Mom-of-three and realtor Kouri Richins has been found guilty of killing her husband with a fentanyl-laced Moscow Mule cocktail in a plot to start a new life with her handyman lover and get her hands on his multi-million-dollar estate.
The 35-year-old was convicted on all five felonies of aggravated murder, aggravated attempted murder, two counts of insurance fraud and forgery inside Summit County Courthouse in Park City, Utah, on Monday.
Richins silently gasped and hung her head as soon as Judge Richard Mrazik read out the first count, finding her guilty of the murder of the father of her three children – and sealing her fate.
Dressed in a floral patterned shirt and her hair scraped back in a neat bun, Richins kept her head bowed as she heard the word ‘guilty’ ring out in the courtroom another four times. There were no tears as she tried to maintain a stoic expression.
Eric’s family and friends, who have filled at least a row in the courtroom every day of the trial, clutched one another for comfort, while his sister Amy silently dabbed tears from her eyes.
Richins’s mother Lisa Darden, who has stood by her daughter throughout the case, remained stony-faced and pursed her lips.
Prior to the jury entering the room, Judge Mrazik had warned everyone inside the courtroom to make ‘no outward reactions’ to the verdict. Richins visibly shook and inhaled deep breaths as she appeared to try to compose herself.
Now, she faces life in prison at her sentencing on May 13 – what would have been her murdered husband Eric Richins’s 44th birthday.
The verdict comes after jurors heard 13 days of emotional testimony about Eric’s March 2022 death, in a case where extramarital affairs, financial woes, family rifts, drug deals and a children’s book about grief took center stage.
Richins silently gasped and bowed her head as soon as Judge Richard Mrazik read out the first count, finding her guilty of the murder of the father of her three children
Eric’s father Eugene remained stoic and bowed his head while the verdict was read out in court
Eric’s family and friends clutched one another for comfort with his sister Amy silently dabbing tears from her eyes
Kouri Richins and her husband Eric Richins with their three young sons before his March 4, 2022 death
Eric, a 39-year-old father-of-three and successful businessman, was found dead inside the family home in Kamas, Utah, in the early hours of March 4, 2022.
Richins called 911 claiming she had returned to the couple’s room to find her husband cold in their bed.
Hours earlier, Richins said they had celebrated her closing a deal on a $2.9 million mansion in Midway with some homemade Moscow Mule cocktails and a lemon drop shot.
An autopsy found Eric died from a massive fentanyl overdose, with more than five times the lethal limit in his system.
For more than a year, Richins played the grieving widow, authoring a children’s book, titled Are You With Me? about dealing with grief – even appearing on local TV to promote it.
In May 2023, the facade crumbled when Richins was arrested and charged with her husband’s murder.
At the time of his death, Richins’s finances were ‘imploding,’ her real estate business was in tatters and she owed a staggering $7.5 million debt to more than 20 payday loan and high-interest lenders.
The mom-of-three was also having an affair with handyman and military veteran Robert Josh Grossmann. In texts before Eric’s death, she spoke of her dream that they could be together. In the days after, of her wish to make him her new husband and their upcoming vacation to a luxury Caribbean resort.
She had confided in friends about feeling ‘trapped’ in her marriage, with jurors hearing from one friend who testified Richins said that ‘in many ways it would be better if [Eric] were dead.’
With her husband gone, prosecutors argued Richins believed she would finally be able to start afresh with her lover and also get her hands on a much-needed cash injection from her husband’s $4 million estate.
Richins visibly shook and inhaled deep breaths as she appeared to try to compose herself before the verdict was read. She then hung her head as the word ‘guilty’ rung out
Kouri Richins listens during closing statements in her trial for the murder of her husband Eric
Summit County Prosecutor Brad Bloodworth described Richins as a ‘black widow’ who was motivated by money and an affair to murder her husband
In closing arguments on Monday, Summit County Prosecutor Brad Bloodworth described Richins as a ‘black widow’ who was motivated by money and an affair to murder her husband, and then went to great lengths to cover it up.
Pointing to the 911 call played in court, Bloodworth said that Richins immediately tried to lay out an alibi for herself – and delayed performing CPR for almost six minutes after the dispatcher told her to.
‘The first minute is not the sound of a wife becoming a widow… the first minute is the sound of a wife becoming a black widow,’ Bloodworth said.
The prosecutor laid out the case that Richins wanted to end her marriage to Eric – but wanted to keep his money.
Under the terms of their prenup, Richins would not have any rights to his successful stonemasonry business if they divorced. If he died, she would.
Just weeks before Eric died, Richins also took out a new life insurance policy on her husband. A handwriting expert testified it appeared to have been forged.
‘The morning Eric died, she had a plan on how to spend Eric’s money, not realizing it was trust money,’ Bloodworth said.
Unknown to Richins, Eric had placed his money in a trust for his young sons and appointed his sister the trustee.
Much of the case hinged on testimony from the state’s star witness, housekeeper Carmen Lauber.
Kouri Richins smiles during a ‘Celebration of Life’ one day after her husband’s death – while a woman in the background shotguns a can of beer
Shortly after Eric’s death, Kouri Richins self-published a children’s book titled ‘Are You with Me?’
Lauber testified that she sold drugs to Richins four times around the time of Eric’s death, including providing her with the fentanyl that was used to kill Eric.
A first plot to fatally poison Eric unfolded on Valentine’s Day 2022 when Richins laced a sandwich she bought for her husband from a local diner, prosecutors alleged.
Eric fell ill and allegedly told friends he feared his wife was trying to poison him.
It was after that failed plot that Richins allegedly requested more powerful fentanyl – asking Lauber for ‘the Michael Jackson stuff.’
As Bloodworth put it during the closing argument, Richins ‘learned from her mistake.’
Days later, Eric was dead.
Lauber’s account about the drug purchases was bolstered by a wealth of cell phone evidence which revealed a huge volume of texts and calls between the two women in the dates surrounding the two alleged attempts on Eric’s life.
In the three months up to Eric’s March death, the two women exchanged around 800 texts – equating to an average of 10 to 11 every day.
Graphics shown to the jury also revealed distinct patterns of communication on certain days: Richins initiating contact with Lauber, Lauber contacting drug dealer Robert Crozier, Lauber and Richins repeatedly communicating over the following few hours and Lauber and Crozier repeatedly communicating within the very same timeframe.
Cell tower mapping also showed Lauber and Crozier’s cell phones traveling to the same location during those timeframes – to exchange the drugs and cash.
Much of the case hinged on testimony from the state’s star witness, housekeeper Carmen Lauber
Kouri Richins’s texts to her lover took center stage at the trial as she spoke out wanting to start a new life with him
Richins tried to wipe her phone. But several internet searches were recovered including for how to delete cell phone data
Robert Josh Grossmann broke down in tears when faced with the romantic text messages he sent to the woman he was once ‘head over heels’ for
Another key moment came when Richins’s lover took the stand, breaking down in tears when faced with the romantic text messages he sent to the woman he was once ‘head over heels’ for.
Wiping his eyes and resting his head down on the stand, Grossmann told jurors about a shocking conversation he had with Richins just days after Eric died.
Richins had asked him what it felt like to kill someone, he testified.
The lovers’ text messages also became central to the case – along with Richins’s explosive internet searches including ‘women utah prison,’ how to delete cell phone data and ‘if someone is poisoned, what goes down on the death certificate as.’
They were messages and searches Richins thought would never see the light of day, after she made attempts to wipe her phone and internet data before her arrest.
The defense sought to paint Richins as a grieving widow who was the victim of a vendetta by Eric’s family.
The case was led, defense attorney Wendy Lewis argued, by Eric’s family and their private investigator, who decided from the start that Richins was responsible.
The reality, Lewis argued in the closing statement, was that Richins’s ‘world collapsed’ when her husband died – and that she was scapegoated because she wasn’t ‘grieving properly.’
‘They want you to look at a woman during the worst moment of her life and to judge her. There is no wrong way to grieve. They’re asking you to judge how she is acting at that moment and then use that moment as evidence of guilt,’ Lewis said.
Richins was convicted of murdering her husband Eric – as well as his attempted murder on Valentine’s Day 2022
Eric Richins had more than five times the lethal amount of fentanyl in his system
Lewis argued that the investigation into Eric’s death had been ‘sloppy’ from the get-go, with law enforcement ignoring a trip Eric took to Mexico weeks before his death and only following leads that would point to Richins.
In a move that took everyone by surprise, Richins’s defense declined to call a single witness to testify.
Ultimately, the panel of six men and six women took just three hours of deliberations to return their verdict of guilty on all charges.
Now, Richins faces a civil case with Eric’s family over his estate. She is also facing charges in a separate financial case.
