Jury hears opening statements in murder trial of Utah mother accused of fatally poisoning her husband

By Nicki Brown, CNN

(CNN) — A jury heard opening statements Monday in the murder trial of Kouri Richins, a Utah mother accused of poisoning her husband and then writing a children’s book about coping with grief.

Prosecutors allege Kouri Richins, 35, killed her husband Eric Richins with a lethal dose of fentanyl. She is also accused of attempting to poison him on Valentine’s Day, just weeks before his death.

“The evidence will prove that Kouri Richins murdered Eric for his money and to get a fresh start at life,” Brad Bloodworth, chief prosecutor in the Summit County Attorney’s Office, said in his opening statement Monday. “More than anything, she wanted his money to perpetuate her facade of privileged affluence and success.”

Kouri Richins has pleaded not guilty to counts of aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, insurance fraud and forgery. In her own opening statement, Richins’ defense attorney acknowledged her client is a “flawed person,” but said jurors would see by the end of the case that she is innocent.

If convicted of the most serious charge, she could face up to life in prison.

After opening statements, Utah prosecutors called their first witnesses, starting with Eric Richins’ father and sister.

Eric Richins, 39, was found dead in the couple’s bedroom in March 2022 with about five times the lethal dosage of fentanyl in his system, according to charging documents.

“That extraordinary amount of fentanyl was intentional, not accidental,” Bloodworth said.

About a year after her husband died, Kouri Richins wrote a children’s book about coping with the death of a loved one. In May 2023, she was arrested and charged with the murder of her husband.

Hours before Eric Richins’ death, his wife brought cocktails up to their room, then left to sleep in the bedroom of one of their sons, according to an account she gave investigators outlined in court records. When she returned to the master bedroom around 3 a.m., she said she found Eric Richins dead in their bed.

During the defense’s opening statement, the court heard the call Kouri Richins made to emergency services the day of her husband’s death.

“I just came into bed, in our bed, and I turned over and he’s just cold, he’s just cold,” Richins said on the call. She told the 911 operator she didn’t know what happened.

Defense attorney Kathy Nester said throughout the case, Richins has repeatedly “told her truth.”

“It’s exactly what she told that 911 operator that you just heard, and you’re going to hear over and over again: ‘I don’t know what happened,’” Nester told the jury. “You’re going to hear that Eric Richins’ family simply could not accept that. They needed someone or something to blame for losing someone they loved that wasn’t Eric himself, and that’s totally understandable.”

Eric Richins took marijuana gummies to help his back pain, some of which he got from dispensaries and others from unknown sources, Nester said. Kouri Richins told investigators after her husband’s death that she believed they could have contained fentanyl, according to court documents.

An empty bottle for pain pills was found in Eric Richins’ nightstand after his death, Nester said. The bottle’s label said the pills were prescribed to Eric Richins and had expired in 2016, she said.

Kouri Richins was ‘chronically unhappy’ in marriage, prosecutor says

Prosecutors allege Kouri Richins killed her husband to profit off his lucrative business and life insurance policies – funds she could then use to support her struggling real estate business.

On the day of Eric Richins’ death, his estate was worth roughly $4 million, and his wife owed more than $4.5 million to over 20 different lenders, Bloodworth said. Eric Richins’ life was insured for more than $2 million through several life insurance policies, one of which prosecutors allege his wife fraudulently applied for weeks before he died.

Kouri Richins was also “chronically unhappy” in her marriage and wanted to start a new life with another man she was seeing, Bloodworth said.

Nester acknowledged the couple had an “imperfect marriage” and had previously contemplated divorce, but said the couple decided to stay together after going through marriage counseling. One of Eric Richins’ friends said the couple was the happiest he’d ever seen them in the weeks before his death, the defense attorney said.

A woman who cleaned Kouri Richins’ houses told investigators that Richins asked for fentanyl in early 2022, charging documents said. The woman said she bought more than 15 pills she believed contained fentanyl on February 11, 2022, and then gave them to Richins.

On Valentine’s Day, a few days later, Richins left her husband a sandwich and a note before leaving to meet up with her “paramour,” prosecutors said in charging documents.

Later that day, Eric Richins told two friends he felt like he was going to die after eating the sandwich, according to the charging documents. “I think my wife is trying to poison me,” he said to one. He told the other friend he broke out in hives, then injected himself with an EpiPen and drank a bottle of Benadryl.

In her opening statement, Nester said Eric Richins had an allergic reaction to the sandwich, which “wasn’t even a blip to Eric.”

In late February 2022, Richins allegedly asked the woman for more fentanyl, saying the previous drugs were not strong enough. Prosecutors said the woman bought more drugs on February 26, 2022, and her phone records show contact with Richins around the time she met with the drug dealer.

Within a week, Eric Richins was dead.

Kouri Richins deleted cell phone messages and data from the months surrounding her husband’s death, Bloodworth said, showing she had a “guilty conscience.”

After Kouri Richins was informed of her husband’s cause of death, her phone’s internet history allegedly included visits to websites about women’s prisons in Utah, life insurance payments, and how police recover deleted cell phone data.

A defense attorney who no longer represents Richins previously said the searches were merely a response to the investigation at the time and not indicative of guilt.

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