Kouri Richins Case: Fentanyl Poisoning, Trial, and Life Sentence

The Kouri Richins case is a Utah murder prosecution in which a Park City-area real estate agent and mother of three was convicted in March 2026 of killing her husband, Eric Richins, by mixing a lethal dose of fentanyl into his cocktail on the night of March 3, 2022. She was sentenced in May 2026 to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The case drew national attention because Kouri had published a children’s book about coping with a father’s death and was promoting it on local television one month before her arrest.

The Night Eric Richins Died

Eric Richins, 39, was found dead early on March 4, 2022, at the family home in Kamas, Utah. An autopsy determined he died from a fentanyl overdose, with roughly five times a lethal dose in his system. The medical examiner concluded the fentanyl was illicit rather than medical-grade and had been “orally ingested.”¹

Kouri told investigators the couple had been drinking that night to celebrate a real estate deal, sharing a Moscow mule and a lemon drop shot. Prosecutors argued she used those drinks to deliver the fentanyl.²

One of the couple’s sons later told investigators he had been put to bed early that night without a bath, which was unusual, and that when he tried to enter his parents’ bedroom, Kouri yelled at him to go away. Another son said he woke up to sirens and felt “scared” and “helpless.”¹

The Valentine’s Day Attempt Weeks Earlier

Prosecutors argued the March poisoning was Kouri’s second attempt. On Valentine’s Day 2022, she allegedly poisoned a sandwich she gave Eric. After eating it, he broke out in hives, had difficulty breathing, used his son’s EpiPen, and took a nap.³ Prosecutors described this as a “pseudo allergic reaction” from fentanyl and noted Eric had no known food allergies.⁴

Eric reportedly told friends afterward that he feared his wife was trying to poison him. Some treated it as a “funny story”; others said his fear was real. The episode occurred about ten days after a $100,000 life insurance policy on Eric took effect.² The jury ultimately convicted Kouri of attempted aggravated murder for this incident.

The Motive: Debt, Insurance, and Another Man

Prosecutors gave the jury a three-part motive. Kouri’s house-flipping business was collapsing, Eric was worth far more dead than alive, and she was in a relationship with someone else.

A forensic accountant testified that K. Richins Realty had grown recklessly. Kouri bought one home in 2019, five in 2020, and fifteen in 2021, taking on more than $6.7 million in acquisitions that final year alone.⁵ By March 2022, she owed about $7.5 million, was paying roughly $80,000 a month to lenders and $2,100 a day to four payday lenders, and had a net worth of negative $1.6 million.⁶ She had written more than $300,000 in bounced checks to contractors. The centerpiece of the trouble was a 20,000-square-foot unfinished estate in Midway she had bought for $2.9 million without the estimated $3 million needed to renovate it. Eric had opposed the purchase. Kouri closed on it the day after his death.⁷

Eric carried approximately $2.2 million in life insurance. After his death, Kouri collected roughly $1.39 million in payouts from Auto Owners Insurance Company and TruStage Insurance Company.⁸ By September 2022, according to the forensic accountant, her $1.4 million share had been spent almost entirely on debt, leaving $802 in her account.⁶ Prosecutors also alleged Kouri had forged Eric’s signature on a $100,000 policy application, which contained an incorrect Social Security number.²

Testimony also revealed a relationship between Kouri and Robert Josh Grossmann, a handyman on her renovation projects. She let him live rent-free in a property she was flipping, bought him two trucks, paid him a $25,000 lump sum after Eric’s death, and funded a birthday trip to Saint Martin.⁹ Hours before Eric died on the evening of March 3, 2022, Grossmann sent Kouri a photo of two people kissing captioned “Love you.” She responded with “…love you” and a kissing emoji. Prosecutors said the drinks that killed Eric were shared less than 30 minutes later.¹⁰ About a month later she texted Grossmann: “I think I want you to be my husband one day.”¹¹ Grossmann was not charged.

The Children’s Grief Book

On March 7, 2023, roughly a year after Eric’s death, Kouri published Are You With Me?, a children’s book about a boy whose father has died but whose presence remains all around him. She said she wrote it to help her three sons cope.¹²

In April 2023, one month before her arrest, Kouri went on the local program “Good Things Utah” to promote the book, telling viewers, “Just because he’s not present here with us physically, that doesn’t mean his presence isn’t here with us.”¹³ Her arrest while promoting a grief book was what pushed the case into the national press. At trial, prosecutors argued the book was an attempt to deflect suspicion during an active investigation.

How Prosecutors Traced the Fentanyl

The prosecution’s account of how Kouri got the drug came largely from the family’s former housekeeper, Carmen Lauber, who testified under an immunity agreement.¹⁴ Lauber said Kouri asked her to obtain drugs on four occasions in early 2022. The first request in February was for hydrocodone, supposedly for “an investor” with a back injury; Lauber said she was paid $600.¹⁵

Kouri then asked for “something stronger,” court records showed, and separately texted an acquaintance requesting “some of the Michael Jackson stuff,” which prosecutors said meant fentanyl.¹⁶ Lauber testified she bought roughly 20 fentanyl pills from a dealer named Robert Crozier at a Maverik gas station in Draper, Utah. Cell phone data placed both Lauber and Crozier there.² For at least one drop-off, Lauber said she left the pills in gravel near a firepit at the Midway property. The final payment was a $1,300 check with “construction clean Midway” written on the memo line. “I never cleaned a house ever in my life for thirteen hundred dollars,” Lauber told the jury.¹⁷

The defense attacked Lauber’s credibility, noting she had used drugs, tested positive for methamphetamine in early 2022, and had been told she faced a potential 20-year mandatory federal sentence if she was the one who supplied the fatal fentanyl. Defense attorneys called her deal a “get out of jail free card.”¹⁴

The Trial and Verdict

Kouri was arrested and charged in May 2023 and held without bail at the Summit County Jail.¹⁸ She pleaded not guilty. Her trial began in February 2026 at the Summit County Courthouse in Park City before Third District Court Judge Richard Mrazik, with Summit County Prosecutor Brad Bloodworth leading the state and attorneys Wendy Lewis and Kathy Nester representing Richins.

Over 13 days, prosecutors called more than 40 witnesses. Alongside the financial and drug-purchase evidence, the state introduced internet searches from Kouri’s phone, including “what is a lethal.dose.of.fetanayl” and “if someone is poisned what does it go down on the death certificate as.”² Prosecutors also introduced a six-page document Kouri wrote from jail in September 2023, known as the “Walk The Dog” letter, which they characterized as a script instructing family members to give false testimony and as evidence of “consciousness of guilt.”¹⁹

The defense called no witnesses and Kouri did not testify. On cross-examination, defense attorneys argued investigators had never pinned down the exact source of the fentanyl or precisely how it was administered, and suggested Eric may have accidentally ingested fentanyl, possibly obtained on a recent trip to Mexico.²⁰

On March 16, 2026, the eight-person jury deliberated about three hours and found Kouri guilty on all five counts: aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, two counts of insurance fraud, and one count of forgery.²

The Sentence

Kouri was sentenced on May 13, 2026, which Eric’s sister Amy noted would have been his 44th birthday.²¹ Judge Mrazik imposed life in prison without the possibility of parole for aggravated murder, plus consecutive sentences on the other counts: five years to life for attempted criminal homicide, one to 15 years on each insurance fraud count, and up to five years for forgery.²² The judge said “a person convicted of those things is simply too dangerous to ever be free,” while acknowledging that the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole retains authority to release her if she is ever determined to be “permanently incapable of being a threat to the safety of society.”²³

The couple’s three sons, by then ages 9, 12, and 13, submitted written statements read aloud in court by therapists. One said he wanted Kouri “to go to prison forever” and that hearing her name made him feel “hateful and ashamed.” Another accused her of killing his father “for no reason other than greed.” The oldest said he did not miss her and alleged she had been “always drunk or gone” and had locked him in his room.²⁴ Kouri addressed her sons from the courtroom and continued to deny the crime. “As much as you’ve been influenced into thinking that dad was murdered, that I took your dad from you, that is completely wrong. An absolute lie,” she said, telling them, “I’m coming home, not today, not this year, but we’re going to make this right.”²⁵

What’s Still Pending

Kouri’s defense team filed a notice of appeal with the Utah Supreme Court on May 26, 2026, two weeks after sentencing. The Supreme Court indicated it would transfer the case to the Utah Court of Appeals. The appeal is expected to focus on procedural issues rather than the underlying facts, and new attorneys are handling it.²⁶

On June 30, 2026, defense attorneys filed a separate motion in the trial court asking that the convictions be thrown out and a new trial granted, alleging judicial bias, admission of prejudicial evidence about “unrelated financial dealings,” and cumulative trial errors. The motion asked that a different judge hear the matter.²⁷

Kouri also faces 26 felony charges in a separate financial crimes case severed from the murder prosecution in November 2024. Those charges include five counts of mortgage fraud, five counts of forgery, seven counts of issuing a bad check, seven counts of money laundering, one count of communications fraud, and one count of a “pattern of unlawful activity.” No trial date had been set as of mid-2026.²⁸ A restitution hearing in the murder case was scheduled for July 31, 2026, with prosecutors seeking the return of the insurance payouts.²⁹

On the civil side, Eric’s estate has sued Kouri for more than $13 million, alleging she stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from him while he was alive, obtained fraudulent loans, and took property and money from his estate after his death.³⁰ The couple’s three sons are being raised by their paternal aunt and uncle.²⁴

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NBC News. Utah Grief Author Convicted of Husband’s Poisoning Death Sentenced
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CNN. Kouri Richins Trial Verdict
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NBC News. Key Moments From the Kouri Richins Murder Trial
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WGAL. Kouri Richins Sentencing
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East Idaho News. Day 7: Forensic Accountant Testifies About Kouri Richins Finances
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Park Record. Financial Expert Testifies That Kouri Richins Used Money From Life Insurance Policy to Pay Off Growing $7.5 Million Debt
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CBS News. Kouri Richins Murder Case Utah Mansion
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People. Convicted Husband Killer Kouri Richins Life Insurance Payout
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Park Record. Kouri Richins Paramour Testifies About Their Affair Before and After Husband’s Death
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People. Kouri Richins Allegedly Texted Paramour She Loved Him Hours Before Husband’s Death
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CNN. Kouri Richins Trial Key Revelations
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CBS News. Kouri Richins Utah Mom Husband Eric Richins Poison Children’s Book
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CNN. Kouri Richins Murder Sentencing
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Park Record. Kouri Richins Former Housekeeper Testifies to Purchasing Her Pills
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ABC4. Day 4 of Kouri Richins Murder Trial
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BBC News. Kouri Richins Found Guilty of Husband’s Murder
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CNN. Kouri Richins Trial Carmen Lauber Testimony
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KPCW. Summit County Amends Charges in Kouri Richins Murder Case
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Salt Lake Tribune. Kouri Richins Trial: What to Know
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Court TV. Kouri Richins Defense Rests Without Calling a Single Witness
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Fox 13 Now. Loved Ones React to Kouri Richins Sentence of Life Without Parole
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ABC4. Richins Convicted of Husband’s Murder
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CNN. Kouri Richins Murder Sentencing
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CNN. Kouri Richins Sons Impact Statements
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KSL. Kouri Richins Sentenced for Murdering Husband
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Park Record. Kouri Richins Appeals Aggravated Murder Conviction, Will Get New Attorneys
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KJZZ. Kouri Richins Files Motion for New Trial, Accuses Judge of Bias Towards Prosecutors
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KPCW. Kouri Richins Charged With Dozens of Additional Financial Crimes
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Court TV. Killer Kouri Richins Faces Sentencing on Victim’s Birthday
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Court TV. Estate of Eric Richins Files $13 Million Lawsuit Against Kouri Richins