(UTAH) — Kouri Richins, a Utah woman convicted of fatally poisoning her husband with fentanyl, was sentenced to life without parole for murder on Wednesday.
The 35-year-old mother of three, who self-published a children’s book on grieving following her husband’s death in 2022, was found guilty on all counts in March following a weekslong trial. The Summit County jury reached a verdict after about three hours of deliberations.
She faced either 25 years to life in prison or life without parole.
Eric Richins, 39, was found dead in bed on March 4, 2022. An autopsy determined that he died from fentanyl intoxication, and the level of fentanyl in his blood was approximately five times the lethal dosage, according to the charging document.
Kouri Richins was found guilty of aggravated murder, with prosecutors saying she spiked his drink with a lethal dose of fentanyl that she purchased illicitly after asking two people for the “Michael Jackson drug.”
She was also found guilty of attempted aggravated murder, with prosecutors saying she gave her husband a sandwich laced with fentanyl on Valentine’s Day two weeks before his death in an initial, failed attempt to kill him.
She was additionally found guilty of insurance fraud for taking out a $100,000 insurance policy on her husband’s life with his forged signature and for submitting a claim following his death.
Kouri Richins addresses court
Kouri Richins, who did not testify during her trial, addressed the court prior to her sentencing in what the defense said would be an “unusually long” allocution.
She spoke directly to her three children, referring to them as her “sweet baby boys,” saying she has been unable to contact them since early 2024 so “will use any opportunity I can to get a message to you — even if that means sharing it publicly to the world, fully restrained in my jail clothes, in one of the most horrible situations possible.”
“I don’t care, and I’m not embarrassed or ashamed by any of it,” she continued.
While surrounded by her attorneys at the podium in lime-green jail clothing and handcuffs during her nearly 40-minute remarks, she said her children are her reason for living and “I am so sorry for even one second you thought that I did for even one second you thought that I didn’t love you.”
“I know that today you don’t want to speak to me, have a relationship with me,” she said. “You may think you hate me, and that’s okay. I will never be angry at you for your feelings. When the day comes that you’re ready, I will be here for you, waiting for you, and loving you.”
She told them she is “not perfect.”
“I have succeeded and I have failed as a person, as a wife, as a parent — we all do,” she said.
Regarding her and her husband, she said, “We failed at some things, we never failed at loving you boys.”
She got emotional, telling them that they will always have their brothers.
“You have each other’s back,” she said.
Kouri Richins repeatedly told them to “be like their dad” and serve their community, be generous, love the outdoors and be a “noble son.”
“Be the friend everyone wants to be friends with, the dad that everyone wishes they had,” she said.
She said she may never see them again and apologized for them being in the middle of “absolute chaos.”
“I’m sorry that eight people from a jury who have never met you or me or our family have the right to determine our future, and they did that in less than three hours,” she said on her conviction.
She said she’s “broken” without her children and husband, and that the thought that she murdered their dad is an “absolute lie.”
“The thought of that is still as absurd today as it was four years ago,” she said.
“I would have never taken him from you, from us,” she continued.
She said she will appeal her conviction and fight the charges “no matter how long it takes.”
“I will not be blamed for something I did not do,” she said. “I need you boys to know the truth, and because of that, I will never quit the truth and coming home to you.”
Calls for life without parole
Prosecutors asked Judge Richard Mrazik to hand down a sentence of life without the possibility of parole, saying she “murdered Eric in the presence of their children, using poison, and for money.”
“Such a person should never again lurk among the rest of us,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum filed ahead of Wednesday’s hearing. “Her children should never worry that they may one day encounter her.”
The memo included statements from the couple’s three boys, who were 9, 7 and 5 years old when their father was murdered.
The eldest son, identified by his initials as C.R., wanted the court to know that “my dad was a good person and very thoughtful and kind and helped whoever needed help,” the filing stated.
Prosecutors said that the Utah Division of Child and Family Services supported a finding of emotional and physical abuse by Kouri Richins against C.R. following the death.
“I’m afraid if she gets out, she will come after me and my brothers, my whole family. I think she would come and take us and not do good things to us, like hurt us,” the filing stated. “I miss my dad, but I do not miss how my life used to be, I don’t miss Kouri, I will tell you that.”
The middle child, A.R., was a “material witness” to the murder, according to prosecutors, as Kouri Richins told police that she had gone into his room before returning to bed and finding her husband dead. Had he taken the stand during the trial, “A.R. would have testified at trial that the Defendant did not sleep in his room with him the night she murdered his father,” prosecutors stated.
A.R. said he doesn’t want his mother out of jail “because I will not feel safe,” the filing stated. The youngest son, W.R., also said he would feel “so scared” if his mother ever got out, and that she “makes me feel hateful and ashamed.”
The statements were read on their behalf by advocates during the sentencing hearing.
Defense attorney Wendy Lewis asked that the court not consider the state’s sentencing memo, arguing during the hearing that it contained “unsworn allegations untested by cross-examination” and was a “not-so-subtle attempt” to make public evidence that they held back or were unable to present in court because Kouri Richins did not testify.
Lewis disputed several points in the memo, saying that the Utah Division of Child and Family Services made an initial finding of emotional and physical abuse based on reports, sending the case to juvenile court, which she said found “no fault” — “in other words, that the children needed intervention, but due to no fault of Kouri Richins.”
Lewis also said that upon Kouri Richins’ arrest a year after the death, A.R.’s statements to police at the time were consistent with hers, that “Kouri had gone to sleep in his room” that night.
Judge Mrazik ultimately denied the defense’s request to strike portions of the state’s sentencing memo.
‘Permanent trauma’
The three boys are now in the care of one of Eric Richins’ sisters, Katie Richins-Benson, and her husband, according to the filing.
Richins-Benson urged the court to hand down a sentence that guarantees Kouri Richins will remain in prison for the rest of her life for the “permanent trauma” she’s inflicted on the children.
“The mere thought that someone who has so little regard for human life or decency might one day walk free is horrifying,” she said while delivering a victim impact statement in court on Wednesday. “I worry about the safety of Eric’s boys, my daughters, my sister and myself. There is nothing Kouri will not do and no one she will not hurt to achieve her own selfish ends.”
Several other family members delivered emotional victim impact statements during the hearing, held on what would have been Eric Richins’ 44th birthday, while also asking for the maximum sentence possible.
In addition to the maximum sentence, prosecutors asked that Kouri Richins be ordered to pay restitution to two insurance companies totaling more than $1.3 million.
Defense says she’s not a ‘monster’
Defense attorney Kathryn Nester argued during the sentencing hearing that Kouri Richins is not the “monster” portrayed by the prosecution, while asking the judge to consider conduct displayed over the course of her life.
Nester described Kouri Richins as a “human being, a mother, a daughter, a sister, a friend, a person that has made mistakes,” but also a person who has “completed acts of kindness and love and care toward others, a person who’s contributed to her community, a person who even in the darkest time of her life, reached out to help others who were incarcerated alongside her, a person who unselfishly tried to ease the pain her family and friends experienced as a result of this case.”
Defense attorney Wendy Lewis read in court a letter written by Kouri Richins’ mother, during which she asked the court to hand down a sentence that reflects accountability but also “allows the possibility of a future.”
Her mother also called the conviction a “profound injustice.”
“I do not believe Kouri is capable of committing a murder,” she wrote.
Other letters by family members and friends in support of Kouri Richins were read on their behalf or delivered in court. She could be seen crying as her brother addressed the court.
“I miss your family, I miss our family,” her brother, Ronnie Darden, told the court. “We don’t, with 100% certainty, know what happened to Eric, no one does, but we do know, with 100% certainty, that it wasn’t caused by you.”
Lewis asked for a sentence of 25 years to life, saying, “When you put aside all of the media, all of the interest, and you look at the crime she is convicted of, this is an appropriate sentence.”
“A sentence of 25 to life is not a sentence that guarantees the release of Kouri Richins,” Lewis continued. “It is not saying that she even should be released. What it is saying is that the decision whether she should be released is a decision for someone else to make on another day — a day that will be at the minimum 25 to 30 years in the future, a future that could look very different than today.”
Prosecutors argued that Kouri Richins was having an affair and wanted a “fresh start” and to leave her husband — but didn’t want to leave his money. They said she was in “financial desperation” due to her house flipping business’ debts and needed a significant influx of cash immediately.
According to prosecutors, she believed she would have financially benefited from her husband’s death — without realizing that his assets were in a trust overseen by one of his sisters, Katie Richins-Benson.
The defense, meanwhile, said the case was “sloppy” and “driven by bias” and argued that the state failed to prove the allegations beyond a reasonable doubt. The defense called no witnesses.
Kouri Richins also faces more than two dozen charges in a separate case filed last year, including allegations that she committed mortgage fraud in 2021. The charging document alleges she submitted falsified bank statements in support of mortgage loan applications for her realty business, committed money laundering and issued bad checks.
The charges in the case also allege she murdered her husband for financial gain as she “stood on the precipice of total financial collapse.”
She has not yet entered a plea to those charges.
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