Judge orders trial of Kouri Richins for murder and attempted murder of her husband

PARK CITY – A Kamas mother, real estate agent and author accused of fatally poisoning her husband was arraigned Tuesday on murder and attempted manslaughter charges by 3rd District Judge Richard Mrazik.

Mrazik clarified that Kouri Richins is presumed innocent and said that at this point conclusions must be drawn in favor of the prosecutors.

“We are not finding guilt in any way. … Nothing the court says today affects their presumption of innocence in any way,” he said.

Richins, 34, was charged with aggravated murder and attempted manslaughter (both first-degree felonies), as well as two counts of trafficking in controlled substances, two counts of insurance fraud and two counts of fraudulent insurance claims (all second-degree felonies), and three counts of forgery (a third-degree felony).

Following the judge's decision, Richins pleaded not guilty to all charges and attorneys scheduled a four-week trial to begin on April 28, 2025.

Evidence of attempted murder

Summit County Assistant Prosecutor Brad Bloodworth said the court had already found substantial evidence to support the aggravated murder charge at a previous hearing and focused his comments in this hearing on the attempted murder charge. That alleged crime, he said, occurred on Feb. 14, 2022, shortly before Eric Richins' death on March 4, 2022. He said much of the evidence was related to both charges.

“The drug is the same, the drug dealer is the same, the timing is the same – but she has learned. She (Kouri Richins) has learned that she needs something stronger; she has also learned how to administer it,” Bloodworth said.

Bloodworth said the drugs were packed not in a sandwich that Eric Richins could put away, but in a syringe that he could take all at once. The prosecutor said in a note in his diary that Kouri Richins was told it takes “a whole truckload” to kill someone, which is why Eric Richins' toxicology report showed five times the lethal dose in his blood and even more in his stomach fluid.

He cited several text messages as evidence in the case. One of them was a text message sent to a friend months after her husband's death. In it, Kouri Richins wrote that she had worked from home with her husband on Valentine's Day – the day prosecutors say she tried to murder Eric Richins. However, Bloodworth said prosecutors knew she had not worked from home that day but had been with her boyfriend.

Another text message he relied on was one that Kouri Richins had sent to her boyfriend the week before her husband's death. It read: “Life will be different, I promise. Hang in there until Friday.”

“On Friday, Eric Richins was dead,” Bloodworth said.

Bloodworth said it was “terrifying” that Richins told her husband to take a nap on Valentine's Day 2022 when he texted her to say he wasn't feeling well and might need to go to the hospital, and then didn't contact her for two hours. The prosecutor said there was a photo Eric Richins sent to Kouri Richins during the conversation that was deleted from both phones.

“It’s a feeling of guilt at the moment,” he said.

He spoke about Kouri Richins' financial situation and said she would benefit more from her husband's death than from a divorce.

“The motive is extremely strong,” Bloodworth said of both the aggravated murder charge and the attempted murder charge.

Richins' lawyers express doubts

Kathryn Nester, Richins' attorney, said Bloodworth's description of Kouri Richins' text messages to her husband as “scary” was misleading, pointing out that she asked him if he wanted her to come home.

She said there was no text message in which Eric Richins told his wife he was feeling sick. The text messages cited by prosecutors made it sound like they had already discussed it. Nester also said phone records showed Eric Richins ran several errands that day, made work calls, took his sons to a soccer game, bought dinner for the boys and left dinner for his wife in his truck.

“This is the day they now say it is safe to assume she tried to murder her husband,” Nester said.

She said evidence that Kouri Richins ordered an egg sandwich was important, as prosecutors say she used the sandwiches to poison her husband on Valentine's Day.

“I don't know about you, but I don't eat an egg sandwich that comes to the table two or three hours after it's brought to me. You either eat it quickly or you don't eat it,” Nester said.

She said it was “quite possible” that they had eaten sandwiches together before Kouri Richins left the house before 10 a.m., and said it would be difficult to poison someone while eating together.

The defense attorney said that if one looks only at the attempted murder charge and ignores Eric Richins' death weeks later, there is no evidence that Eric Richins had opportunity or that he used drugs.

While Bloodworth addressed the attempted murder charge in his opening statement, Mrazik expressed some concerns about the amount of evidence.

“This turns virtually any possession into an attempted murder charge if the spouse develops a health problem around the same time,” the judge said.

Bloodworth said this case was different because Eric Richins died just 17 days later under similar circumstances.

Wendy Lewis, another attorney for Kouri Richins, stated in her response to the drug allegations that no one has been able to confirm that the drug Kouri Richins received was fentanyl.

“None of these people made it, none of these people tested it,” Lewis said.

Richin's lawyers are seeking a fair trial

Richins' attorneys, Nester, Lewis and Alexander Ramos, released a statement Tuesday afternoon saying the preliminary hearing benefits prosecutors “in an extraordinary way.”

“We firmly believe that the charges against Kouri do not stand up to scrutiny and are confident the jury will find so,” they said.

The lawyers said they would now focus on ensuring a fair trial.

“We are determined to defend Kouri against these allegations and firmly believe the truth will come out. The last 15 months have taken a toll on Kouri and her three children. It is time to end this ordeal, restore her life and allow her and her family to move on,” the statement said.

Richins' next hearing is scheduled for September 23 to discuss trial preparations.