Utah Grief Author Kills Husband

A US mother from Utah who wrote a children’s book about grief following her husband’s death has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for his murder.

Thirty-six-year-old Kouri Richins was sentenced Wednesday after being convicted earlier this year of poisoning her husband, Eric Richins, with fentanyl in 2022. Richins was also convicted of attempted aggravated murder for allegedly trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Valentine’s Day, as well as insurance fraud and forgery linked to his life insurance policies. Prosecutors argued that Kouri Richins killed her husband for financial gain as her real estate business spiraled into debt.

During the trial, jurors heard testimony that she had borrowed millions of dollars to keep her business afloat and later collected more than two million dollars in life insurance benefits following her husband’s death. Investigators said Eric Richins died from a fentanyl overdose at the couple’s Utah home in March 2022. Prosecutors alleged that after an earlier poisoning attempt failed, Kouri Richins gave her husband a fentanyl-laced cocktail during a celebration tied to a business deal.

The court also heard testimony from a former house cleaner who claimed she supplied Richins with illicit drugs, while cellphone searches presented at trial included phrases such as “what is a lethal dose of fentanyl” and questions about poisoning and women’s prisons.

In emotional statements read during sentencing, the couple’s three children said they feared for their safety if their mother were ever released from prison. Eric Richins’ family described him as a devoted father, businessman and youth sports coach whose life was cut short. Meanwhile, Kouri Richins continued to maintain her innocence.

Addressing her children in court, she called the accusations against her “an absolute lie” and vowed to appeal the conviction.
Defense attorneys argued prosecutors failed to prove exactly how the fentanyl was administered and asked the judge for a lesser sentence, saying Richins was capable of rehabilitation.

Defense attorneys say they plan to appeal the conviction and seek a new trial, but for now, Kouri Richins will spend the rest of her life behind bars for the killing of the husband whose death she later turned into a children’s book about grief.