Utah children’s book author Kouri Richins had 2 motives to kill husband: expert

A Utah children’s book author accused of killing her husband with a cocktail laced with fentanyl will face a murder trial in the wake of new testimony suggesting she was having an affair with a man and that she purchased the deadly drug from a housekeeper.

Kouri Richins, 34, a mother of three, is accused of poisoning her 39-year-old husband Eric Richins with a lethal dose of fentanyl at their home in a small mountain town near Park City in March 2022 as a means to collect millions in life insurance funds, flip a house and be with her lover.

A Utah state judge ruled on the second day of Kouri’s preliminary hearing that prosecutors had presented enough evidence against her to proceed with a jury trial.

“There are always two reasons why people lose their mind and commit murder. One of them is love, the other is money,” criminal defense attorney Jonna Spilbor told Digital. “And Kouri Richins had both because now we know that she was contacting a man who she had worked with in her flipping business.”

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Digital forensic expert Chris Kotrodimos testified on Monday that Kouri regularly sent text messages to Robert Grossman, her alleged lover before her husband died, who worked as a handyman repairing properties for Kouri which she intended to sell, the New York Post reported. Prosecutors in previous charging documents described her alleged lover as her “paramour.”

On the night Eric died, Kouri texted Grossman a photo of two people kissing that was captioned, “love you,” court documents reveal. In the week following his death, Kouri texted Grossmann “love you,” five times, according to the Daily Mail. 

“You don’t text somebody and say, ‘I love you,’ you don’t text somebody with your whereabouts. You don’t text somebody on a daily basis unless there’s a relationship going on,” Spilbor said.

“So now we also have evidence that lo and behold, there was a lover, a ‘paramour’ in the shadows of Kouri Richins. So here we are with a whole lot of motive… And you can bet when the case gets tied over for trial, the evidence of that motive will be front and center.”

“It ain’t looking good for Kouri Richins.”

Housekeeper Carmen Lauber also claims to have sold fentanyl to Kouri on three occasions, Det. Jeff O’Driscoll of the Summit County Sheriff’s Office said on the stand Monday. O’Driscoll said police first linked Lauber to Kouri Richins through a series of text messages and later arrested Lauber, saying drugs and other illegal items were found at her home.

He said Lauber told him she had sold Kouri up to 90 blue-green fentanyl pills and Lauber’s supplier later confirmed to detectives that he had sold her the fentanyl she requested. Officers did not find any fentanyl pills in the Richins’ home, the detective said.

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An obituary for Eric Richins describes him as an “avid outdoorsman and dedicated hunter.” He enjoyed helping his family’s cattle ranch and growing his “successful” masonry business. The obituary also describes him as a dedicated family man. (Facebook/Kouri Richins)

Prosecutors allege that Kouri killed Eric as a means to collect millions in life insurance funds and flip a $2 million Wasatch County mansion that was under construction at the time of Eric’s death, an investment that his family said he did not approve of.

The night Eric died, authorities say he, Kouri and her mother, Lisa Darden, were celebrating Kouri’s recent closure of the mansion in question, according to Summit County court documents.

Kouri allegedly made a cocktail for her husband spiked with fentanyl that evening. A medical examiner determined that Eric had more than five times the lethal amount of the illicit opioid in his system when he died.

The examiner also found “16,000 ng/ml of Quetiapine,” described as an atypical antipsychotic medication that is “widely used as a sleep aid,” in Eric Richins’ gastric fluid, charging documents state. 

The next day, Kouri allegedly closed a deal on the mansion after her husband was pronounced dead.

Kouri entered pleas of “not guilty” to all 11 counts on Tuesday, the second morning of her preliminary hearing centered around an additional attempted murder charge filed in March that accused her of slipping fentanyl into her husband’s favorite sandwich on Valentine’s Day, causing a severe but nonfatal reaction.

Richins’ attorneys, Kathy Nester and Wendy Lewis of Nester Lewis and Alexander Ramos of Langford Ramos, said in a statement Tuesday: “We are aware that the preliminary hearing stage favors the prosecution to an extraordinary degree and respect the court’s decision. We firmly believe the charges against Kouri do not withstand thorough scrutiny and are confident that a jury will find the same. 

“Our focus now is on ensuring that justice is served through a fair trial. We are committed to defending Kouri against these charges, firmly believing that the truth will prevail. These past fifteen months have taken a heavy toll on Kouri and her three children. It’s time to bring this ordeal to an end, restore her life, and allow her and her family to move on.”

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The house where Kouri Richins and Eric Richins lived is shown, May 11, 2023, in Francis, Utah. Kouri Richins who wrote a children’s book about grief after her husband’s death and will now face a murder trial in relation to his death. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Summit County Prosecutor Brad Bloodworth argued Kouri learned lessons during the first unsuccessful attempt on her husband’s life that helped her carry out the killing 17 days later.

Spilbor told Digital that evidence alleging Kouri had an affair and purchased fentanyl pill sales via Lauber is damaging to her defense. She said that prosecutors likely have further evidence there was a romantic relationship going on between Kouri and Grossman and that will prove crucial at trial. 

“Circumstantially, for the jury to say she got her hands on fentanyl, he died of fentanyl poisoning, she was the last one to see him alive, they’re going to really hang their hats on that type of evidence,” Spilbor said.

Spilbor also said that evidence at trial will show that Kouri was overextended with her real estate portfolio and that her husband was looking into getting a divorce and taking her out of his will. 

“There’s going to be evidence that her husband had a prenuptial agreement for a reason, and there’s going to be evidence that the only way Kouri Richins stood to really gain monetarily was not from a divorce… but from his death,” Spilbor said, adding that prosecutors would not necessarily have to provide evidence that the exact pills she purchased were fatally consumed by her husband.

“When you string all of that potential evidence together, it ain’t going to matter to a jury that you can’t connect the exact fentanyl dots to that glass,” Spilbor said.

In the months before her arrest in May 2023, Kouri self-published the children’s book “Are You with Me?” about a father with angel wings watching over his young son after passing away. The book could eventually play a key role for prosecutors in framing Eric Richins’ death as a calculated killing with an elaborate cover-up attempt.

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Kouri Richins, a Utah mom of three, is accused of killing her husband of nine years, Eric Richins, with fentanyl. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer/family handout)

Spilbor said that writing the book in and of itself isn’t criminal, although you’re not supposed to profit off crimes, but it could incense any juror who is inclined to find her guilty anyway.

“Talk about hiding in plain sight. Talk about trying to cover up such an egregious crime as she has three children. Which means these three kids no longer have a dad. And then to profit and write this book and act like a victim when you are actually the perpetrator. I mean, that’s Hollywood stuff. 

“And that that will really punch a lot of the jurors in the gut if they are inclined to believe all of the other evidence that we expect will be used against her.”

’ Audrey Conklin and The Associated Press contributed to this report.