Utah mom accused of fatally poisoning husband with fentanyl expected back in court as trial nears
A Utah mom accused of fatally poisoning her husband with fentanyl is scheduled to have a court hearing on Friday ahead of her murder trial next year.
Kouri Richins, a 35-year-old realtor and mother of three who wrote and self-published a children's book on grieving following her husband's death, was arrested in 2023 following a lengthy investigation. She was charged with aggravated murder in connection with the 2022 death of her husband, Eric Richins. Prosecutors allege she spiked his cocktail with a lethal dose of fentanyl.
She is also charged with attempted aggravated murder, with prosecutors alleging she gave him a sandwich laced with fentanyl on Valentine's Day two weeks before his death in an initial, failed attempt to kill him.
Prosecutors allege that Kouri Richins fraudulently secured a life insurance policy on her husband's death in January 2022 and had financial incentive to kill him. She is also accused of texting a paramour on Feb. 15, 2022, the day after the alleged Valentine's Day incident, that "if he could just go away ... life would be so perfect."
Eric Richins, 39, was found dead in the couple's bedroom on March 4, 2022. An autopsy determined he died from fentanyl intoxication, and the level of fentanyl in his blood was approximately five times the lethal dosage, according to the charging document. The medical examiner determined the fentanyl was "illicit fentanyl," not medical grade, according to the charging document.
A pretrial conference in the murder case is scheduled for Friday afternoon in a Park City courthouse, ahead of the February 2026 trial. Kouri Richins has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Kouri Richins also faces over two dozen charges in a separate case filed earlier this year alleging she committed mortgage fraud in 2021. The charging document alleges she submitted falsified banks statements in support of mortgage loan applications for her realty business, committed money laundering and issued bad checks.
The charges in the case also allege she murdered her husband for financial gain as she "stood on the precipice of total financial collapse." According to the charging document, at the time of Eric Richins' death, her realty company owed lenders at least $1.8 million and his estate was worth approximately $5 million.
She is scheduled to make an initial appearance in that case Friday afternoon as well. She has not yet entered a plea to the charges.
Kouri Richins has remained in Summit County Jail since her arrest, after the judge last month denied a defense motion to reconsider bail and release.
She proclaimed her innocence in an audio recording released in May 2024.
"The world has yet to hear who I really am, what I've really done or didn't do," Kouri Richins insisted in the audio, provided to ABC News through a trusted confidant. "What I really didn't do is murder my husband."
A month prior to her arrest in May 2023, the mom of three appeared on a "Good Things Utah" segment on Salt Lake City ABC affiliate KTVX to promote her book. In the segment, Kouri Richins said her husband of nine years died "unexpectedly" and that his death "completely took us all by shock."
