Closing arguments set in trial of Utah children’s book author charged with killing her husband
PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — Lawyers are expected to give closing arguments Monday in the trial of a Utah woman who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband and was later accused of killing him.
What was scheduled to be a five-week trial was cut short last week when defendant Kouri Richins waived her right to testify and her legal team abruptly rested its case without calling any witnesses. Richins’ attorneys said they were confident that prosecutors didn’t produce enough evidence over the past three weeks to convict her of murder.
Prosecutors say Richins, 35, slipped five times the lethal dose of fentanyl into a cocktail that she made for her husband, Eric Richins, causing his death in March 2022 at their home just outside the affluent ski town of Park City.
She also is charged with fraudulently claiming insurance benefits after her husband’s death, trying to kill him weeks earlier on Valentine’s Day with a fentanyl-laced sandwich that made him black out, and other felonies, according to court documents. Richins has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The most serious charge — aggravated murder — carries a sentence of 25 years to life in prison.
Prosecutors will aim to drive home their argument that Richins killed her husband for his money as she was planning a future with another man she was seeing on the side.
The defense is expected to argue that the prosecution’s case is full of holes and leaves much to speculation.
Millions in debt
Prosecutors have said Richins, a real estate agent focused on flipping houses, was $4.5 million in debt and falsely believed that if her husband died she would inherit his estate worth more than $4 million. She had opened numerous life insurance policies on her husband without his knowledge, with benefits totaling about $2 million, prosecutors alleged.
They showed the jury text messages between Richins and Robert Josh Grossman, the man with whom she was allegedly having an affair, in which she fantasized about leaving her husband, gaining millions in a divorce and one day marrying Grossman.
A digital forensics analyst showed the internet search history from Richins’ phone, which included “what is a lethal.dose.of.fetanayl (sic),” “luxury prisons for the rich America” and “if someone is poisned (sic) what does it go down on the death certificate as.”
Children’s book becomes a tool for prosecutors
Shortly before her arrest in May 2023, Richins self-published a children’s book about grief to help her sons process the loss of their father. She promoted the book “Are You with Me?” on local TV and radio stations, which prosecutors have pointed to in arguing that Richins planned the killing and tried to cover it up.
Summit County Sheriff’s detective Jeff O’Driscoll, the lead investigator on the case, testified that Richins paid a ghostwriting company to write the book for her.
O’Driscoll said the sheriff’s office received an anonymous package shortly after Richins’ arrest that contained the book and a note: “There are two sides to every story. This is a true Kouri, a devoted wife and adoring mother. Thought you should know.”
Investigators later learned from Amazon that Richins’ mother sent the book.
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Give us the details that will ensure Kouri gets convicted’
Defense attorneys sought to discredit the prosecution’s star witness, Carmen Lauber, a housekeeper for the family who claimed to have sold Richins fentanyl on multiple occasions.
Wendy Lewis, an attorney for Richins, argued Lauber did not deal fentanyl and was motivated to lie for legal protection. Lauber said in early interviews that she never dealt the synthetic opioid but later said she did after investigators informed her that Eric Richins died of a fentanyl overdose, the defense noted.
The housekeeper was already in a drug court program as an alternative to incarceration on other charges when authorities arrested her in connection with the Richins case, investigators said. She had also violated some conditions of drug court.
The defense showed a video of law enforcement warning Lauber that they could pull her drug court deal and that she could face a lengthy prison sentence.
“Give us the details that will ensure Kouri gets convicted of murder,” a man in the video said.
Lauber was granted immunity for her cooperation in the case. She testified that she felt a need to “step up and take accountability of my part in this.”
Jury hears letter found in jail cell
Prosecutors showed the jury excerpts of a letter found in Richins’ jail cell that they said appears to outline testimony for her mother and brother. In the six-page letter, Richins instructs her brother to tell her former attorney that Eric Richins confided in him about getting fentanyl from Mexico and “gets high every night.”
Defense attorneys said the letter contains a fictional story Richins had been working on. They have argued that Eric Richins was addicted to painkillers and asked his wife to procure opioids for him.
However, Richins told police on the night of her husband’s death that he had no history of illicit drug use, according to body camera footage shown in court.