Utah Mom Sentenced to Life for Murder
A Utah mother who once wrote a children’s book about grief is now headed to prison for life after being convicted of killing her husband.
Prosecutors said Kouri Richins put fentanyl into her husband Eric Richins’ Moscow Mule in March 2022. At first, investigators believed he may have died from an accidental overdose. About a year later, police said they believed Richins had poisoned him.
The case drew even more attention because of what came next. Before her arrest, Richins wrote a children’s book about grief called “Are You With Me?” She also appeared on a morning talk show to promote it while presenting herself as a grieving widow.
Prosecutors said money was the motive. Richins was reportedly buried in more than $4 million in debt, and she had taken out a $2 million life insurance policy on her husband without his knowledge.
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In the spring of 2023, Richins was arrested and charged with murder. This March, she was convicted. On Wednesday, she was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
NBC News reported:
The Utah grief author convicted of murder after prosecutors said she laced her husband’s cocktail with a fatal dose of fentanyl was sentenced to life in prison without parole Wednesday, on what would have been his 44th birthday.
Richins, handcuffed in the front and wearing a neon green t-shirt over a grey long-sleeved shirt, addressed her sons who said earlier in victim impact statements they’d feel unsafe if she were ever released.
“I will never be angry at you for your feelings,” she said, telling them that she has been trying to get in contact with them for years. “All I care about is you, boys.”
Richins, 36, then accused her late husband’s family of cutting off her contact with the children.
“You boys are my world. The reason I continue to wake up every day and fight to come home,” she said. “I promise you, boys, one day it will be over.”
In her statement, Richins said she’s “done plenty of things I am not proud of” and told her children that “nobody is all good or all bad.”
Kouri sat in the courtroom, stone-faced as she was sentenced to life in prison.
The Richins’ three sons are being raised by Eric Richins’ sister and her husband.
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