Utah author Kouri Richins who wrote book about grief after murdering husband gets life

A mum who wrote a children's book about coping with grief after her husband’s death has been jailed for life for his murder . Kouri Richins , 26, murdered her husband Eric Richins, 39, by poisoning him with a fentanyl-laced drink at their home near Park City, Utah , in March 2022. The real estate agent was found guilty in March this year of aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, fraud and forgery. Prosecutors said she was motivated by her house-flipping business being millions of dollars in debt and by plans to build a future with another man. Richins had taken out numerous life insurance policies on her husband without his knowledge and falsely believed she would inherit his estate - worth more than $4 million - after his death. Jurors also found Richins guilty of attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Valentine’s Day with a fentanyl-laced sandwich. On Wednesday - the day her husband would have turned 44 - Richins was sentenced at the Summit County Courthouse to life in prison. Richins - who laced Mr Richins' drink with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl - was arrested in May 2023 while promoting her children's book "Are You with Me?" about a boy coping with the death of his father. During the trial, members of Mr Richins' family tearfully remembered him as a skilled outdoorsman, hardworking businessman and loving dad to his three sons, who were aged five, seven and nine when he died. "Eric was their coach, their father, but most important, was their very, very best friend," his father Eugene Richins told jurors. Prosecutors showed the jury text messages between Richins and her lover in which she fantasised about leaving her husband and gaining millions in a divorce. Prosecutors also presented internet search history from her phone, including queries about the lethal dose of fentanyl, luxury prisons and how poisoning is recorded on a death certificate. The court heard how Richins had tried to poison her husband weeks earlier on Valentine’s Day with a fentanyl-laced sandwich. One bite of his favourite sandwich - left with a note in the front seat of his truck on February 14, 2022 - caused Mr Richins to break out in hives and black out. His wife had bought the sandwich from a local diner in Kamas the same week she also purchased several dozen fentanyl pills. A housekeeper told law enforcement she sold Richins the pills several days before Valentine’s Day. Later that month, Richins said the pills she provided were not strong enough and asked her to procure stronger fentanyl. In witness testimony, two friends of Mr Richins recounted phone conversations from the day. After injecting himself with his son’s EpiPen and chugging a bottle of Benadryl, he woke from a deep sleep and told a friend: "I think my wife tried to poison me." Richins' trial was scheduled to last five weeks but ended early after she waived her right to testify. Her legal team rested its case without calling any witnesses, with her lawyers saying they were confident prosecutors had not produced sufficient evidence to convict her of murder. However, an eight-person jury found her guilty on all counts after deliberating for just under three hours on March 16. Speaking after the conviction, Eric Richins' sister Amy said she was "just very happy that we got justice for my brother" and that she could now focus on supporting his sons. Speaking publicly for the first time at her sentencing hearing, Richins said she wanted to convey a message to her sons, with whom she has not been able to speak since early 2024, after custody was transferred to her husband's family. "The one thing I need you boys to know is that I did not abandon you," she said. "Regardless of what anyone tells you, I would never ever leave you, boys. And I am so sorry that even for one second you think that I did." In a court filing this week, the Summit County Attorney's Office invoked the Richins' three sons as they urged Judge Richard Mrazik to sentence Richins to life without parole. "The boys deserve finality and should not have to revisit their father’s murder at future hearings or worry about the Defendant’s potential parole," prosecutors wrote in the sentencing memorandum. "Given the tremendous trauma and upheaval that the Defendant inflicted upon their childhood, this Court should ensure that she does not harm their adulthood." The couple's eldest son - now aged 13 - said he misses his dad but not his mum. "I’m afraid if she gets out, she will come after me and my brothers, my whole family," the boy said, according to the filing. "I think she would come and take us and not do good things to us, like hurt us."