ERIC RICHINS: Utah vs. Kouri Richins - Murder via fentanyl poisoning *GUILTY* (1 Viewer)

Utah mom accused of killing husband with fentanyl in drink tried to poison him multiple times before, family says

Despite the suspicions, Eric Richins stayed in the marriage with Kouri Richins because of his children, his family's spokesperson said.

www.nbcnews.com

May 10, 2023, 6:16 PM EDT / Updated May 11, 2023, 9:18 AM EDT
By Minyvonne Burke, Antonio Planas and Andrew Blankstein

A Utah man who died after his wife allegedly spiked his drink with fentanyl — and then wrote a children's book about grief — had suspected she tried to poison him multiple times and said “she was to blame” if anything happened to him, according to court records.

Despite the suspicions, a family spokesperson told NBC News on Wednesday that Eric Richins stayed in the marriage with Kouri Richins because of his children.


Eric Richins, 39, died March 4, 2022, at his home in Kamas, about 40 miles southeast of Salt Lake City, after he was found unresponsive in his bedroom. Kouri Richins, 33, was arrested Monday on charges of aggravated murder and three counts of possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute.

An attorney for Kouri Richins, Skye Lazaro, declined to comment Wednesday.

According to affidavits for search warrants obtained Wednesday from the Summit County Sheriff's Office, relatives of Eric Richins told investigators to look into his wife's involvement.

"They advised he warned them that if anything happened to him she was to blame," the records said. Eric Richins, according to the records, suspected his wife had tried to poison him on multiple occasions.

"According to a sister, Eric and his wife went to Greece a few years ago and after his wife gave him a drink he became violently ill and called his sister saying he believed his wife had tried to kill him," the records said.

"On Valentine’s Day of 2022, his wife brought him a sandwich, which after one bite Eric broke into hives and couldn’t breathe. He used his son’s epi-pen as well as Benadryl before passing out for several hours," according to the records.

He was looking into a divorce and had changed his power of attorney, his will and the beneficiary of his life insurance policy from his wife to his sister, the records said.

Two family members said Eric Richins told them he was worried “Kouri would kill him for money and he wanted to make sure the kids were taken care of financially,” the records said.

<snip>

The medical examiner said that he had five times the lethal dosage of fentanyl in his system and that it was "illicit" fentanyl, not medical-grade. It is also believed he ingested the drugs orally, according to the statement.

It appears she never performed CPR on him as she claimed, the search warrant records said, because of the large amount of blood that came from his mouth.

His family said that Eric Richins never told his wife he had “cut her out of the will” and that the couple were also arguing over buying a $2 million home that she wanted to flip, according to the records.

The family said he was planning to tell her he wasn’t going to sign the papers, but the day after his death, she signed the closing papers on the home, the records said.

After she closed on the home, she invited her friends over for a large party at her home where she was drinking and celebrating, an affidavit for a search warrant said.

 

[GrandmaBear]

OMG this trial is not boring but the defense is sooooooooo sickening in their b.s. I'm going to leave it there. I would think they are alienating jurors big time. Not sure how the judge is putting up with it but he's good.

 

[GrandmaBear]

Lots of breaks, kind of a messed up day that way, but the big thing is that Carmen was testifying, the housekeeper who got Kouri the drugs. She is still on the stand and will be starting out today. She did great but the defense started attacking her and are pretty cruel. They upset us all, absolutely everyone I've seen in chats. They are just sickening in their behavior and rude to the judge as well. I can't imagine it is winning them any points with jurors.

The D atty was asking her long questions that made no sense that I could not even follow what she was asking and attempting to confuse her. They try every trick in the book and it's getting really old. Carmen has held her own pretty well but did get confused by some of those kinds of questions. They do it with other witnesses as well and try to confuse dates and more. It's disgusting.

Carmen has been in tears on the stand more than once. They started in about some learning disability she has that she did not want to talk of.

She maintained mostly and towards the end of the day I felt she was bouncing back pretty well.

She got drugs I believe for Kouri 4 times but defense keeps trying to say 3 times. Again all sorts of trying to confuse and again like I asid, they even confuse us so it's a nasty tactic.

Carmen was upfront about her previousi drugs problems.

Anyhow that's the big key thing from yesterday is her on the stand.

THe defense is unlikable as they come. I can't stand them. Sure they need to do something I guess but I don't think they're very good--this might sound like they are for a defense but they are not, imo they are alienating the jury.

The other thing is the judge was stressing a lot for attorneys to stay away from jurors though. I think something must have happened to have caused that...

 

[GrandmaBear]

Oh and defense repeatedly tried to get the tox lady to say things meant Eric (victim) had taken fentanyl before. The witness did good at not going there and disagreeing but didn't stop the defense from trying repeatedly to try to make that (false) point.

It's really sickening.

 

[GrandmaBear]

Nate's are long but if his recaps are preferred, and they are good, here's his.

 

[GrandmaBear]

I've heard of Kouri compared to looking like Olive Oyl which was funny as heck, now yesterday someone said she looks like Peewee Herman lol, and I'm starting to think she looks like a pale bad female version of a Keebler elf.

 

[Kimster]

Carmen did well, in my opinion. I heard from a former FBI investigator on one of the channels that if someone who agrees to testify in order to get off on charges, they have to be completely honest or the charges all come back on them. Even if they tell one itsy-bitsy lie. I felt like she was doing her best.

And when the defense attorney said, “drug addicts lie”, and then Carmen said, “active drug addicts”, I thought that was a great response. Nate really didn’t say much about Carmen‘s response.

The fact that they could prove that Eric died of a fentanyl overdose, they couldn’t find any other fentanyl in the house, and now they have the person who gave the fentanyl to Kouri - that proves a lot to me. It’s a trail of evidence.

 

[GrandmaBear]

Carmen did well, in my opinion. I heard from a former FBI investigator on one of the channels that if someone who agrees to testify in order to get off on charges, they have to be completely honest or the charges all come back on them. Even if they tell one itsy-bitsy lie. I felt like she was doing her best.

And when the defense attorney said, “drug addicts lie”, and then Carmen said, “active drug addicts”, I thought that was a great response. Nate really didn’t say much about Carmen‘s response.

The fact that they could prove that Eric died of a fentanyl overdose, they couldn’t find any other fentanyl in the house, and now they have the person who gave the fentanyl to Kouri - that proves a lot to me. It’s a trail of evidence.

She has done well. Right now they are trying to impeach her. I doubt the defense has the smoking gun they are pretending they do. It is sickening.

To me, her getting drugs, would be smarter for the D to admit but try to say she was getting them because Eric wanted them. Which is not true of course but I think it would be a smarter move because it is CLEAR Kouri was buying drugs.

Yes, Carmen said active drug addicts but the D atty had to add commentary something like "that's right, addicts lie".

To me this case takes all of the evidence, when they get to her behavior and financial motives, that will seal the deal.

It's sickening to watch the defense and it's not like they are some great defense either, it's just all sickening when they are up.

I am sure they are likely alienating the jury and would hope so.

 

[GrandmaBear]

Lunch. My goodness, defense was SICKENING and finally rested on Carmen. She did well and imo defense should have been chastised more than they were. And they were a few times.

Prosecution after tried to get transcripts in to show what D took out of context in clips was not the case but judge denied. Needs to be some foundation or some such and it's 900+ pages.

Not going to share a play by play, would be too much.

 

[GrandmaBear]

Well this has been QUITE the trial day. Both witnesses and now our feed was cut because Court TV did something wrong and the judge stopped them from televising. Not the first time they've ever done such.

 

[GrandmaBear]

It's being conjectured because there was an undercover officer on the stand and we were all seeing him... SUPPOSEDLY it will be back on when he is done testifying but if that was the reason, the damage was already done.

I also doubt it will be back today simply because the defense does not now how to question a witness and get done. They go on and on and on and on.

 

[GrandmaBear]

Well the feed did come back up after the undercover guy was done testifying. I gather Court TV is yelling that it wasn't their fault and they didn't know/weren't told. Not sure if I buy that or not, I guess we will wait and see.

They had a few on today but one was the guy drug seller of the fentanyl who denies it was fentanyl and was totally unbelievable. He was also weirdly soft to the defense... I thinik the undercover guy was to refute his lies perhaps but we didn't get to hear him the way things went...

The defense is absolutely sickening and irritating as he77 to watch. They say just a couple of questions and two or three hours later... Sigh.

I wouldn't say it's been a dull trial though...

 

[GrandmaBear]

Well defense gets pretty dull but witnesses have been interesting, etc...

 

[GrandmaBear]

 

[GrandmaBear]

this is afternoon recap. she does a morning one too all can find.

 

[Kimster]

I don’t know about the guy drug dealer. And I don’t know about the defense kissing his butt, either. He insists he would not sell fentanyl, but I wonder if that’s because he doesn’t want everybody to think that he’s a murderer. He did admit, though, that sometimes oxies were sold and they were actually fentanyl back four years ago. He just claims that he never did that. How would he know if they were faked? But at the same time, if Kouri was asking for oxies, that doesn’t sound like somebody trying to murder someone.

All in all, I don’t think the drug dealer’s testimony was good for the prosecution. It will be interesting where we go from here.

 

[GrandmaBear]

I don’t know about the guy drug dealer. And I don’t know about the defense kissing his butt, either. He insists he would not sell fentanyl, but I wonder if that’s because he doesn’t want everybody to think that he’s a murderer. He did admit, though, that sometimes oxies were sold and they were actually fentanyl back four years ago. He just claims that he never did that. How would he know if they were faked? But at the same time, if Kouri was asking for oxies, that doesn’t sound like somebody trying to murder someone.

All in all, I don’t think the drug dealer’s testimony was good for the prosecution. It will be interesting where we go from here.

It's hard to say because we couldn't hear the testimony of the undercover drug cop. He was right afterwards so my thought is he was brought in to be able to say Robbie did indeed sell fentanyl or something....

I suspect he didn't wan to admit to selling the worse drugs. He also said he only sold oxycodone and not oxycontin but I mean he's a dealer, so not sure I buy that. Of the two, Carmen is more believable and she said Kouri asked her to get fentanyl and that's what she asked for. Robbie did say that whatever he was asked for he got...

Every witness in this trial has been in methodical order so the undercover drug guy imo had to be something to do with Robbie. I mean what else would he have been there to testify to? They knew Robbie was likely going to do this because he tried to back off his statement a month or so again. The thing is though he signed a prior statement.

No, he wasn't ideal but it isn't about just his testimony... If you watch Gigi's recap, as I said, she said it and more, Carmen is the more believable. Robbie was shifty in the stand imo. Eric DID die of fentanyl overdose and Kouri was the one getting illegal drugs several times, not Eric. The Walk the Dog Letter is still to come as well and all her motives and financial crimes, and the way she acted about Eric's death, or more like didn't react.

So anyhow, not sure... It is a largely circumstantial case. If one watched his testimony, the defense atty and him were definitely shining up to each other for lack of better words for it.

To be fair though, there was also the witness that said an investigator told her he'd bring a pole for her dog, etc. but she clearly did not want to testify or be involved.

All I know is almost no one out there, including me, thinks Kouri innocent. It remains to see how the jury feels.

The defense is terrible imo but if honest, I'd also say the prosecution could do a lot better than they are as well but at least they can be comprehended. Watch Gigi's if you get a chance. Lewis was absolutely almost impossible to understand, even the judge had to come down on her a few times and could not follow her and Carmen told her the same, that she was impossible to follow.

Just my observations on it. I've watched the whole trial every day. Had to miss a few parts due to appts., but then I went back and watched them.

 

[GrandmaBear]

Not sure if I've mentioned it, but an audience member was caught sketching jurors. A juror actually I think wrote a note and gave it to the bailiff to report to the judge, been a long week but if I recall it was Thursday. They took the sketches away and the member of the public is now banned.

WHAT is wrong with people??

Also in this trial, judge has made a big point of saying to attorneys to NOT interact with jurors if they see them during breaks.

Just some extra tidbits that are a bit of note.

 

[GrandmaBear]

 

[GrandmaBear]

The above is a short. Brief. Worth listening to, not just about the one horse, one rider, BUT about if ANY of the attys see a juror out in the "wild"...

 

[Guess Who]

I don’t know about the guy drug dealer. And I don’t know about the defense kissing his butt, either. He insists he would not sell fentanyl, but I wonder if that’s because he doesn’t want everybody to think that he’s a murderer. He did admit, though, that sometimes oxies were sold and they were actually fentanyl back four years ago. He just claims that he never did that. How would he know if they were faked? But at the same time, if Kouri was asking for oxies, that doesn’t sound like somebody trying to murder someone.

All in all, I don’t think the drug dealer’s testimony was good for the prosecution. It will be interesting where we go from here.

Or possibly that he didn't know they contained it or his dealer after didn't know or didn't tell him?