Utah 'black widow' Kouri Richins found guilty of fatally poisoning husband

A Utah jury found a mother of three guilty of fatally poisoning her husband with a fentanyl-laced cocktail, a crime that drew national attention when the woman wrote a children's book about grief and the loss of a loved one.

Jurors deliberated for just over three hours on March 16, before finding Kouri Darden Richins guilty of first-degree aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, forgery and insurance fraud in the death of her husband. 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. 

Just before jurors walked in, Richins, 35, was visibly shaken and breathing deeply. When the judge read the verdict on the murder count, Richins put her head down but showed little emotion.

“We the jury unanimously agree that the prosecution has proved the following circumstance … beyond reasonable doubt: The homicide was committed for pecuniary gain and the homicide was committed by means of the administration of any substance administered in any lethal amount, dosage or quantity," Judge Richard Mrazik read on behalf of jurors.

Family members of Eric Richins who were in the courtroom wiped their tears and held hands.

“Honestly, I feel like we’re all in shock," Eric Richins' sister, Amy Richin, told the Associated Press. "It’s been a long time coming'

She told the AP that the family can now focus on honoring her brother and supporting his three sons, and that they're "very happy that we got justice for my brother.”

In his closing statement to jurors, chief prosecutor Brad Bloodworth described Kouri Richins as an "intensely ambitious" woman who created a facade of success even as her business was in a "downward financial death spiral." She wanted to leave Eric Richins, but the couple's prenuptial agreement meant that she would get very little money if they divorced, Bloodworth said.

Bloodworth said that Kouri Richins forged Eric Richins' signature on life insurance paperwork and collected benefits. And on the day of his death, he said she began crafting her alibi during her call to 911.

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

Defense attorney Wendy Lewis argued that prosecutors had little evidence that Kouri Richins killed her husband. Eric Richins suffered from pain and could have brought illicit drugs home after a recent trip to Mexico, she argued.

Lewis 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."

Here's what else you need to know about the case, including when Kouri Richins will be sentenced and what punishment she's facing:

Prosecutors say 'black widow' poisoned her husband twice

Chief prosecutor Bloodworth told jurors that Kouri Richins 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 gave her husband a poisoned celebratory drink less than a month later. It killed him within hours.

When Kouri Richins knew that police were investigating her, she deflected suspicion by commissioning the children's book − "Are You With Me?" − to be written, Bloodworth said.

Prosecutors called dozens of witnesses over the course of the trial, including Kouri Richins' former house cleaner, who told jurors she bought drugs for the widow on multiple occasions, though the dealer she claimed to have purchased them from disputed parts of her story on the stand.

“Please tell me these pills were not for him," Carmen Lauber, the house cleaner, said she told Kouri Richins after learning that Eric Richins was dead.

“No, they were not. Eric passed away from a brain aneurysm," Kouri Richins responded, according to Lauber.

Defense denies grieving widow killed her husband for money

Defense attorney Lewis argued that what happened to Eric Richins on Valentine's Day in 2022 was an allergic reaction, not attempted murder, and that there was no evidence of how he ingested the fatal dose of fentanyl.

Lewis also attacked the credibility of the prosecution's witnesses, pointing out that two of them, private investigator Todd Gabler and forensic accountant Brooke Karrington, were first hired by Eric Richins' family to conduct investigations for a related civil case. She said that Carmen Lauber was an unreliable witness who recounted an untrue story fed to her by police on the stand to avoid prison time.

She said an affair could be one reason that Kouri Richins deleted incriminating text messages from her phone, but it was not a motive for murder. The state also failed to prove Kouri Richins signed the life insurance paperwork for her husband or that she didn't have permission from him to do so, she said.

“They don’t have the evidence that Kouri Richins killed her husband," she said. "So instead they have tried to show you as much evidence as they possibly can to convince you that she’s the sort of person that would."

Witnesses describe illicit drug buys, money motive and cover-up

During the trial, a forensic accountant walked jurors through financial records showing that Kouri Richins' financial situation was "imploding" around the time her husband died. She'd borrowed millions to support her real estate business before his death. Afterward, she spent $1.3 million in life insurance payments in just three months.

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 her husband's death. Prosecutors also presented mountains of evidence, including cell phone data showing that hundreds of text messages were deleted and searches were made on Kouri Richins' phone for information about whether police could recover them.

The search history also revealed queries about life insurance payments and women's prisons in Utah. “If someone is poisned what does it go down on the death certificate as?” one search asked.

The defense cross-examined witnesses and attempted to poke holes in the prosecution's case, but rested their case on March 12 without calling a single witness of their own. Kouri Richins spoke briefly in court and declined to testify.

When will Kouri Richins be sentenced?

Kouri Richins sentencing is set for May 13. She faces 25 years to life in prison.

Eric Richins' birthday is May 13 and had he not been killed, he would have turned 44 this year.