Author of children’s book on grief to stand trial for husband’s murder

A Utah woman who published a children’s book about grief after her husband’s death will stand trial for allegedly poisoning him, a judge ruled Tuesday.

Utah state Judge Richard Mrazik said there was enough evidence to try Kouri Richins, 34, in the death of Eric Richins in March 2022, according to the Associated Press.

Prosecutors allege that Kouri Richins, who has maintained her innocence since she was charged with aggravated murder and related counts in May 2023, spiked her husband’s Moscow mule cocktail with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl. She pleaded not guilty to all 11 counts Tuesday during her preliminary hearing, according to the AP.

In 2023, the year after the death of her husband of nine years, Richins published “Are You With Me?” - a picture book meant to help children struggling with grief. The mother of three told the TV station ABC4 Utah that she had written the book after Eric Richins’s death to explain “to my kid just because he’s not present here with us physically, doesn’t mean his presence isn’t here with us.” A month later, Kouri Richins was charged with killing him.

Kathy Nester and Wendy Lewis, attorneys for Richins, said in a statement that preliminary hearings favor the prosecution “to an extraordinary degree” and that they respect the judge’s decision to let the case proceed to trial.

“We firmly believe the charges against Kouri do not withstand thorough scrutiny and are confident that a jury will find the same,” they said, adding that “these past 15 months have taken a heavy toll on Kouri and her three children.”

In court Tuesday, prosecutor Brad Bloodworth said Richins had previously attempted to kill her husband by poisoning his sandwich 17 days before his death. Eric Richins, 39, became so sick after eating the sandwich on Valentine’s Day, Bloodworth said, that he considered going to the hospital. Text messages, a bank statement and other data appeared to show Kouri Richins buying the sandwich before going to spend the day with a man with whom she was having an affair, Bloodworth said.

The following day, he said, Richins texted her lover: “If he could just go away … life would be so perfect.” She allegedly sent the same man another message two weeks later to assure him that “‘life is going to be different, I promise. Hang in there until Friday.’”

“On Friday,” Bloodworth told the court, “Eric Richins is dead.”

Kouri Richins had learned that “one bite in the sandwich isn’t enough. It has to be administered at once, and it has to be a lot,” Bloodworth said. “And that’s why Eric Richins’s toxicology shows five times the lethal amount in his blood.”

Defense attorneys said fentanyl was not found in the Richins’s home after the death and that it was not possible to match the drugs allegedly bought by Kouri Richins to the fentanyl detected in her husband’s body.

“There is no medical evidence … nothing but pure speculation that because they believe she tried to kill him and successfully killed him in March, that that must mean she tried it before,” Nester told the court.

Detective Jeff O’Driscoll, of the Summit County Sheriff’s Office, testified Monday that the state’s key witness, a housekeeper, said she had sold fentanyl pills to Kouri Richins several times before her husband’s death. Officers found no fentanyl in the Richins’ home, O’Driscoll said. O’Driscoll said the housekeeper had received a letter of immunity from prosecution.

Documents charging Kouri Richins this year with another count of attempted murder over the Valentine’s Day incident say Eric Richins took one bite of his favorite sandwich before breaking out in hives and blacking out, the Associated Press reported at the time. Richins, who had no known allergies, injected himself with his son’s EpiPen and drank a bottle of Benadryl after the reaction - and told a friend: “I think my wife tried to poison me,” according to the AP.

Kouri Richins’s former housekeeper told law enforcement that she gave Richins fentanyl pills a few days before Valentine’s Day, the charging documents say. Later that month, Richins allegedly told the housekeeper that the pills were not strong enough and asked for stronger fentanyl.

Weeks earlier, Richins had logged into the joint life insurance policy her husband had with his business partner to make herself the sole beneficiary, court documents say. Eric Richins and his partner were able to reverse the change after the insurance company notified them of it.

Prosecutors have also alleged that Kouri Richins bought four insurance policies on her husband’s life without him knowing between 2015 and 2017, with nearly $2 million in benefits, the AP previously reported.

In addition to aggravated murder, Richins faces assault and drug charges, as well as charges of mortgage fraud, forgery and insurance fraud, according to the AP.

Her trial is scheduled to begin in April. She faces 25 years to life in prison if she is convicted.