Author, who wrote book on grief, found guilty of murdering husband
An American author, whose literary work includes a book on grief, has been found guilty of murdering her husband.
The jury in Utah, after three hours of deliberation on March 16th, concluded that Kouri Richins killed her husband, Eric Richins, in 2022 by lacing his drink with fentanyl.
During the trial, the court heard how Kouri had accumulated debt worth millions, taken out life insurance on behalf of her husband, and was also having an affair behind his back.
Prosecutors also revealed that Kouri was under the false belief she would be entitled to her husband’s estate, worth $4 million, which, in fact, wasn’t the case.
Despite pleading not guilty to all the charges, her defence chose not to call any witnesses to the stand, nor did she testify.
It was heard during the trial that Kouri previously attempted to kill Eric by poisoning his sandwich, but he survived, and as a result, she upped the dosage for the fatal incident.
Forensic investigators revealed that her internet history included the searches w”hat is a lethal.dose.of.fetanayl” and “luxury prisons for the rich America”.
Months after her husband was killed, Kouri self-published the book, Are You With Me?, which she previously said she had written to help children, including her three offspring, how to cope with the loss of a loved one.
In an eerie radio interview, just weeks before her arrest in May 2023, she said, “We wrote this book and we’re really hoping that it provides some comfort for not just obviously, our family, but other families that are going through the same thing.”
During the same interview, she also described Eric as “my amazing husband and a wonderful father”.
Following his death, it was ruled that Eric died due to a fentanyl overdose and had “five times the lethal dosage of the drug in his system”.
Kouri is set to be sentenced, including for the initial attempted murder attempt, on May 13th, 2026, which should have been Eric’s 44th birthday.