Widow who wrote book on grief found guilty of murdering husband Eric

An American widow who wrote a book about grief after the death of her husband has been found guilty of murdering him by drugging his cocktail.

Kouri Richins, 35, called paramedics to her Utah home on March 4, 2022, after finding her husband, Eric, unresponsive in bed. 

He was pronounced dead and found to have five times the lethal dose of the drug fentanyl in his blood, and investigations later found it was illegally sourced.

Kouri Richins, left, falsely believed she would solely inherit her husband Eric’s estate. (Facebook/Kouri Richins)

Richins was arrested and charged with murder on May 8, 2023, just a month after she had been interviewed by a Utah-based broadcasting outlet to discuss a book she had written to help widows and children cope with the grief of losing a loved one.

Called Are You With Me?, it follows the story of a child who has lost their father, but who is reminded that his presence still exists all around them, according to a description on Goodreads.

Kouri Richins had little reaction when she was convicted of murdering her husband. (AP)”Just because he’s not present here with us physically, that doesn’t mean his presence isn’t here with us,” she told ABC4. “Dad is still here, it’s just in a different way.”

However, she was convicted of the murder of her husband by a jury that deliberated for three hours, and she was also found guilty of trying to murder him on an earlier occasion by lacing a sandwich he ate with fentanyl.

She was also convicted of forgery and attempting to fraudulently claim several life insurance policies in her husband’s name after his death.

Prosecutors had alleged Richins falsely believed she would be the sole beneficiary of her husband’s will, worth more than $US4 million ($5.64 million), and that she was in about $US4.5 million of debt after the failure of her house flipping business after the COVID-19 pandemic.

“She wanted to leave Eric Richins but did not want to leave his money,” Summit County prosecutor Brad Bloodworth said.

A house where Kouri Richins and Eric Richins lived in Francis, Utah. (AP)

What was scheduled to be a five-week trial was cut short when the defendant waived her right to testify, and her legal team abruptly rested its case without calling any witnesses.

Her attorneys said they were confident that prosecutors did not produce enough evidence over the past three weeks to convict her of murder.

However, prosecutors showed the jury text messages between Richins and Robert Josh Grossman, the man with whom she was allegedly having an affair, in which she fantasised about leaving her husband, gaining millions in a divorce and marrying Grossman.

The internet search history from Richins’ phone included “what is a lethal.dose.of.fetanayl,” “luxury prisons for the rich America” and “if someone is poisned what does it go down on the death certificate as”, a digital forensic analyst testified.

Kouri Richins will also face trial for 26 other charges. (AP)

Bloodworth replayed for the jury a clip of Richins’ 911 call from the night of her husband’s death. That’s “not ‘the sound of a wife becoming a widow’,” he said, quoting the defence’s opening statement. “It’s the sound of a wife becoming a black widow.”

Defence attorney Wendy Lewis responded that the prosecution “looks at facts one way and sees a witch, but if you look at those facts another way, you see a widow”.

Richins stared at the floor and took deep breaths as the judge read the verdict.

She also faces 26 other money-related criminal charges in a separate case that has not yet gone to trial.

Reported with Associated Press

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