{"id":810,"date":"2026-05-13T16:34:46","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T16:34:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=810"},"modified":"2026-05-13T16:34:46","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T16:34:46","slug":"utah-woman-who-published-a-book-on-grief-after-husbands-death-to-be-sentenced-for-his-murder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=810","title":{"rendered":"Utah woman who published a book on grief after husband\u2019s death to be sentenced for his murder"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

PARK CITY, Utah<\/strong> | A Utah mother who published a children\u2019s book about grief after the death of her husband and was later found guilty of killing him finds out Wednesday how long she will spend in prison.<\/p>\n

Kouri Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing her husband\u2019s cocktail with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said Richins, a 35-year-old real estate agent with a house-flipping business, was millions in debt and planning a future with another man. She had opened numerous life insurance policies on her husband Eric Richins without his knowledge and falsely believed she would inherit his estate worth more than $4 million after he died.<\/p>\n

Jurors in Park City also found Richins guilty of four other felonies, including attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Valentine\u2019s Day with a fentanyl-laced sandwich.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Her case captivated true-crime enthusiasts when she was arrested in 2023 while promoting her children\u2019s book \u201cAre You with Me?\u201d about a boy coping with the death of his father.<\/p>\n

Richins faces several decades to life in prison at her sentencing hearing Wednesday, which falls on the day her husband would have turned 44. Her lawyers declined to comment before the hearing.<\/p>\n

Eric Richins\u2019 sister, Amy Richins, said after the verdict that she was \u201cjust very happy that we got justice for my brother\u201d and could now focus solely on supporting his sons, who were ages 9, 7 and 5 when their father died.<\/p>\n

Richins\u2019 sons say they are afraid of their mother<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a memo filed by prosecutors ahead of the hearing, the sons told the judge they would feel unsafe if their mother was ever released from prison.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m afraid if she gets out, she will come after me and my brothers, my whole family,\u201d said the oldest boy, who is now 13. \u201cI think she would come and take us and not do good things to us, like hurt us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The middle child, now 11, said he is sad that his dad won\u2019t be present for major milestones. With his mother behind bars, he said he can \u201clive a happy and successful life without fear of (her) hurting me or anyone I love.\u201d<\/p>\n

The youngest said he would be \u201cso scared\u201d if his mother was released.<\/p>\n

Possible sentences by charge<\/strong><\/p>\n

Judges in Utah typically impose sentences as a broad range rather than a fixed number of years.<\/p>\n

The most serious charge, aggravated murder, is punishable by 25 years to life in prison, or a life sentence without parole. Prosecutors did not push for the death penalty.<\/p>\n

Prison time for the attempted aggravated murder charge depends on the severity of the bodily injury that occurred. After taking a bite of the sandwich his wife left for him, Eric Richins broke out in hives, injected himself with his son\u2019s EpiPen, drank a bottle of Benadryl and passed out, prosecutors said. Depending on the judge\u2019s assessment, Kouri Richins could face 15 years to life, 6 years to life or 5 years to life for that charge.<\/p>\n

Two counts of insurance fraud, second-degree felonies, each carry a 1-15 year sentence, and a third-degree felony forgery charge is punishable by 0-5 years in prison.<\/p>\n

Judge Richard Mrazik has discretion to decide whether Richins\u2019 prison sentences for each count will overlap or stack up. Prosecutors have asked for no overlap and urged the judge to give her life without parole.<\/p>\n

Richins also faces more than two dozen money-related criminal charges in a separate case that has not yet gone to trial.<\/p>\n

Trial cut short by defense team<\/strong><\/p>\n

The trial was scheduled for five weeks but ended early when Richins waived her right to testify, and her legal team rested its case without calling any witnesses. Her attorneys said they were confident that prosecutors had not produced enough evidence to convict her of murder.<\/p>\n

The jury deliberated for just under three hours before finding her guilty of all counts.<\/p>\n

Throughout the trial, prosecutors portrayed the mother of three as a money-hungry killer. They showed the jury text messages between Richins and her lover in which she fantasized about leaving her husband and gaining millions in a divorce. Prosecutors also displayed the internet search history from Richins\u2019 phone, which included queries about the lethal dose of fentanyl, luxury prisons and how poisoning is marked on a death certificate.<\/p>\n

The defense argued that Eric Richins was addicted to painkillers. Prosecutors countered by showing police body camera footage from the night of his death in which Kouri Richins tells an officer that her husband had no history of illicit drug use.<\/p>\n

Defense attorneys also argued that the prosecution\u2019s star witness, a housekeeper who claimed to have sold Kouri Richins fentanyl on multiple occasions, was motivated to lie for legal protection. The housekeeper was granted immunity for her cooperation in the case.<\/p>\n

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PARK CITY, Utah | A Utah mother who published a children\u2019s book about grief after the death of her husband and was later found guilty of killing him finds out Wednesday how long she will spend in prison. Kouri Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing her husband\u2019s cocktail with five times […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,136,67,137,135,242,243,63],"tags":[974,975,976,977,978,979],"class_list":["post-810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting","category-nation-2","category-nation","category-nation-and-state","category-no-apple-publish","category-recent-headlines","category-trending","category-world","tag-defense-attorney","tag-eric-richins","tag-fentanyl","tag-judge-richard-mrazik","tag-kouri-richins","tag-prosecutor"],"yoast_head":"\nUtah woman who published a book on grief after husband\u2019s death to be sentenced for his murder - Denver Moving Chronicle<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=810\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Utah woman who published a book on grief after husband\u2019s death to be sentenced for his murder - Denver Moving Chronicle\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"PARK CITY, Utah | A Utah mother who published a children\u2019s book about grief after the death of her husband and was later found guilty of killing him finds out Wednesday how long she will spend in prison. 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