Utah 'black widow' Kouri Richins sentenced in husband's death

Kouri Darden Richins on May 13 was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder of Eric Richins, her husband. The day would have been his 44th birthday.

Prosecutors say Kouri Richins, a Utah mother of three, was in dire financial straits when she fatally poisoned her affluent husband with a fentanyl-laced cocktail. Eric Richins, 39, died on March 4, 2022, of a fentanyl overdose at the couple's home in Kamas, Utah, a small mountain town about 40 miles east of Salt Lake City.

As police began investigating Kouri Richins, she tried to deflect suspicion and make money by commissioning a children's book about grief to be ghost-written for her, prosecutors said. After a three-week long trial, she was found guilty of first-degree aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, forgery and insurance fraud in March.

Kouri Richins repeatedly denied killing her husband in an emotional message to her children, telling them the accusation is "an absolute lie." Her attorneys and some loved ones asked the court for leniency. Eric Richins' family, the couple's children and the prosecution asked the court to sentence her to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

"I’m afraid if she gets out, she will come after me and my brothers, my whole family," the couple's 13-year-old son said in a statement, according to a sentencing memo filed May 12. "I think she would come and take us and not do good things to us, like hurt us."

Judge Richard Mrazik said that it would be impossible to predict how the couple’s children will feel decades from now about the possibility of their mother being released. But in light of the severity of her crimes, Mrazik said Kouri Richins is “simply too dangerous to ever be free.”

Family remembers Eric Richins as beloved father

Family members, including the couple's children, shared their memories of Eric Richins – a beloved father and businessman who volunteered his time coaching youth sports – in the courtroom. Many got emotional as they acknowledged that the sentencing fell on the man's birthday.

“He was a light to his sons, to the boys he coached and to our entire community,” his father, Gene Richins, said. “A light that was taken far too soon.”

Many family members also accused Kouri Richins of threatening and attacking them in the wake of the murder. Kouri Richins appeared shocked, shook her head and leaned over to speak with her lawyers multiple times as the statements were read.

Amy Richins said she lost her job and suffered a miscarriage amid the "limitless grief" over her brother's death. Eric Richins' other sister, Katie Richins-Benson, accused Kouri Richins of isolating and manipulating the couple's sons while attempting to take their inheritance. Some of the Richins' children described waking in fear the day their father died and being mistreated by Kouri Richins in statements read by their counselors.

"I can’t ever see my dad again," one child's statement said. "I want her to go to prison forever."

Kouri Richins denies killing her husband, vows to appeal

Kouri Richins spoke in court to address her children directly, offer advice and tell them that she’ll be there if they ever want to have a relationship with her. She said she’s “still in shock, still in disbelief” over her conviction and vowed to appeal.

“I will not be blamed for something I did not do,” she said.

Kouri Richins got emotional as her family, friends, investors, jail volunteers and three people who lawyers said have no direct connection to the case asked the court to impose a lighter sentence.

Some said they were not challenging the verdict, but said that bias had impacted the investigation and trial. Others went further, saying they believe Kouri Richins is innocent, including her attorneys and her mother Lisa Darden.

“I do not believe Kouri is capable of committing murder,” Darden said in a letter read by defense attorney Wendy Lewis.

Defense attorney Kathryn Nester said her client is “not the monster the prosecution portrays” and is capable of rehabilitation. Nester said her defense team will stand by Kouri Richins as she goes through the appeals process.

What did Kouri Richins do?

A forensic accountant testified that Kouri Richins' financial situation was "imploding" prior to her husband's death because she'd borrowed millions to support her real estate business. Chief prosecutor Brad Bloodworth told jurors that she asked her house cleaner to buy her "illicit street drugs" and left her husband a poisoned sandwich on Valentine's Day in 2022 in an attempt to kill him for money.

When that didn't work, Bloodworth said, Kouri Richins asked for stronger drugs and gave her husband a poisoned celebratory drink less than a month later. She reported him dead within hours in a 911 call that was played for the jury.

"The first minute is not the sound of a wife becoming a widow," Bloodworth said of the call. "It is the sound of a wife becoming a black widow."

In the wake of her husband's death, she spent $1.3 million in life insurance payments in just three months, according to testimony and financial records presented at trial. A man who said he was having an affair with Kouri Richins at the time testified for the prosecution, saying that she asked him if he had ever killed anyone and how it made him feel.

The lead detective in the case testified that while he was investigating, Kouri Richins hired a ghostwriting company to pen a children's book about grief and went on TV to promote it about a year after the murder.

Defense attorneys argued prosecutors lacked evidence that Kouri Richins was responsible for her husband's death, noting that Eric Richins suffered from pain and could have brought illicit drugs home after a recent trip to Mexico.

Lewis, the defense attorney, acknowledged that Kouri Richins' business was struggling. But given her husband's six-figure income, Lewis said he was "worth so much more to Kouri alive than dead."

Richins' lawyers questioned the prosecution's witnesses in tense cross-examinations, but rested their case on March 12 without calling a single witness of their own.