Kouri Richins, 35, was found guilty of aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, fraud and forgery in a unanimous verdict delivered Monday in Park City, Utah. The jury deliberated for less than three hours before reaching their decision.
The case centres on the death of her husband, Eric Richins, who was found dead in the couple's home in Kamas, Utah, early in the morning on March 4, 2022. Prosecutors say Kouri Richins slipped five times the lethal dose of the synthetic opioid into a cocktail that Eric Richins drank in March 2022 at their home outside the ski town of Park City. Writings by Kouri Richins found in the family home indicate the couple drank a Moscow Mule cocktail and a lemon drop shot.
The financial motive appears straightforward. Prosecutors say Richins was $4.5 million in debt and falsely believed that when her husband died, she would inherit his estate worth more than $4 million. Eric Richins' life was insured for approximately $2.2 million through several policies, including one prosecutors argued Kouri Richins had applied for fraudulently. She had opened numerous life insurance policies on her husband without his knowledge, with benefits totaling about $2 million, prosecutors alleged.
They also say she was planning a future with another man she was seeing on the side. During the trial, text messages were presented showing she had discussed leaving her husband.
What makes the case extraordinary is the children's book. About a year after her husband's fatal overdose, Kouri Richins published a children's book to help their three sons cope with the grief of losing their father. Weeks after appearing on a local TV program to promote her book, she was arrested and charged with aggravated murder in connection to his death. The book, called "Are You with Me?", centred on ways to cope with the loss of a loved one. A detective testified that Richins paid a ghostwriting company to write the book for her.
The defence rested its case without presenting witnesses. During the trial, the defense has pointed to Richins' husband's alleged drug dependency as the cause of his overdose. However, Kouri Richins told police earlier in a video that her husband had no history of illicit drug use, creating a significant contradiction in her defence narrative.
She was also convicted of other felony charges, including an attempted murder charge in what authorities alleged was another effort to poison her husband weeks earlier on Valentine's Day with a fentanyl-laced sandwich that made him break out in hives and black out.
Prosecutors presented evidence that Richins sought out illicit fentanyl specifically. Prosecutors said Richins sought fentanyl by asking two people for the "Michael Jackson drug." "Richins was a suburban mother, real estate agent. She does not know a lot about the illicit street drug world, but she knows Michael Jackson died," prosecutor Brad Bloodworth said.
The conviction carries severe consequences. The most serious charge, aggravated murder, carries a sentence of 25 years to life in prison. Her sentencing is scheduled for May 13.