Alleged Affair Adds to Trial Trouble for Kouri Richins

A murder trial is set to begin Monday for a Utah mother of three who published a children's book about grief after her husband's death and was later accused of killing him. Kouri Richins, 35, faces a slew of felony charges for allegedly killing her husband, Eric Richins, with fentanyl in March 2022 at their home just outside the ski town of Park City, per the AP. Prosecutors say she slipped five times the lethal dose of the synthetic opioid into a Moscow mule cocktail that he drank. She is also accused of trying to poison him a month earlier on Valentine's Day with a fentanyl-laced sandwich that made him break out in hives and black out, according to court documents.

Prosecutors have argued that Richins killed her husband for financial gain while owing lenders more than $1.8 million and planning a future with another man she was seeing on the side. Richins has vehemently denied the allegations. She faces nearly three dozen counts, including aggravated murder, attempted murder, forgery, mortgage fraud, and insurance fraud. The murder charge alone carries a sentence of 25 years to life in prison. Her defense attorneys, Wendy Lewis, Kathy Nester, and Alex Ramos, said they are confident the 12-person jury will allow Richins to return home to her children after hearing her side of the story. "What the public has been told bears little resemblance to the truth," the team said.

The state's key witness, housekeeper Carmen Lauber, told a detective she had sold Richins up to 90 fentanyl pills that she acquired from a dealer. Lauber is not charged with any crimes in connection to the case, and has been granted immunity. Defense attorneys are expected to argue that Lauber did not actually give Richins fentanyl and was motivated to lie for legal protection. None was ever found in her house, and the dealer has said he was in jail and detoxing from drug use when he told detectives in 2023 that he had sold fentanyl to Lauber. He later said in a sworn affidavit that he only sold her the opioid OxyContin. Other witnesses could include the man with whom Richins was allegedly having an affair and a friend who recalled Eric Richins claiming, "My wife tried to poison me."