A little after 3 a.m. on March 4, 2022, Kouri Richins called 911 from her home in Kamas, Utah, a small town in the mountains east of Park City. Her husband was unresponsive in their bed. Hours earlier, she later told investigators, she had made him a Moscow Mule, vodka and ginger beer, to celebrate a real estate closing. Eric Richins was 39. First responders could not save him.

Who Eric Richins Was

Eric Richins co-founded C&E Stone Masonry with his close friend Cody Wright, a company that did stone work, pavers and tile for high-end homes. He hunted, helped his father on the family ranch and coached his sons’ teams. He and Kouri had three boys. Kouri ran a real estate business that bought and flipped houses.

The autopsy found fentanyl in his blood at about five times a lethal dose, taken by mouth. The medical examiner described it as illicit fentanyl, not the medical-grade kind. On police body camera footage later shown at trial, Kouri told an officer her husband had no history of illicit drug use. So where did the fentanyl come from?

A Book About Grief

About a year later, in March 2023, Kouri self-published a picture book called Are You With Me? It follows a young boy coping with the death of his father. She promoted it in local TV and radio interviews.

On May 8, 2023, the Summit County Sheriff’s Office arrested her. She was charged with aggravated murder and three counts of possession of drugs with intent to distribute, and a judge ordered her held without bail. She pleaded not guilty and has always maintained her innocence.

The Money, According to Prosecutors

Prosecutors built their case around money. They said Kouri bought four life insurance policies on Eric between 2015 and 2017, with combined benefits of nearly $2 million, without his knowledge. In October 2020, after discovering some of her financial moves, Eric met with a divorce attorney and an estate planner. He placed his estate in a trust and named his sister, Katie Richins-Benson, as trustee. Prosecutors said Kouri believed she would inherit his estate. She would not have.

In January 2022, prosecutors allege, Kouri logged into a $2 million policy Eric held with his business partner and made herself the beneficiary. The insurer flagged the change and it was reversed. Another policy, for $100,000, took effect on Feb. 4, 2022. Prosecutors said Eric’s signature on it was forged and that she filed a claim on it after his death.

Prosecutors said she was millions of dollars in debt. In late 2021 she agreed to buy an unfinished 20,000-square-foot mansion in nearby Midway to flip. The sale closed just after Eric died. Life insurance also sat at the center of the murder of Betsy Faria and the Pam Hupp investigation in Missouri.

Valentine’s Day

Prosecutors say March 4 was not the first try. On Feb. 14, 2022, according to charging documents, Kouri left a sandwich from a local diner and a note in Eric’s truck. After one bite, he broke out in hives. He used an EpiPen and took Benadryl. He had no known food allergies. He told one friend, “You almost lost me.” He told another he thought his wife had tried to poison him.

Around the same time, prosecutors say, Kouri was buying pills through a woman who cleaned houses for her. That woman testified at trial, under grants of immunity, that she got illicit drugs at Kouri’s request. According to her account, Kouri first said the pills were for an investor with back pain, then asked for something stronger: “some of the Michael Jackson stuff.” The first batch, prosecutors said, cost $900. In March 2024 prosecutors added a charge of attempted aggravated murder over the sandwich.

Three Weeks in Park City

Jury selection began in February 2026 in Summit County, and opening statements were heard in late February. The defense said Eric lived with chronic pain and used THC gummies and hydrocodone, called the investigation sloppy and argued there was no evidence fentanyl was in his drink that night. Prosecutors showed texts about wanting her husband out of her life, and phone searches about lethal fentanyl doses and luxury prisons. Kouri did not testify. The defense rested without calling witnesses.

On March 16, 2026, after just under three hours of deliberation, the jury found her guilty on all five counts: aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, forgery and two counts of insurance fraud. The drug counts from her arrest were no longer part of the case after the charges were amended.

Life Without Parole

Third District Judge Richard Mrazik sentenced her on May 13, 2026, the day Eric would have turned 44. The sentence was life in prison without the possibility of parole. Mrazik said she was “simply too dangerous to ever be free.” Members of Eric’s family asked for the maximum. Kouri called the verdict a lie. “I will not be blamed for something I did not do,” she told the court.

Her trial lawyers filed an appeal in late May. In July, a second judge, Kara Pettit, rejected her request to remove Mrazik from the case, finding no showing of bias. On Aug. 28, Mrazik ordered her to pay more than $1.3 million in restitution to two life insurance companies.

The Sheriffs and the Letter

Weeks before trial, the Summit County Attorney’s Office received an anonymous letter alleging past misconduct by Eric Mainord, a detective central to the investigation. He was removed from the state’s witness list during the trial. Mainord had been running against Wasatch County Sheriff Jared Rigby in the Republican primary; he dropped out in May 2026.

On Sept. 24, 2026, a grand jury indicted Rigby on obstruction of justice and making a written false statement, and former Summit County Sheriff Dave Edmunds on obstruction of justice. The charges were unsealed Oct. 7. Both men pleaded not guilty. The indictments are redacted, but a filing by Rigby’s own attorney indicates he is accused of sending the letter, and prosecutors have said Rigby sought to discredit Mainord. A hearing on the redactions is set for Nov. 4.

Kouri’s lawyers argue the case supports their request for a new trial. No court has granted one. In early October, Mrazik also entered a wrongful-death judgment of more than $55 million against her in a suit brought by Katie Richins-Benson as trustee. A separate criminal case, 26 felony counts filed in June 2025, including mortgage fraud, money laundering, forgery and bad checks, is still pending.

Why This Case Still Matters

Prosecutors never showed exactly how or when the fentanyl got into Eric Richins. They did not need to. The jury convicted on the pattern: the debt, the policies, the pill purchases, the searches and the sandwich two weeks earlier. In a circumstantial case, the people who gathered the evidence matter, which is why the defense is now focused on how the investigation was run.

The case also drew a national audience because of the book. Like the Ruby Franke case, another Utah story, it set a parent’s public image against what investigators said was happening behind it. Now there is a third layer: two sheriffs charged with interfering with the case, and an open question about whether any of it touched the trial.

Eric Richins left a trust meant to protect his sons and a business he built with a friend. His widow is serving life without parole, and her appeal is pending. If the sheriffs’ case shows a witness’s record was kept from the defense, will a court decide that the jury needed to hear it?

Related Cases

• The Pam Hupp case — a Missouri murder, a changed life insurance beneficiary and a husband convicted, then acquitted.
• The Ruby Franke case — a Utah parenting YouTuber whose 2023 arrest exposed what was happening off camera.
• The Lori Vallow Daybell case — doomsday beliefs, two missing children and a spouse’s death in Idaho.

Sources

• KPCW — Summit County mom arrested for husband’s murder
• The Salt Lake Tribune — Eric Richins, whose wife is accused of killing him, remembered
• Associated Press (via WDIV) — Utah author of book on grieving death charged with murder
• Associated Press (via News4JAX) — Utah kids’ book author accused in husband’s death changed life insurance policies, prosecutors say
• CBS News 48 Hours — Did Utah mom poison her husband, then write a children’s book on grief?
• ABC4 — Kouri Richins complete timeline in murder case
• Deseret News — New charges: Utah mom charged with murdering husband also tried killing him on Valentine’s Day
• NBC News — Utah grief author Kouri Richins also tried to poison husband on Valentine’s Day, prosecutors say
• KSL.com — Kouri Richins’ mortgage fraud case to resume in October
• TownLift — Jury selected in Kouri Richins murder trial
• The National Desk — Kouri Richins murder trial begins nearly three years after arrest
• ABC News — Jury finds Utah mom Kouri Richins guilty of fatally poisoning husband with fentanyl
• KPCW — Summit County jury finds Kouri Richins guilty of murder in husband’s death
• ABC4 — Kouri Richins murder trial verdict
• Associated Press (via WJHG) — Kouri Richins, who wrote children’s book on grief after husband’s death, gets life sentence
• ABC News — Kouri Richins sentenced to life without parole for fatally poisoning husband with fentanyl
• The Park Record — Kouri Richins offers life advice, defends her innocence in speech
• The Park Record — Kouri Richins appeals aggravated murder conviction, will get new attorneys
• KSL.com — Kouri Richins’ request for new judge denied
• FOX 13 — Richins motion to disqualify judge denied
• The Park Record — Kouri Darden Richins ordered to pay $1.3 million in restitution to life insurance companies
• KSL.com — Sheriffs charged for allegedly interfering with Kouri Richins investigation
• The Salt Lake Tribune — Grand jury indicts Wasatch County sheriff, former Summit County sheriff over alleged interference in Kouri Richins’ case
• KSL.com — Grand jury charges against Utah sheriffs add legal questions to Richins case
• The Park Record — Kouri Richins filing claims Rigby investigation could support allegations of judicial bias
• Deseret News — Kouri Richins ordered to pay $55.2M to her husband’s estate after being convicted for his murder
• KPCW — Kouri Richins hit with $55 million wrongful death judgement
• CNN — Prosecutors in Kouri Richins’ murder trial couldn’t prove how she poisoned her husband. They didn’t need to

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Header photo: highway through Echo Canyon, Summit County, Utah, by the National Park Service (NPS Photo), public domain, via National Park Service.