Kouri Darden Richins on May 13 was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder of Eric Richins, her husband. The day would have been his 44th birthday.
Prosecutors say Kouri Richins, a Utah mother of three, was in dire financial straits when she fatally poisoned her affluent husband with a fentanyl-laced cocktail. Eric Richins, 39, died on March 4, 2022, of a fentanyl overdose at the couple's home in Kamas, Utah, a small mountain town about 40 miles east of Salt Lake City.
As police began investigating Kouri Richins, she tried to deflect suspicion and make money by commissioning a children's book about grief to be ghost-written for her, prosecutors said. After a three-week long trial, she was found guilty of first-degree aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, forgery and insurance fraud in March.
Kouri Richins repeatedly denied killing her husband in an emotional message to her children, telling them the accusation is "an absolute lie." Her attorneys and some loved ones asked the court for leniency. Eric Richins' family, the couple's children and the prosecution asked the court to sentence her to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
