Author to stand trial over husband’s poison murder

A book author who is accused of poisoning her husband, just got some very bad news.

Grief book author Kouri Richins — who is accused of poisoning her husband with a fentanyl-laced cocktail — must stand trial next year, a Utah judge has ruled.

Judge Richard Mrazik said prosecutors brought enough evidence to allow their case to go forward against Richins, 34, who is charged with killing husband Eric Richins by slipping him five times the lethal amount of the synthetic opioid into a Moscow mule cocktail.

Richins — a mother of three — appeared stoic at the judge’s decision and entered a plea of not guilty. She faces up to 25 years behind bars if convicted. Her trial is tentatively set to begin the last week of April 2025, KPCW reported.

Kouri Richins is accused of poisoning her husband Eric Richins. Picture: Facebook

Mrazik’s ruling, which found probable cause on all counts, comes after a day-long hearing Monday where prosecutors called witnesses including a Summit County detective that worked Richins’ case, a forensic digital expert who testified about Kouri’s phone records and a forensic accountant who testified about the couple’s financial records, New York Postreported.

In Utah, judges — rather than juries — normally decide on whether a criminal case can proceed to trial.

Prosecutors argued that Kouri, a realtor who flipped homes, was both financially and romantically motivated to kill Eric, 39, as she had allegedly been having an affair with her handyman Robert Grossmann and had mounting debts that she hoped to solve with the money she mistakenly believed she would inherit when her husband of nine years died.

Richins “had a significant financial incentive to secure [Eric’s] death because she would do better under the premarital agreement if he were dead and her businesses were highly leveraged,” Mrazik said Tuesday, according to a report by WSJM.

Kouri is charged with aggravated murder and drug charges for allegedly first attempting to kill Eric on February 14, 2022 by spiking his breakfast sandwich with street fentanyl before succeeding weeks later when she fatally laced his drink on March 4, 2022.

She wrote a grief book titled “Are You With Me?”.

“The best evidence of the attempted homicide is the actual homicide,” Chief Prosecutor Brad Bloodworth argued Tuesday. “The defendant learned from the attempt and applied it to the actual homicide.”

“She learned that whatever she used on Valentine’s Day wasn’t strong enough so she went back and asked for something stronger,” Bloodworth added.

Bloodworth claimed that Kouri’s text messages to Grossmann and to her drug dealer, around the time of both druggings, were strong evidence of her lethal plan.

On February 15 2022, Kouri “lamented” about her failed murder attempt to her lover — whom she’d spent the prior day with while her husband was suffering a severe drug reaction — texting, “if [Eric] could just go away…life would be perfect.”

“Then two weeks later, [Kouri] assured her paramour ‘Life is going to be different, I promise. Hang in there until Friday,’” Bloodworth said, apparently reading from text messages. “On Friday, Eric Richins is dead.”

But Kouri’s lawyer Kathy Nester told the judge that the case against her client was circumstantial and speculative — especially the charges related to the attempted murder.

If convicted, she faces up to 25 years in prison

“You have a claim that Mr. Richins was poisoned on [February 14, 2022],” Nester said. “There is no medical evidence. There is no connection, there is no causation, there is nothing but pure speculation that because they believe she tried to kill him and successfully killed him in March, that must mean she tried it before.”

Kouri is also facing charges of forgery, insurance fraud and mortgage fraud for allegedly forcing Eric’s signature for an insurance application just weeks before his death.

Prosecutors and Eric’s sister have claimed that Kouri was trying to profit off of Eric’s death in multiple ways, including putting out a self-published children’s book called “Are You With Me?” about coping with grief.

She had also allegedly taken out multiple life insurance policies totalling almost $2 million (AUD $2,937,000) without Eric’s knowledge. But Eric eventually found out, cutting her out of his will and changing the life insurance policies.

“There are innocent explanations for everything that happened on the 14th [of February],” Nester argued.

Nester also claimed that the seemingly damning text messages Kouri sent are simply evidence that she and Eric were not the “perfect couple,” rather than evidence of a nefarious plan.

Mrazik told the defence team they were making “great trial arguments” but he said their points weren’t meant for a hearing to determine probable cause.

Kouri — who’s been behind bars since her March 2023 arrest — is due back in court on September 23 for the parties to finalise a date for jury selection.

With Post Wires

This story originally appeared on the New York Post and reproduced with permission