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A Utah youngsters’s e-book writer accused of killing her husband with a fentanyl-laced cocktail is now dealing with a homicide cost after new testimony reveals she was having an affair with a person and purchased 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. She wished to gather thousands and thousands in life insurance coverage cash, repair up a home and be along with her lover.
A Utah choose dominated on the second day of Kouri’s preliminary listening to that prosecutors had offered sufficient proof towards her to proceed with a jury trial.
“There are all the time two the reason why folks lose their minds and commit homicide. One is love, the opposite is cash,” prison protection lawyer Jonna Spilbor informed Fox Information Digital. “And Kouri Richins had each, as a result of now we all know that she reached out to a person that she had labored with in her flipping enterprise.”
UTAH CHILDREN’S BOOK AUTHOR ACCUSED OF MURDERING HUSBAND SPEAKS OUT FOR THE FIRST TIME: ‘THIS MEANS WAR’
Kouri Richins, a Utah mom of three who wrote a youngsters’s e-book about dealing with grief after her husband’s demise, appears to be like on throughout a listening to Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024, in Park Metropolis, Utah. (AP photograph/Rick Bowmer, Pool)
Digital forensics professional Chris Kotrodimos testified Monday that Kouri commonly texted Robert Grossman, her alleged lover earlier than her husband died, who labored as a handyman, repairing properties for Kouri that she deliberate to promote. New York Put up reported. Prosecutors described her alleged lover in earlier charging paperwork as her “mistress.”
On the night time Eric died, Kouri Grossman despatched a photograph of two folks kissing with the caption “love you,” in keeping with court docket paperwork. Within the week after his demise, Kouri Grossman despatched “love you” 5 occasions, the Day by day Mail reported.
“You do not textual content somebody and say ‘I like you,’ you do not textual content somebody your whereabouts. You do not textual content somebody every day except there is a relationship happening,” Spilbor mentioned.
“So now we even have proof that there was a lover, a ‘lover,’ within the shadow of Kouri Richins. So right here we’re with an entire host of motives… And you’ll make sure that when the case goes to trial, the proof of that motive might be on the forefront.”
“It isn’t trying good for Kouri Richins.”
Housekeeper Carmen Lauber additionally claims to have offered fentanyl to Kouri thrice, Summit County Sheriff’s Workplace Detective Jeff O’Driscoll mentioned on the stand Monday. O’Driscoll mentioned police first linked Lauber to Kouri Richins by means of a sequence of textual content messages and later arrested Lauber, saying medication and different unlawful objects have been present in her dwelling.
He mentioned Lauber informed him she had offered Kouri as much as 90 blue-green fentanyl tablets, and Lauber’s provider later confirmed to detectives that he had offered her the fentanyl she had requested. Officers discovered no fentanyl tablets on the Richins’ dwelling, the detective mentioned.
UTAH CHILDREN’S BOOK AUTHOR SENT CONVICTED TEXT TO CHARITY BEFORE MAN’S POISONING PLOT: DOCS
An obituary for Eric Richins describes him as an “avid outdoorsman and devoted hunter.” He loved serving to his household’s ranching enterprise and rising his “profitable” masonry enterprise. The obituary additionally describes him as a faithful household man. (Fb/Kouri Richins)
Prosecutors say Kouri killed Eric to gather thousands and thousands in life insurance coverage cash and promote a $2 million mansion in Wasatch County that was nonetheless underneath building when Eric died. Eric’s household says he did not comply with it.
Authorities mentioned Eric, Kouri and her mom Lisa Darden have been celebrating Kouri’s latest closing of the mansion the night time he died, in keeping with Summit County court docket data.
Kouri allegedly made her husband a fentanyl-laced cocktail that night time. A coroner decided that Eric had greater than 5 occasions the deadly quantity of the unlawful opioid in his system when he died.
The investigator additionally discovered “16,000 ng/ml of Quetiapine,” described as an atypical antipsychotic “generally used as a sleep help,” in Eric Richins’ abdomen fluid, the lawsuit states.
The subsequent day, Kouri reportedly made a deal for the mansion after her husband was declared lifeless.
Kouri pleaded not responsible to all 11 expenses Tuesday, the second morning of her preliminary listening to targeted on an extra tried homicide cost filed in March. She was accused of slipping fentanyl into her husband’s favourite sandwich on Valentine’s Day, inflicting a extreme however non-fatal response.
Richins’ attorneys, Kathy Nester and Wendy Lewis of Nester Lewis and Alexander Ramos of Langford Ramos, mentioned in a press release Tuesday: “We acknowledge that the preliminary listening to is extraordinarily biased towards the prosecution and respect the court docket’s determination. We firmly consider that the fees towards Kouri don’t stand up to rigorous scrutiny and we’re assured {that a} jury will discover the identical.
“Our focus now’s on making certain that justice is finished by means of a good trial. We’re dedicated to defending Kouri towards these expenses, with the agency perception that the reality will prevail. The previous 15 months have taken a horrible toll on Kouri and her three youngsters. It’s time to finish this ordeal, restore her life, and permit her and her household to maneuver on.”
UTAH MAN ALLEGEDLY MURDERED BY WRITER’S WIFE TOOK ‘HIGHLY UNUSUAL’ STEPS TO SHOOT HER AT WILL
The house the place Kouri Richins and Eric Richins lived is seen on Might 11, 2023, in Francis, Utah. Kouri Richins wrote a youngsters’s e-book about grief after her husband’s demise and now faces a homicide cost in connection along with his demise. (AP photograph/Rick Bowmer)
Summit County District Lawyer Brad Bloodworth mentioned Kouri realized classes through the first failed try and kill her husband, which helped her perform the homicide 17 days later.
Spilbor informed Fox Information Digital that proof that Kouri was having an affair and shopping for fentanyl tablets by means of Lauber is damaging to her protection. She mentioned prosecutors probably have extra proof that there was a romantic relationship between Kouri and Grossman, and that might be essential at trial.
“If the jury could make a compelling case that she obtained fentanyl, that he died of fentanyl poisoning, and that she was the final particular person to see him alive, then they are going to discover that form of proof actually vital,” Spilbor mentioned.
Spilbor additionally mentioned proof in trial will present that Kouri had an excessive amount of cash for her actual property portfolio and that her husband wished to file for divorce and lower her out of his will.
“There might be proof that her husband had a prenuptial settlement for a cause, and there might be proof that the one manner Kouri Richins may actually get forward financially was not by means of a divorce … however by means of his demise,” Spilbor mentioned, including that prosecutors didn’t essentially have to offer proof that the precise tablets she bought have been fatally ingested by her husband.
“While you add up all that potential proof, the jury would not care which you could’t match the precise fentanyl particles to that cup,” Spilbor mentioned.
Within the months main as much as her Might 2023 arrest, Kouri self-published the kids’s e-book “Are You with Me?” a few father with angel wings who watches over his younger son after he dies. The e-book may in the end play a key function in serving to prosecutors painting Eric Richins’ demise as a calculated homicide with an elaborate cover-up.
Kouri Richins, a Utah mom of three, is accused of killing her husband of 9 years, Eric Richins, with fentanyl. (AP Photograph/Rick Bowmer/household folder)
Spilbor mentioned writing the e-book isn’t prison in itself, though the intent is to not revenue from crimes. But it surely may infuriate jurors who would possibly discover her responsible anyway.
“Speak about hiding in plain sight. Speak about making an attempt to cowl up such a heinous crime when she has three youngsters. Which suggests these three youngsters now not have a father. After which profiting and penning this e-book and pretending to be a sufferer when in actuality you are the perpetrator. I imply, that is Hollywood stuff.
“And that might be an enormous blow to the jurors if they’re inclined to consider that every one the opposite proof might be used towards her.”
Audrey Conklin of Fox Information and The Related Press contributed to this report.
