This past Tuesday, a judge denied a bond request from Kouri Richins, a 34-year-old Utah mother of three and children’s book author who is accused of killing her husband.
In March 2022, Kouri’s husband, 39-year-old Eric Richins, died of a drug overdose, and Kouri allegedly gave him a lethal dose of fentanyl.
The couple lived in a tiny mountain town close to Park City, Utah. According to prosecutors, Kouri put five times the lethal dose of fentanyl into a Moscow mule that her husband drank.
She was arrested in June 2023 and charged with aggravated murder. Additionally, more charges filed in March accused Kouri of another earlier attempt to kill Eric on Valentine’s Day in 2022 using a spiked sandwich.
“There simply are not reasonably available means of mitigating her risk to the community and to herself or the strong incentive for her to flee the jurisdiction of the court,” said 3rd District Judge Richard Mrazik during the bond request hearing on Tuesday.
At an August hearing, Detective Jeff O’Driscoll of the Summit County Sheriff’s Office was called to the stand and detailed his interactions with housekeeper Carmen Lauber, a key witness for the state. Carmen claimed to have sold fentanyl to Kouri on three separate occasions.
Investigators first identified a link between Kouri and Carmen via multiple text messages, and Carmen was arrested with drugs and other illegal items at her home.
Initially, Carmen denied knowing how Eric died, but in a later interview with O’Driscoll, she started talking after learning drug charges against her could be reduced or eliminated completely in exchange for helpful information.
At that point, O’Driscoll stated that Carmen “went back and forth on what happened, what didn’t happen, and in what order things happened.”
Facebook – pictured above are Kouri and Eric
Carmen said she sold Kouri up to 90 fentanyl pills, but authorities reportedly did not find any of the pills in Kouri’s home. The housekeeper was issued a letter of immunity from the U.S. Attorney’s Office and may be called to testify at a later date.
Kouri also self-published her children’s book entitled “Are You with Me?” in the months leading up to her arrest in May 2023. The book is about a father who watches over his young son after dying and may be crucial for prosecutors as they try to prove that Eric’s murder was calculated and had an attempted cover-up.
Additional witnesses could include Kouri and Eric’s relatives, as well as Eric’s friends, who reportedly recalled conversations they’d had with Eric when he was allegedly first poisoned by Kouri.
Eric’s sister, Katie Richins, filed a petition and claimed that Kouri had financial motives for murder. Prosecutors allege that she’d taken out life insurance policies valued at almost $2 million behind Eric’s back and believed she’d inherit his assets based on their prenuptial agreement.
Eric was seemingly suspicious of his wife, too, as court records show that, in October 2020, he’d talked to an attorney about possibly removing Kouri from his will and filing for divorce.
Brooke Karrington, a forensic accountant, stated that meeting transcripts suggest Eric was aware of Kouri making significant financial decisions without his knowledge. However, he didn’t proceed with the divorce.
Judge Richard Mrazik granted a motion from prosecutors on Tuesday, dismissing two counts of distributing a controlled substance. Meanwhile, the defense’s motion to try the murder and attempted murder charges separately was denied.
Four charges related to mortgage fraud, which allegedly occurred in 2021, were allowed to be separated by Judge Richard Mrazik.
Finally, a motion was granted to select jurors from Salt Lake and Summit Counties.
Kouri’s trial is supposed to start in April 2025 for the murder and attempted murder charges, two counts of filing fraudulent insurance claims, and one count of forgery.
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