Kouri Richins, a Utah mother of three who wrote a children's book about grief after her husband's death, has been sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for his murder.
The 35-year-old real estate agent was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing Eric Richins' cocktail with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. She was also found guilty of four other felonies, including attempted murder for trying to poison him weeks earlier with a fentanyl-laced sandwich on Valentine's Day.
Handing down the sentence on what would have been Eric Richins' 44th birthday, Judge Richard Mrazik said: “A person convicted of those things is simply too dangerous to ever be free.” Prosecutors had argued that Richins was millions of pounds in debt, had taken out life insurance policies on her husband without his knowledge, and was planning a future with another man.
Richins has maintained her innocence, calling the verdict “an absolute lie”. Her case attracted widespread attention when she was arrested in 2023 while promoting her book Are You With Me?, about a boy coping with the death of his father. The trial ended early after she waived her right to testify and her legal team called no witnesses.
In a memo filed by prosecutors ahead of the hearing, Eric Richins' sons, now aged 13, 11 and 5, said they would feel unsafe if their mother were ever released. The oldest wrote that he feared she would “come after me and my brothers”, while the youngest said he would be “so scared”. Eric's sister, Amy Richins, said after the verdict that she was “just very happy that we got justice for my brother”.
