{"id":165813,"date":"2026-03-17T02:46:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T02:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/165813\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T02:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T02:46:08","slug":"grief-author-kouri-richins-found-guilty-of-fatally-poisoning-her-husband-for-his-4m-estate-after-3-hours-of-deliberation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/165813\/","title":{"rendered":"Grief author Kouri Richins found guilty of fatally poisoning her husband for his $4M estate after 3 hours of deliberation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Utah children\u2019s grief author Kouri Richins was found guilty on Monday of fatally poisoning her husband<\/a> in a twisted plot to bail herself out of debt with his $4 million estate and run away with her handyman lover.<\/p>\n

The jury in Park City handed down the guilty verdict after roughly three hours of deliberations following a three-week trial where prosecutors painted Richins as an egotistical social climber for slipping a fatal dose of fentanyl into her husband Eric\u2019s Moscow Mule cocktail on March 4, 2022.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old mom of three who penned a children\u2019s book about her kids\u2019 grief after the murder appeared defeated and hung her head low. Law&Crime<\/p>\n

Utah children\u2019s grief author Kouri Richins was found guilty on Monday of poisoning her husband, Eric Richins, in March 2022. AP<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old mom of three who penned a children\u2019s book about her kids\u2019 grief after the murder appeared defeated and hung her head low as the guilty verdicts were read on aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, insurance fraud, and forgery charges.<\/p>\n

She was also found guilty of trying to poison him a month earlier on Valentine\u2019s Day with a\u00a0fentanyl-laced sandwich\u00a0that made him break out in hives and black out, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

Richin\u2019s home-flipping business was $4.5 million in debt when she hatched the sinister scheme to try to collect Eric\u2019s estate and start a new life with her lover, Robert Josh Grossman, prosecutor Brad Bloodworth told jurors during blistering closing arguments earlier Monday.<\/p>\n

Kouri, who lived with her husband and kids in Kamas, a suburb of the wealthy ski town Park City, was an \u201cincompetent\u201d business owner<\/a> who \u201ccarefully curated the facade of a privileged, affluent, successful business owner,\u201d Bloodworth argued.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors painted Richins as an egotistical social climber who wanted to get out of business debt for slipping a fatal dose of fentanyl into her husband Eric\u2019s Moscow Mule cocktail. Courtesy of Greg Skordas<\/p>\n

The \u201cway forward\u201d for the conniving wannabee socialite was that \u201cEric had to die,\u201d the prosecutor continued. <\/p>\n

Richins asked Grossman, the married mom\u2019s secret lover and a 43-year-old Iraq war veteran, if he\u2019d ever killed anyone, just days after she fatally slipped fentanyl into her hubby\u2019s cocktail.<\/p>\n

The \u201cway forward\u201d for the conniving wannabee socialite was that \u201cEric had to die,\u201d the prosecutor continued. Law&Crime<\/p>\n

Richins posed the question in March 2022, as the pair discussed 39-year-old Eric\u2019s sudden death for the first time, the handyman testified earlier in the trial. <\/a><\/p>\n

Richins wrote and promoted a kids\u2019 book, \u201cAre You With Me?\u201d, a year after the poisoning plot to help their sons process their loss.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe wanted to leave Eric Richins but did not want to leave his money,\u201d Bloodworth told jurors. \u201cTheir prenup meant if she left him, she would also leave most of his money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richins wrote and promoted a kids\u2019 book, \u201cAre You With Me?\u201d, a year after the poisoning plot to help their sons process their loss. Facebook \/ Kouri Richins<\/p>\n

Throughout the prosecution\u2019s arguments, Richins derisively smirked and made faces<\/a>, including furrowing her eyebrows, grinning, and occasionally hurriedly leaning over and speaking with the defense team.<\/p>\n

The failed house flipper\u2019s defense lawyer, Kathy Nester, made a bid for a mistrial, claiming Bloodworth had made missteps during his closing \u2014 but the motion was shot down by Judge Richard Mrazik.<\/p>\n

Richins, who pleaded not guilty to the crimes, faces up to 25 years behind bars. She is slated to be sentenced on May 13.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Utah children\u2019s grief author Kouri Richins was found guilty on Monday of fatally poisoning her husband in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165814,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6277,238,9,11,10,15449,4721,58,1844],"class_list":["post-165813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-fentanyl","tag-murders","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-poison","tag-trials","tag-us-news","tag-utah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}