Kouri Richins Update: Verdict, Sentencing, and Appeal

Kouri Richins, the Utah real estate investor and self-published children’s author accused of poisoning her husband, was convicted of aggravated murder in March 2026 and sentenced on May 13, 2026, to life in prison without the possibility of parole. She has filed a notice of appeal, and her case is now before the Utah Court of Appeals. This Kouri Richins update covers the verdict, the sentence Judge Richard Mrazik handed down, the appeal, and the separate financial case still waiting on a trial date.¹

The Verdict

An eight-person jury in Utah’s Third District Court returned guilty verdicts on all five counts on March 16, 2026, after deliberating for just under three hours. The convictions were for aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, two counts of insurance fraud, and one count of forgery.²¹

The trial had opened on February 23, 2026, with Chief Prosecutor Brad Bloodworth leading the case for the Summit County Attorney’s Office. Prosecutors called more than 40 witnesses over roughly three weeks. On March 12, 2026, the defense rested without calling a single witness or introducing any evidence of its own, and Richins waived her right to testify. The defense strategy leaned entirely on cross-examination, arguing that investigators had never recovered any physical fentanyl and could not establish how the drug was administered, when it was ingested, or the exact dose.³⁴

The jury foreperson later told reporters the panel arrived at deliberations “fully loaded” and that “there was never a not guilty check with anything, with any element, nothing.” The foreperson singled out the evidence about Richins’ children’s book as one of the most shocking moments of the trial.⁵

The Sentence

At the May 13, 2026, hearing, Judge Mrazik imposed life without parole for the aggravated murder count, with additional consecutive time for the attempted aggravated murder, insurance fraud, and forgery convictions. He concluded that Richins “is simply too dangerous to ever be free,” and cited financial gain as the motive.⁶

Therapists read statements from the couple’s three sons. The oldest told the court, “I’m afraid if she gets out, she will come after me and my brothers… I think Kouri should get a life sentence because what she did is very sick.” The middle son said, “You took away my dad for no reason other than greed, and you only cared about yourself and your stupid boyfriends.” The youngest said, “I want her to go to prison forever. If she got out, I would be so scared.”⁷

Eric’s father Gene Richins called his son “the very best of what a person can be.” Eric’s sister Katie Richins-Benson, who now has custody of the three boys, told the court, “In the place of a stable, secure and loving home, Kouri gave the boys permanent trauma,” and said she feared for her own safety.⁶

Kouri Richins spoke for roughly 30 minutes and maintained her innocence. She read a letter addressed to her sons: “I’m coming home, not today, not this year, but we’re going to make this right.” Her mother and other relatives asked the court for mercy and rehabilitation.⁸

Judge Mrazik also flagged a gap in Utah law from the bench. He noted he lacked authority to issue a permanent protective order forbidding Richins from contacting Eric’s family, and he suggested the Utah Legislature address it.⁶

The Appeal

Richins’ defense attorneys filed a notice of appeal on May 26, 2026. The case was initially referred to the Utah Supreme Court and has since been transferred to the Utah Court of Appeals, where a seven-member panel will hear it.⁹

The appeal will not revisit trial evidence or witness testimony. It will focus on whether the trial court “correctly conducted the case,” examining potential procedural errors and constitutional issues. Richins will be assigned new appellate counsel; Summit County is working to appoint rostered attorneys for that phase. Her defense is also expected to ask Judge Mrazik for a new trial on procedural grounds.¹⁰

A Separate Financial Case Still Pending

The murder conviction is not the end of Richins’ legal exposure. On June 27, 2025, prosecutors filed 26 additional felony charges against her in a separate case focused on financial crimes: five counts each of mortgage fraud and forgery, seven counts each of money laundering and issuing bad checks, one count of communications fraud, and one count of engaging in a pattern of unlawful activity. The charges were filed near the expiration of a four-year statute of limitations. No trial date has been set.¹¹

Where the Children Are

Carter, Ashton, and Weston Richins were nine, seven, and five when their father died. They have been in the care of Eric’s family since Kouri’s arrest in May 2023, and a juvenile court formally awarded custody to Katie Richins-Benson and her husband in November 2024. Before his death, Eric had secretly set up a trust naming Katie as trustee.¹²¹³ At sentencing, Kouri claimed her attempts to reach the boys by phone and card had been blocked for more than two years.

What the Jury Heard

For readers catching up, the case against Richins ran on four connected pillars: a collapsing business and a prenuptial agreement that made her husband’s death worth more than a divorce, life insurance policies she obtained by forgery, a supply chain for illicit fentanyl, and digital evidence pointing at her intent.

Cause of Death

Eric Richins, 39, was found unresponsive in the couple’s Kamas home in the early morning of March 4, 2022. Kouri called for help at approximately 3:21 a.m., and he was pronounced dead shortly before 5 a.m.¹⁴ An autopsy identified the cause of death as fentanyl intoxication, with roughly five times a lethal dose in his system.¹⁵ The fentanyl was illicit rather than medical-grade and had been ingested orally.¹⁶

Financial Motive

A forensic accountant testified that K. Richins Realty, Kouri’s real estate flipping business, was “imploding” by early 2022. She owed roughly $7.5 million to lenders, was making $80,000 in monthly debt payments, and had a net worth of negative $1.6 million. Late 2021 records showed more than $300,000 in bounced checks to contractors.¹⁷

The couple’s 2013 prenuptial agreement gave neither spouse a claim to the other’s property, with one exception: if a spouse died while married, the survivor inherited. Prosecutor Brad Bloodworth said the agreement “meant that if she left him, she would also leave most of his money.”¹⁸ A friend, Becky Lloyd, testified that in December 2021 Kouri told her, “in many ways, it would be better if he were dead.”¹⁹

Insurance Policies Obtained by Forgery

Eric was insured for roughly $2.2 million across multiple policies. Prosecutors established that Kouri had purchased at least four life insurance policies on him without his knowledge between 2015 and 2017, totaling $1.9 million. The most recent forged application became effective on February 4, 2022, ten days before an alleged Valentine’s Day poisoning attempt and one month before his death.¹⁹¹⁸ After Eric’s death, Kouri received approximately $1.4 million in insurance payouts. By September 2022, according to the forensic accountant, every dollar had been spent paying down debts, leaving a balance of $802.¹⁷

The Fentanyl Source

The state’s case on means came primarily from Kouri’s housecleaner, Carmen Lauber, who received immunity in exchange for her testimony. Lauber said she bought pills for Richins on multiple occasions in early 2022 through a supplier named Robert Crozier, and testified that Richins had asked for “something stronger” after an initial batch of pain pills. Three days after Eric’s death, Richins bought more pills through Lauber, paying with a $1,300 check marked “Construction clean Midway,” and texted Lauber on March 7, 2022, asking, “still have your hookup?”²⁰ The defense attacked Lauber’s credibility on cross-examination, and Crozier testified he had sold pharmaceutical oxycodone rather than fentanyl, contradicting an earlier jailhouse statement.¹⁹

Digital Evidence, the Affair, and the Book

Investigators recovered searches from a phone used by Kouri, including “what is a lethal.dose.of.fetanayl” (sic) and “if someone is poisned (sic) what does it go down on the death certificate as.”²¹ Prosecutors also introduced dozens of text messages between Kouri and Robert Josh Grossmann, a handyman with whom she was having an affair. Five days after the Valentine’s Day incident, Kouri texted him: “If he could just go away and you could just be here! Life would be so perfect!!”²² About a month after Eric’s death, she wrote to Grossmann, “I think I want you to be my husband one day.” On a trip to the Uinta Mountains roughly two weeks after the death, she asked Grossmann, a military veteran, whether he had ever killed anyone and how it had made him feel.²³

In March 2023, one year after Eric’s death and two months before her arrest, Richins published a children’s picture book titled Are You With Me? and promoted it on television as a story she had written for her sons. Text messages introduced at trial showed she had paid a ghostwriter $2,500 to produce it, and had described the project as a way to learn “the book writing process to get ready for the big one,” calculating an estimated profit of $5.35 per copy sold on Amazon.²⁴

1
CNN. Kouri Richins Murder Sentencing
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Court TV. UT v. Kouri Richins Grief Author Murder Trial
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Park Record. Kouri Richins Defense Rests Its Case
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NBC News. Key Moments From the Kouri Richins Murder Trial
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ABC News. Kouri Richins Juror Describes Emotional Deliberations
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Park Record. Kouri Richins Sentenced to Life in Prison Without Parole
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KPCW. Kouri Richins Appeals Aggravated Murder Conviction
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Park Record. Kouri Richins Appeals Aggravated Murder Conviction, Will Get New Attorneys
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Park Record. Kouri Richins Charged With Dozens of Financial Crimes in New Case
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People. Where Are Kouri Richins Kids Now
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KPCW. Eric Richins Family, Not Kouri, Gets Insurance Money From Eric’s Business, Court Says
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Salt Lake Tribune. Kouri Richins Case Timeline
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ABC News. Utah Mom Kouri Richins Set to Be Sentenced for Fatally Poisoning Husband
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NBC News. Utah Grief Author Convicted of Husband’s Poisoning Death Sentenced
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Park Record. Financial Expert Testifies That Kouri Richins Used Life Insurance Money to Pay Off Growing Debt
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KUOW. A Mom Wrote a Kids Book on Grief. She Was Just Convicted of Her Husband’s Murder
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CNN. Kouri Richins Trial Key Revelations
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CNN. Kouri Richins Trial Carmen Lauber Testimony
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CNN. Kouri Richins Trial Verdict Utah
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ABC News. Closing Arguments in Murder Trial of Kouri Richins
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Court TV. Kouri Richins Paramour Takes the Stand
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Court TV. Texts Show Ghostwriter Wrote Children’s Book, Not Kouri Richins