'Family torn apart': Kouri Richins juror describes emotional murder deliberations ahead of guilty verdict
When Laura, the foreperson in Kouri Richins’ murder trial, first saw the mother accused of murdering her husband, she didn’t think much of her.
"She was kind of nondescript," she told ABC News' "Good Morning America" in an exclusive interview. "She didn't really show that much emotion. I was trying to get some vibe from her and it was very hard to pick up any kind of vibe."
The foreperson was one of eight jurors in Summit County, Utah, who convicted Richins this week of murdering her husband, Eric, with a fatal dose of fentanyl in March 2022.
Richins, 35, who after her husband’s death self-published a children’s book on grieving, was found guilty on all five counts, including aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder.
"There was never a not guilty check with anything, with any element, nothing," the foreperson, Laura, who was juror No. 2, told ABC News of the 3-hour jury deliberations on Monday.
"Even though it was just three hours, I felt like we came into that deliberation fully loaded," she said, adding, "To evaluate the case and to look at the evidence we had to zoom in on these little bits of evidence and kind of ignore all the fluff and ignore the drama."
Richins in 2023 self-published her children’s book, which she said was intended to help her sons with their loss.
A month prior to her arrest in May 2023, the mom of three young sons appeared on a "Good Things Utah" segment on Salt Lake City ABC affiliate KTVX to promote the book. In the segment, Kouri Richins said her husband of nine years died "unexpectedly" and that his death "completely took us all by shock.
The jurors were shocked when they were told about the book in the final days of testimony at the trial, Laura told ABC News.
"Everyone just felt like they're hit with a truck," she said. "We're like, what? What the hell is this? It was so odd and so strange."
Richins did not testify during the three-week trial and the defense called no witnesses.
The prosecution alleged she was having an affair, was deep in debt and was desperate to inherit her husband’s estate and life insurance.
The jury found her guilty of aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder, along with three other counts. Two were for insurance fraud connected to life-insurance policies and a third was for forgery, for forging her husband’s signature on documents.
Sentencing is scheduled for May 13 and Richins could receive 25 years to life.
"People were really sad, because they did not want to find her guilty," Laura told ABC News of her fellow jurors. "They were really hoping that she was innocent. And we couldn't come to that conclusion, and it was really heartbreaking."
She added, "This devastating reality that this family was torn apart and these poor kids will really basically never have a dad or mom."
