Utah woman Kouri Richins sentenced to life in prison for killing her husband with a fentanyl-laced cocktail
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A Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after her husband’s death will serve life in prison without parole for her murder, a judge ruled Wednesday.
Kouri Richins was convicted in March of aggravated manslaughter for spiking her husband Eric Richins’ cocktail with five times the dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. The jury also found her guilty of four counts, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks ago on Valentine’s Day.
His lawyer said he will appeal the conviction and sentence.
“A person convicted of those things is too dangerous to be free again,” said Judge Richard Mrazik when he handed down the sentence on the day Eric Richins would have turned 44.
Prosecutors say Richins, a 35-year-old real estate and brokerage, has millions of dollars in debt and is planning a future with another man. She had taken out multiple life insurance policies on her husband, Eric Richins, without his knowledge and falsely believing that she would inherit his inheritance, worth more than $4 million US, after his death.
‘Don’t let me down’: Richins
Richins stood at the podium wearing a green prison uniform as she asked her sons who were not in court, “Please don’t give up on me.”
Richins faces several decades in prison. He has always maintained that he is innocent, saying on Wednesday that the verdict was “a blatant lie.”
Eugene Richins’ father, Eugene Richins, urged Mrazik to serve life without parole to protect his grandchildren, who were nine, seven and five when their father died.
“This sentence is important so Eric’s three sons will never live in fear that the person who took their father might hurt them again,” he said during the sentencing hearing, on the day his son turned 44 years old.
The case caught the attention of true crime enthusiasts when Richins was arrested in 2023 while promoting his children’s book about a boy dealing with the death of his father.
The Richins’ sons “are not the stuff of a twisted children’s book about grief and loss, yet that’s what Kouri was deprived of,” said her sister-in-law Katie Richins-Benson, who now has the boys in her care.
The court hears letters from the sons
Letters from the sons of the court were read. They all said they would feel unsafe if their mother ever got out of prison. The children said Richins threatened to kill their animals and showed them videos of children starving in war zones when they refused to eat uncooked food.
“You took my father for no reason other than greed, he only cared about you and your stupid boyfriends,” said the middle son, now 11 years old. He explained that he had to “be a parent” to his younger brother because his mother was not looking after them. Richins made the boy distraught by sitting next to his father in bed, saying he might die, he alleges.
The older son, now 13 years old, said he also felt like he had to take care of his siblings, but his younger brother “was taking care of me a lot, because I was locking myself in my room.” He said his mother locked him inside “every day” when he was drunk.
“I will and always will put your safety first,” Richins said in court after hearing her sons’ statements.
