The Kouri Richins murder case ended on March 16, 2026, when a Utah jury convicted the Kamas realtor and self-published children’s book author of aggravated murder for poisoning her husband, Eric Richins, with fentanyl on March 4, 2022. She was sentenced on May 13, 2026, to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The case drew national attention because Richins had published a children’s book about grief after Eric’s death and was arrested weeks after promoting it on local television.
How Eric Richins Died
On the night of March 3, 2022, prosecutors said Kouri prepared a Moscow mule cocktail for Eric to celebrate the closing on a $3.9 million Midway mansion she was buying with investors, and laced the drink with fentanyl. She told investigators she served it to him in bed, went to sleep with one of their children in another room, and returned to find him “cold to the touch.” First responders arrived after a 911 call at 3:21 a.m. on March 4, attempted CPR, and pronounced him dead at 4:58 a.m. He was 39.
Responders initially suspected a brain aneurysm. A medical examiner later determined the cause of death was a fentanyl overdose and found roughly five times the lethal dose of illicit, non-medical-grade fentanyl in Eric’s system. He had no history of opioid use. His family said the circumstances “didn’t smell right” from the start, and relatives said Eric had told them, “If I die, you need to take a look at her because I think she’s trying to kill me.”
The Motive Prosecutors Presented
Summit County Chief Prosecutor Brad Bloodworth summarized the state’s theory in closing: “She wanted to leave Eric Richins but did not want to leave his money.”
The couple’s 2013 prenuptial agreement stipulated that neither spouse had rights to the other’s income or assets unless Eric died while they were lawfully married. By early 2022, Kouri’s house-flipping business, K. Richins Realty LLC, was in serious trouble. Forensic accountant Brooke Karrington testified that Kouri had lost more than $900,000 across sold properties, had over $300,000 in bounced checks, was paying lenders about $80,000 per month, and carried roughly $7.5 million in liabilities against a net worth about $1.6 million in the negative. She had contracted to buy the Midway mansion with a $3.2 million loan and no money left for renovations. Eric opposed the purchase and the couple argued about it in the days before his death. Kouri closed on the property the day after he died.
Eric had also taken steps that would have cut Kouri off. After discovering that she had used what prosecutors called a fraudulent power of attorney to take out a $250,000 home equity line of credit on the home in his name, he consulted a divorce attorney in October 2020 and, the following month, created the Eric Richins Living Trust with his sister Katie Richins-Benson as trustee. According to estate planning lawyer Kristal Bowman-Carter, the trust was designed to protect Eric from Kouri’s financial mismanagement and to ensure she would never control his property after his death. Kouri did not know the trust existed until after Eric died.
Eric held life insurance policies totaling roughly $2 million to $2.2 million. Prosecutors alleged Kouri secretly took out an additional $100,000 policy on him about a month before his death, forging his signature and naming herself sole beneficiary. She also allegedly tried to switch the beneficiary on his business’s $2 million buy/sell agreement from the trust to herself, but the insurance company removed her after notifying Eric and his partner. Between June and September 2022 she collected $1.4 million in life insurance proceeds. Karrington testified Richins spent all of it on debt, leaving $802 in her account by September 19, 2022.
Prosecutors also presented evidence that Kouri was in a romantic relationship with Robert Josh Grossmann, a handyman who worked for her. They exchanged text messages between November 2021 and April 2022 expressing love, discussing Kouri divorcing Eric, and planning a future together. On April 8, 2022, more than a month after Eric’s death, Kouri texted Grossmann that she wanted him to be her husband. She had also paid him a $25,000 lump sum after Eric’s death, gave him two trucks, and paid for a Saint Martin vacation.
How She Obtained the Fentanyl
The prosecution’s key witness was Carmen Lauber, a housecleaner who worked for Richins. Lauber testified that beginning in early 2022, Richins asked her to buy drugs on four occasions, first asking for “pain pills for an investor” and later requesting “something stronger” and what Richins called “the Michael Jackson stuff.” Lauber said she contacted a male acquaintance who told her he could supply fentanyl pills. She met him at a gas station on February 11, 2022, and on later dates, passing the pills to Richins. Richins paid her with $1,000 in cash left inside a home she was flipping and a $1,300 check made out for “Construction clean Midway.”
Lauber received immunity in exchange for truthful testimony. She acknowledged a history of drug addiction and had tested positive for methamphetamine multiple times in early 2022. Defense attorneys attacked her credibility, noting that investigators had told her she had a “get-out-of-jail-free card” if she provided “the details that ensure Kouri gets convicted of murder.” They also noted that the unnamed supplier had recently told investigators he provided oxycontin rather than fentanyl, contradicting earlier statements.
Cell phone location data placed Lauber and the supplier at the same gas station on the dates she described. Hundreds of text messages between Richins and Lauber had been deleted from both phones, but records confirmed heavy daily communication during the relevant period. After Eric’s death, Richins texted Lauber: “Still have your hookup?”
The Valentine’s Day Attempt
Prosecutors alleged the fatal poisoning was not Kouri’s first attempt. On Valentine’s Day 2022, about three weeks before Eric’s death, he fell seriously ill shortly after eating a sandwich she gave him. He developed hives and difficulty breathing and used his son’s EpiPen. He later told a friend he believed his wife was trying to poison him. That incident formed the basis of the attempted aggravated murder count on which Kouri was convicted. At sentencing, Judge Richard Mrazik said Kouri had failed in her “first effort” and spent the next 17 days “doubling down, preparing to try again, and ultimately completing the act through the administration of poison.”
The Digital Evidence and Forged Documents
Prosecutors introduced searches recovered from Richins’ phone, including “what is a lethal.dose.of.fetanayl,” “if someone is poisned what does it go down on the death certificate as,” “luxury prisons for the rich America,” “can cops force you to do a lie detector test,” and “can fbi find deleted messages.” After Eric’s death her searches included “death certificate says pending, will life insurance still pay” and “how to permanently delete information from an iPhone remotely.”
A forensic document examiner testified that signatures on power of attorney documents and a life insurance application were “simulated forgeries” modeled on Eric’s known handwriting.
The Children’s Book
In March 2023, roughly a year after Eric’s death, Richins published a children’s book titled Are You With Me?, about a boy coping with the loss of his father. She said she wrote it to help her three sons grieve. In April 2023 she promoted the book on a local news program, saying, “Just because he’s not present here with us physically, that doesn’t mean his presence isn’t here with us.” She was arrested the following month. Prosecutors later presented evidence suggesting the book was written by a ghostwriter. At sentencing, Katie Richins-Benson said the children had been reduced to “props for some twisted children’s book about grief and loss.”
The “Walk the Dog” Letter
In September 2023, the Summit County Sheriff’s Office found a six-page letter hidden inside a book in Richins’ jail cell, headed “Walk The Dog!!” and addressed to her mother, Lisa Darden. Prosecutors described it as a script instructing her brother on how to testify falsely, directing him to say Eric had confided in him about obtaining fentanyl from Mexico. Richins said the letter was an excerpt from a “fictional mystery book” she was writing about life in a Mexican prison. Prosecutors introduced it at trial as evidence of consciousness of guilt and witness tampering.
The Charges and Trial
Richins was arrested on May 8, 2023, and initially charged with aggravated murder and three counts of possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute. In March 2024, prosecutors added an attempted aggravated murder charge tied to the Valentine’s Day incident. By October 2025 the case was formally amended to one count of aggravated murder, one count of attempted aggravated murder, two counts of insurance fraud, and one count of forgery. Utah announced in August 2023 that it would not seek the death penalty.
The trial took place in the Third District Court at the Summit County Courthouse in Park City, before Judge Richard E. Mrazik. Jury selection was completed on February 11, 2026, and opening arguments began February 23. Prosecutors Brad Bloodworth, Lindsay Chervenak, and Fred Burmester called 40 witnesses over three weeks. Bloodworth described Richins as a “black widow,” a characterization the defense challenged in an unsuccessful mistrial motion.
The defense team of Kathy Nester, Wendy Lewis, and Alex Ramos rested without calling a witness. Richins waived her right to testify. The defense argued the state’s evidence was speculative, attacked Lauber’s credibility, contended there was no direct proof of poisoning, and argued Kouri’s debts were typical for house-flipping and that her properties were not foreclosed until after her arrest.
On March 16, 2026, after about three hours of deliberation, the eight-person jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict on all five counts. Richins lowered her head as the judge read the verdict.
Sentencing
Richins was sentenced on May 13, 2026, which would have been Eric’s 44th birthday. Judge Mrazik imposed life without the possibility of parole and ordered the sentences on the non-murder counts to run consecutively. “A person convicted of those things is simply too dangerous to ever be free,” he said.
The couple’s three sons submitted letters through therapists. One, identified as A.R., wrote: “You took away everything from me and my brothers. I don’t want you out of jail because I will not feel safe if you are out.” Another wrote that his mother “took away his dad for no reason other than greed.” A third said he wanted “her to go to prison forever.” The children described a household where their mother was “always drunk or gone.” Eric’s father, Gene Richins, called his son “the very best of what a person can be.” Katie Richins-Benson said, “Today, the court recognized that what happened to Eric Richins was not an accident, not unexplained and not something our family imagined.” In November 2024, a juvenile court had placed the three sons in the custody of Katie Richins-Benson and her husband.
Judge Mrazik noted that the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole technically retains authority to release a prisoner sentenced to life without parole on clear and convincing evidence that the person is “permanently incapable of being a threat to the safety of society,” but said the practical effect of the sentence is permanent imprisonment.
Appeal and Pending Financial Case
On May 26, 2026, Richins’ attorneys filed a notice of appeal with the Utah Supreme Court, which referred the case to the Utah Court of Appeals the following day. The seven-member appellate court will review whether there are grounds to overturn any of the five convictions. Richins is also expected to file a motion for a new trial before Judge Mrazik on procedural grounds. Her trial defense team will not represent her on appeal, and Summit County is assigning new appellate-qualified counsel.
Richins separately faces 26 additional felony charges filed by the Summit County Attorney’s Office in June 2025, tied to alleged financial schemes between June 2021 and January 2022. The 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 engaging in a pattern of unlawful activity under Utah’s version of the RICO statute. No trial date has been set.