A judge has ruled that Kouri Richins, a Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after her husband’s death and was later accused of fatally poisoning him, will stand trial.
Third District Judge Richard Mrazik on Tuesday ruled that prosecutors had shown probable cause with the evidence they presented to try Richins, 34, for alleged financial crimes and the murder charges in the March 2022 death of her husband, Eric Richins, 39.
Prosecutors have accused Kouri Richins of drugging a sandwich she gave her husband for Valentine’s Day in February 2022 in an alleged murder attempt which he survived. The next month, prosecutors allege she spiked his cocktail with a fatal dose of the synthetic opioid fentanyl.
A police report says Kouri Richins called 911 in the middle of the night in March 2022 to report her husband felt “cold to the touch,” but first responders were unable to revive Eric Richins, and he was pronounced dead. A medical examiner later found five times the lethal dosage of fentanyl in his system.
Kouri Richins has adamantly proclaimed her innocence and entered pleas of “not guilty” to all 11 counts on Tuesday.
AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, Pool
Summit County Prosecutor Brad Bloodworth said during the second day of Richins’ preliminary hearing on Tuesday that she had texted man with whom she was having an affair a day after Valentine’s Day in 2022 and said that if her husband “could just go away … life would be so perfect.”
Witness statements and deleted text messages that were recovered by police also reportedly show that Kouri Richins bought the Valentine’s Day sandwich at a local diner and purchased fentanyl pills from the family’s housekeeper.
Defense attorneys argued that detectives could not prove that the drugs Kouri Richins bought from the housekeeper matched those found in husband’s system because fentanyl had never been recovered from the Richins’ home.
During the months before her arrest in May 2023, Kouri Richins, the mother of three, self-published the children’s book Are You with Me? The book’s plot centers around a father watching over his young son after he has passed away. In the book, Kouri Richins dedicated the work to her “amazing husband.”
Prosecutors may try use the book against Richins by claiming it was written as an attempt to cover up her alleged crimes.
Judge Mrazik scheduled a pretrial conference on September 23 for the prosecution and defense to discuss jury selection.
This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.
