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A Utah kids’s e-book writer accused of killing her husband with a cocktail laced with fentanyl will face a homicide trial within the wake of recent testimony suggesting she was having an affair with a person and that she bought the lethal drug from a housekeeper.
Kouri Richins, 34, a mom of three, is accused of poisoning her 39-year-old husband Eric Richins with a deadly dose of fentanyl at their dwelling in a small mountain city close to Park Metropolis in March 2022 as a method to gather hundreds of thousands in life insurance coverage funds, flip a home and be along with her lover.
A Utah state choose dominated on the second day of Kouri’s preliminary listening to that prosecutors had offered sufficient proof in opposition to her to proceed with a jury trial.
“There are at all times two the reason why individuals lose their thoughts and commit homicide. One among them is love, the opposite is cash,” legal protection legal professional Jonna Spilbor instructed Fox Information Digital. “And Kouri Richins had each as a result of now we all know that she was contacting a person who she had labored with in her flipping enterprise.”
UTAH CHILDREN’S BOOK AUTHOR ACCUSED OF KILLING HUSBAND SPEAKS OUT FOR 1ST TIME: ‘THIS MEANS WAR’
Kouri Richins, a Utah mom of three who wrote a kids’s e-book about dealing with grief after her husband’s loss of life, seems on throughout a listening to Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024, in Park Metropolis, Utah. (AP Picture/Rick Bowmer, Pool)
Digital forensic knowledgeable Chris Kotrodimos testified on Monday that Kouri commonly despatched textual content messages to Robert Grossman, her alleged lover earlier than her husband died, who labored as a handyman repairing properties for Kouri which she supposed to promote, the New York Put up reported. Prosecutors in earlier charging paperwork described her alleged lover as her “paramour.”
On the night time Eric died, Kouri texted Grossman a photograph of two individuals kissing that was captioned, “love you,” courtroom paperwork reveal. Within the week following his loss of life, Kouri texted Grossmann “love you,” 5 instances, based on the Every day Mail.
“You do not textual content someone and say, ‘I like you,’ you do not textual content someone along with your whereabouts. You do not textual content someone every day until there is a relationship occurring,” Spilbor stated.
“So now we even have proof that lo and behold, there was a lover, a ‘paramour’ within the shadows of Kouri Richins. So right here we’re with an entire lot of motive… And you may guess when the case will get tied over for trial, the proof of that motive will probably be entrance and middle.”
“It ain’t wanting good for Kouri Richins.”
Housekeeper Carmen Lauber additionally claims to have bought fentanyl to Kouri on three events, Det. Jeff O’Driscoll of the Summit County Sheriff’s Workplace stated on the stand Monday. O’Driscoll stated police first linked Lauber to Kouri Richins by a collection of textual content messages and later arrested Lauber, saying medicine and different unlawful objects had been discovered at her dwelling.
He stated Lauber instructed him she had bought Kouri as much as 90 blue-green fentanyl tablets and Lauber’s provider later confirmed to detectives that he had bought her the fentanyl she requested. Officers didn’t discover any fentanyl tablets within the Richins’ dwelling, the detective stated.
UTAH CHILDREN’S BOOK AUTHOR SENT DAMNING TEXT TO LOVER BEFORE HUBBY POISON PLOT: DOCS
An obituary for Eric Richins describes him as an “avid outdoorsman and devoted hunter.” He loved serving to his household’s cattle ranch and rising his “profitable” masonry enterprise. The obituary additionally describes him as a devoted household man. (Fb/Kouri Richins)
Prosecutors allege that Kouri killed Eric as a method to gather hundreds of thousands in life insurance coverage funds and flip a $2 million Wasatch County mansion that was underneath development on the time of Eric’s loss of life, an funding that his household stated he didn’t approve of.
The night time Eric died, authorities say he, Kouri and her mom, Lisa Darden, had been celebrating Kouri’s latest closure of the mansion in query, based on Summit County courtroom paperwork.
Kouri allegedly made a cocktail for her husband spiked with fentanyl that night. A medical expert decided that Eric had greater than 5 instances the deadly quantity of the illicit opioid in his system when he died.
The examiner additionally discovered “16,000 ng/ml of Quetiapine,” described as an atypical antipsychotic remedy that’s “broadly used as a sleep support,” in Eric Richins’ gastric fluid, charging paperwork state.
The subsequent day, Kouri allegedly closed a deal on the mansion after her husband was pronounced lifeless.
Kouri entered pleas of “not responsible” to all 11 counts on Tuesday, the second morning of her preliminary listening to centered round a further tried homicide cost filed in March that accused her of slipping fentanyl into her husband’s favourite sandwich on Valentine’s Day, inflicting a extreme however nonfatal response.
Richins’ attorneys, Kathy Nester and Wendy Lewis of Nester Lewis and Alexander Ramos of Langford Ramos, stated in an announcement Tuesday: “We’re conscious that the preliminary listening to stage favors the prosecution to a rare diploma and respect the courtroom’s determination. We firmly consider the fees in opposition to Kouri don’t stand up to thorough scrutiny and are assured {that a} jury will discover the identical.
“Our focus now could be on making certain that justice is served by a good trial. We’re dedicated to defending Kouri in opposition to these expenses, firmly believing that the reality will prevail. These previous fifteen months have taken a heavy toll on Kouri and her three kids. It’s time to carry this ordeal to an finish, restore her life, and permit her and her household to maneuver on.”
UTAH MAN ALLEGEDLY MURDERED BY AUTHOR WIFE TOOK ‘HIGHLY UNUSUAL’ STEPS TO BOOT HER OUT OF WILL
The home the place Kouri Richins and Eric Richins lived is proven, Could 11, 2023, in Francis, Utah. Kouri Richins who wrote a kids’s e-book about grief after her husband’s loss of life and can now face a homicide trial in relation to his loss of life. (AP Picture/Rick Bowmer)
Summit County Prosecutor Brad Bloodworth argued Kouri realized classes in the course of the first unsuccessful try on her husband’s life that helped her perform the killing 17 days later.
Spilbor instructed Fox Information Digital that proof alleging Kouri had an affair and bought fentanyl capsule gross sales through Lauber is damaging to her protection. She stated that prosecutors possible have additional proof there was a romantic relationship occurring between Kouri and Grossman and that may show essential at trial.
“Circumstantially, for the jury to say she acquired her palms on fentanyl, he died of fentanyl poisoning, she was the final one to see him alive, they’ll actually hold their hats on that kind of proof,” Spilbor stated.
Spilbor additionally stated that proof at trial will present that Kouri was overextended along with her actual property portfolio and that her husband was wanting into getting a divorce and taking her out of his will.
“There’s going to be proof that her husband had a prenuptial settlement for a cause, and there is going to be proof that the one method Kouri Richins stood to essentially acquire monetarily was not from a divorce… however from his loss of life,” Spilbor stated, including that prosecutors wouldn’t essentially have to offer proof that the precise tablets she bought had been fatally consumed by her husband.
“While you string all of that potential proof collectively, it ain’t going to matter to a jury that you may’t join the precise fentanyl dots to that cup,” Spilbor stated.
Within the months earlier than her arrest in Could 2023, Kouri self-published the youngsters’s e-book “Are You with Me?” a couple of father with angel wings watching over his younger son after passing away. The e-book might ultimately play a key position for prosecutors in framing Eric Richins’ loss of life as a calculated killing with an elaborate cover-up try.
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother of three, is accused of killing her husband of 9 years, Eric Richins, with fentanyl. (AP Picture/Rick Bowmer/household handout)
Spilbor stated that writing the e-book in and of itself is not legal, though you are not purported to revenue off crimes, however it might incense any juror who’s inclined to seek out her responsible anyway.
“Discuss hiding in plain sight. Discuss making an attempt to cowl up such an egregious crime as she has three kids. Which suggests these three children not have a dad. After which to revenue and write this e-book and act like a sufferer when you find yourself really the perpetrator. I imply, that is Hollywood stuff.
“And that that may actually punch a variety of the jurors within the intestine if they’re inclined to consider all the different proof that we anticipate will probably be used in opposition to her.”
Fox Information’ Audrey Conklin and The Related Press contributed to this report.
