A cash and picture obsessed Utah mother overtly promoted a kids’s ebook she wrote about her husband’s drug overdose dying to assist her youngsters cope — however prosecutors say it was homicide she wrote.
Kouri Richins, a 35-year-old house-flipper, killed husband Eric Richins on March 3, 2022 with a fentanyl-laced Moscow mule cocktail so she may money in on his $4 million property and run off together with her handyman lover, prosecutor Bradley Bloodworth mentioned throughout opening statements Monday in Park Metropolis, Utah.
The case scandalized the rich ski enclave after allegations emerged that she used her husband’s homicide, and her personal youngsters’ grief to advertise herself in TV and radio interviews.
Richins argues that her husband was a drug addict and overdosed on meds he took for his persistent again ache.
“Kouri Richins murdered Eric for his cash and to get a recent begin at life,” Bloodworth advised the jury.
“Greater than something, she needed his cash to perpetuate her facade of privilege, affluence and success.”
The mom of three younger sons additionally beforehand tried to kill Eric by dosing his sandwich with the highly effective opiate weeks earlier on Valentine’s Day, Bloodworth mentioned.
Then a yr after the killing, Kouri wrote a kids’s image ebook “Are You With Me?” — ostensibly to assist her and Eric’s three sons cope along with his dying.
“Richins values and trades on her perceived look, affluence, privilege and success,” the prosecutor mentioned.
The prosecutor laid out for the jurors a slew of allegedly damning circumstantial proof together with that Richins and the person she was having an affair with, Josh Grossman, texted one another hours earlier than the dying that they cherished one another.
And months earlier than Eric’s dying, Richins booked an unique trip to St. Martin within the Caribbean together with her lover — scheduled for a date after Eric’s alleged homicide, Bloodworth mentioned.
She additionally consulted a divorce lawyer throughout the identical interval, he mentioned.
She even texted her flame the day earlier than the killing: “If I used to be divorced proper now and requested you to marry me tomorrow, you’ll?”
“I simply wish to lay on the sofa and cuddle you. Watch a homicide doc and snuggle,” Richins added.
Bloodworth mentioned Richins’ actual property firm was financially drowning and she or he was $4.5 million in debt as she sought to undertaking a picture of success.
But when she inherited Eric’s $4 million property all her cash issues would go away, the prosecutor mentioned.
She wouldn’t be capable to accumulate on the multi-million property in the event that they divorced, as a part of a prenuptial settlement. However, if Eric died, Richins was the beneficiary, the prosecutor defined to jurors.
Richins made Eric the toxic drink — that contained 5 instances the deadly dose of fentanyl — that night after which left the bed room, solely returning after 3 a.m. to seek out him chilly and unresponsive, prosecutors say.
She opened her cellphone first at 3:06 a.m. however didn’t name 911 for assist till roughly quarter-hour later at 3:21 a.m., the prosecutor mentioned.
After his dying, Kouri wiped her cellphone and obtained a brand new one, making web searches on the brand new system together with, “Can cops uncover deleted messages iPhone?” and ultimately looking “girls Utah jail” and “luxurious prisons for the wealthy.”
Richins’ lawyer, Kathryn Nester, in her personal opening statements argued Eric died of an unintentional overdose due to his use of ache treatment he used to deal with persistent knee and again ache from his work as a stone mason and avid outdoorsman.
Eric’s household tried to pin his dying on Richins from the beginning, hiring a non-public investigator and monetary, toxicology and handwriting specialists as they allegedly tried to assist cops construct a case towards her, Nester claimed.
“No household ever needs to consider that behind closed doorways somebody you really liked is utilizing medication,” Nester mentioned.
The protection legal professional mentioned Eric used marijuana gummies and oxycodone for his ache and claimed Eric requested Kouri to assist him get ache drugs.
Nester additionally performed the 911 name that Kouri made the evening of the homicide through which she might be heard saying via tears, “My husband’s not respiratory. He’s chilly.”
“These are the sounds of a spouse turning into a widow,” the protection legal professional advised the jury.
The primary three witnesses known as had been all relations: Eric’s dad and sister and the sister’s husband.
Katie Richins-Benson, Eric’s sister, cried as she testified she acquired a cellphone name from her dad in the course of the evening sobbing and telling her Eric wasn’t respiratory.
The sister recounted how after they obtained to the scene, Kouri solely lastly broke the devastating information to her three sons, then ages 5, 7, and 9, after they noticed his physique getting taken out of the home on a stretcher.
Eric’s dad, Eugene Richins, advised jurors he found Kouri lied to him about Eric’s explanation for dying, telling him the medical expert knowledgeable her her husband died of covid and a lung fungus — the identical means Eric’s mother died.
Richins-Benson’s husband Clint Benson, additionally took the witness stand, telling jurors how in 2020 Eric discovered Kouri took out a $250,000 house fairness mortgage on their mansion with out ever telling him. The information prompted Eric to satisfy with a divorce legal professional, finally deciding to stick with Kouri however arrange a belief to guard his belongings.
Simply two months after selling her ebook, Richins was arrested for the homicide of Eric, with whom she’d been married to for 9 years.
Richins has since been hit with a slew of further monetary crimes tied to the homicide.
She additionally took out a life insurance coverage coverage in Eric’s identify with out his information simply two weeks earlier than the alleged homicide, Bloodworth mentioned.
However the husband obtained clever to her schemes and even suspected she’d beforehand tried to poison him, prompting him to alter his will and different life insurance coverage insurance policies, eradicating his spouse because the beneficiary, prosecutors mentioned.
She’s pleaded not responsible to aggravated homicide, tried aggravated homicide and drug possession.
She has been in jail since her arrest.
