The Utah woman who wrote a children’s book about her husband’s death — and was then charged with killing him — was bound for trial Tuesday following a preliminary hearing.
Kouri Richins, 34, pleaded not guilty to all 11 charges she faces, including counts of aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder. Her trial was scheduled to begin April 28, 2025.
Richins’ defense team attempted to poke holes in the prosecution’s case that she was behind the death of her husband, Eric Richins, at their home in Kamas on March 3, 2022. However, prosecutors only needed to establish probable cause, not definitive guilt, to send the case to trial.
“These are great trial arguments,” Judge Richard Mrazik said at one point. Richins has been jailed since her arrest in May 2023.
According to investigators, Richins’ home-flipping business and her marriage to Eric were falling apart in early 2022. She was allegedly cheating on her husband and attempted to poison him on Valentine’s Day by putting fentanyl in his “favorite sandwich,” according to police.
Eric fell ill after taking a bite of the sandwich and texted a friend, “I think my wife tried to poison me,” according to charging documents.
About three weeks later, Richins made her husband a Moscow mule cocktail. Eric Richins never woke up the next morning. An autopsy revealed he had five times the lethal dose of fentanyl in his system.
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“One or two pills might be accidental. Twenty — or five times the lethal dose — is not accidental. That is someone who wants Eric dead,” Summit County Chief Prosecutor Patricia Cassell said.
After Eric’s death, Richins wrote and self-published a children’s book about grief titled “Are You with Me?” The book was about a father with angel wings watching over his young children.
With News Wire Services