PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — A Utah mom of three who printed a youngsters’s e-book about grief after her husband’s demise and was later accused of fatally poisoning him will stand trial, a decide dominated Tuesday.
Utah state Decide Richard Mrazik dominated on the second day of Kouri Richins’ preliminary listening to that prosecutors had offered sufficient proof towards her to proceed with a jury trial.
She faces a slew of felony prices for allegedly killing her husband with a deadly dose of fentanyl in March 2022 at their residence in a small mountain city close to Park Metropolis. Prosecutors say Kouri Richins, 34, slipped 5 occasions the deadly dose of the artificial opioid right into a Moscow mule cocktail that Eric Richins, 39, drank.
Kouri Richins appeared stoic because the decide delivered the information {that a} jury would quickly determine her destiny. She has been adamant in sustaining she is harmless and entered pleas of “not responsible” to all 11 counts on Tuesday. Her trial is ready to start on April 28.
The second day of her preliminary listening to centered round an further tried homicide cost filed earlier this yr that accused her of slipping fentanyl into her husband’s sandwich on Valentine’s Day 2022, inflicting a extreme however nonfatal response.
Summit County Prosecutor Brad Bloodworth defended the cost by describing how he thinks Kouri Richins realized classes in the course of the first unsuccessful try on her husband’s life that helped her perform the killing 17 days later.
One chunk of his favourite sandwich — left with a word within the entrance seat of his truck on Valentine’s Day — made Eric Richins get away in hives and black out, prosecutors allege. His spouse had purchased the sandwich from an area diner within the metropolis of Kamas two days after she bought fentanyl capsules from the household’s housekeeper, in response to witness statements and deleted textual content messages that have been recovered by police.
Textual content messages and placement knowledge point out Kouri Richins could have introduced the sandwich residence, then left to spend Valentine’s Day with one other man with whom she was having an affair, Bloodworth stated. A day after Valentine’s Day, she texted her lover, “If he may simply go away … life can be so excellent.”
In written testimony, two pals of Eric Richins recounted telephone conversations from the day prosecutors say he was first poisoned by his spouse of 9 years. After injecting himself along with his son’s EpiPen and chugging a bottle of Benadryl, he awoke from a deep sleep and instructed a good friend, “I feel my spouse tried to poison me,” charging paperwork allege.
Housekeeper Carmen Lauber instructed police that Kouri Richins subsequently requested her to acquire stronger fentanyl, Detective Jeff O’Driscoll stated on the primary day of the listening to Monday.
“She realized that placing it in a sandwich, the place Eric Richins may take a chunk, really feel the consequences, set the sandwich down, was not the right strategy to administer a deadly dose of fentanyl,” Bloodworth instructed the decide. “She realized that it takes a truckload to kill him.”
Days later, Kouri Richins referred to as 911 in the course of the evening to report that she had discovered her husband “chilly to the contact” on the foot of their mattress, in response to a police report. He was pronounced lifeless, and a medical expert later discovered 5 occasions the deadly dosage of fentanyl in his system.
Protection attorneys Kathy Nester and Wendy Lewis argued that as a result of police by no means discovered fentanyl within the Richins residence, detectives couldn’t make certain that the medication Kouri Richins purchased from the housekeeper matched these present in Eric Richins’ system.
“These are nice trial arguments,” Mrazik responded, however he questioned aloud whether or not any of their arguments have been robust sufficient to make the case that there wasn’t possible trigger for the costs.
“We’re conscious that the preliminary listening to stage favors the prosecution to a rare diploma and respect the court docket’s choice,” Nester and Lewis stated in a joint assertion after the listening to. “We firmly consider the costs towards Kouri don’t stand up to thorough scrutiny and are assured {that a} jury will discover the identical.”
Mrazik just lately appointed the pair of attorneys to characterize Kouri Richins after he decided she was unable to proceed paying for personal attorneys. Prosecutors say she mistakenly believed she would inherit her husband’s property underneath the phrases of their prenuptial settlement and had taken out life insurance coverage insurance policies on him with out his data that totaled almost $2 million.
Courtroom information point out Eric Richins met with an legal professional in October 2020 to debate the potential of submitting for divorce, which he by no means did, and to quietly minimize his spouse out of his will.
Within the months earlier than her arrest in Might 2023, the Utah mom self-published the youngsters’s e-book “Are You with Me?” a few father with angel wings watching over his younger son after passing away. The e-book may ultimately play a key position for prosecutors in framing Eric Richins’ demise as a calculated killing with an elaborate cover-up try.
The decide scheduled a pretrial convention on Sept. 23 for the prosecution and protection to debate jury choice.
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