"Like actually IN LOVE with me? If I was divorced right now and ask you to marry me tomorrow, you would?" she wrote in a Feb. 15, 2022, text.
"Yes. In Love with Y O U! Of course I would," Grossman wrote back.
During his testimony, Grossman was asked about a conversation he and Kouri Richins had about two weeks after Eric's death.
"Did there come a time during that discussion that Kouri Richins asked you about killing?" Prosecutor Bradley Bloodworth said.
"Yeah, we sat there and talked for quite a while. I’d never seen her that way, obviously. It was a heavy conversation, and I’m not used to that with her, and she’s not used to being open like that," Grossman said.
He told the court that he thinks Kouri Richins was "exhausted emotionally" and wanted to shift the conversation to him.
"I think she was looking for a reason to divert the conversation away from herself," he said. "She asked if I had ever killed anybody."
Bloodworth asked if her question was specific to Grossman serving in the military in Iraq.
"She asked me how it made me feel or something along those lines," he said. "And then I answered her. I took it as not out of the normal, though, really."
He said the relationship fell apart a few months after Eric's death.
During cross-examination, defense attorney Wendy Lewis asked if he ever had the impression that Eric Richins "would be out of the picture."
"No," he responded.
Grossman said that, at that time, he did not believe Eric had been killed and did not think Kouri Richins was involved. When he found out about her arrest, he said he was "overwhelmed with guilt, sorrow over my wrongdoings, infidelity."
