{"id":28385,"date":"2026-05-13T22:06:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T22:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/28385\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T22:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T22:06:08","slug":"utah-childrens-book-author-who-poisoned-husband-will-spend-life-in-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/28385\/","title":{"rendered":"Utah Children\u2019s Book Author Who Poisoned Husband Will Spend Life in Prison"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Utah mother of three, who wrote a children\u2019s book about grief after murdering her husband, received a sentence of life in prison without parole on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Kouri Richins, 36, also faced convictions and consecutive sentences on four other charges \u2014 attempted murder, two counts of falsifying insurance claims and one count of forgery.<\/p>\n

\u201cA person convicted of those things is simply too dangerous to ever be free,\u201d Judge Richard Mrazik said.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors had argued that Ms. Richins had poisoned her husband, Eric Richins, in 2022 to inherit more than $4 million from him and receive about $2 million from life insurance policies that she had opened without his knowledge.<\/p>\n

The sentencing came on what would have been her husband\u2019s 44th birthday. Ms. Richins, who maintained her innocence throughout the trial, said she planned to appeal the verdict.<\/p>\n

Ms. Richins was found guilty in April<\/a>, capping a yearslong courtroom saga that caught national attention. On March 3, 2022, prosecutors said, Ms. Richins spiked a cocktail with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl that she had bought from a housekeeper. She then served it to her husband at their home outside Park City, Utah. The couple was meant to be celebrating the closing of a real estate deal by Ms. Richins.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said it was the second time Ms. Richins had tried to kill her husband, who was 39 at the time. Weeks earlier, on Valentine\u2019s Day, she had tried to poison him by putting fentanyl in his favorite sandwich. Mr. Richins became extremely ill, charging documents said, but he recovered after using Benadryl and an EpiPen. <\/p>\n

About a year after Mr. Richins\u2019s death, Ms. Richins published \u201cAre You With Me?,\u201d a children\u2019s book she said she wrote to help her three boys process the loss, and promoted it on a local news station<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ms. Richins had waived her right to testify during the trial, and her lawyers did not call any witnesses. But at the sentencing hearing at the Summit County Courthouse in Park City on Wednesday, Ms. Richins called her husband\u2019s death \u201can unforeseen tragedy\u201d and addressed her children.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did things behind your dad\u2019s back, he did things behind mine. Don\u2019t keep secrets. Always put your spouse first,\u201d she said in a prepared statement. \u201cYour dad and I didn\u2019t always do this but don\u2019t be like us in that aspect. We made mistakes that I know I regret and I\u2019m sure if he were here today he\u2019d say there were things he regrets, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBe like your dad,\u201d she later added.<\/p>\n

While speaking, Ms. Richins maintained her innocence, calling the allegations against her \u201ccompletely wrong\u201d and an \u201cabsolute lie.\u201d<\/p>\n

Members of Mr. Richins\u2019s family, including his siblings and father, read prepared statements. Both of his sisters said they had begged their brother to leave Ms. Richins before his death, and one of them, Dr. Amy Richins, said any sentence that included the possibility of parole would be \u201ca recurring nightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three social workers read victim\u2019s statements on behalf of the couple\u2019s three sons, who were 9, 7 and 5 when their father died. All three asked for a sentence of life in prison.<\/p>\n

Sitting in a bright green T-shirt, Ms. Richins wiped away tears.<\/p>\n

In charging documents, forensic analysis of burner phones used by Ms. Richins showed searches for \u201ccan cops.uncover deleted.messages iphone,\u201d \u201cif someone is poisned what does it go down on the death certificate as,\u201d \u201chow long does life insurance companies takento.pay\u201d and \u201cwhat is a lethal.does.of.fetanyl.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Richins\u2019s lawyers argued that Mr. Richins was addicted to painkillers and had asked his wife to buy painkillers for him; they suggested he may have overdosed.<\/p>\n

In a sentencing memo filed with the court this month, Ms. Richins\u2019s oldest son, now 13, said he wanted the court to know that he is \u201cafraid if she gets out, she will come after me and my brothers, my whole family. I think she would come and take us and not do good things to us, like hurt us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI miss my dad,\u201d he continued. \u201cBut I do not miss how my life used to be, I don\u2019t miss Kouri, I will tell you that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The middle son, now 11, said that with his mother in jail, \u201cI will be able to continue to feel safe and live a happy and successful life without fear.\u201d The couple\u2019s youngest son said that when someone talks about his mother, \u201cit makes me feel hateful and ashamed\u201d and that if she was ever freed \u201cI would be so scared.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Richins\u2019s mother and sister spoke on her behalf, as did her business associates.<\/p>\n

\u201cKouri is more than the worst day of her life,\u201d her mother, Lisa Richins, wrote in a letter that was read by a lawyer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Utah mother of three, who wrote a children\u2019s book about grief after murdering her husband, received a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[12992,17296,8,17295,9,17294,7,1471],"class_list":{"0":"post-28385","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-decisions-and-verdicts","9":"tag-eric-d-2022","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-kouri","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-richins","14":"tag-top-stories","15":"tag-utah"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116569543962116885","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}