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Judge considers bringing Kouri Richin's case to court

PARK CITY – Witnesses took the stand at a Park City courthouse Monday to testify in the investigation into the case of Kouri Richins of Kamas, who is accused of poisoning her husband to death in 2022.

Richins – who also wrote a children's book about coping with grief that features her late husband, Eric Richins, and their children – wore a black blazer on the first day of her preliminary hearing. She often wrote notes and showed them to her new lawyers.

During the hearing, prosecutors called three witnesses to the stand who presented evidence that Kouri Richards had purchased illegal fentanyl on multiple occasions in the weeks before her husband died of a fentanyl overdose, as well as evidence that she benefited financially from his death. Witnesses also testified that there may have been romantic affairs outside of the marriage.

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Summit County Sheriff's Detective Jeff O'Driscoll testified about interactions between Kouri Richins and Carmen Lauber, a woman who cleaned houses for Kouri Richins. Driscoll said she gave her fentanyl.

Read more: Kouri Richins vows to prove his innocence as new lawyers take over murder case

Richins' attorney Wendy Lewis asked him if he was sure that the fentanyl taken by Eric Richins that led to his death was the same substance that Kouri Richins received through Lauber, and he confirmed that he was not sure.

He said Lauber helped Richins obtain fentanyl on February 11, February 26, and March 9, 2022. Eric Richins died on March 4, 2022.

Lewis said O'Driscoll had investigated Kouri Richins' relationship with a man referred to in some court documents as her “lover,” Robert Grossman, and asked whether officers had investigated any affairs Eric Richins may have had or looked at phone records of other suspects.

The officer confirmed that he had not questioned any suspects other than Kouri Richins, but said he had tried to remain unbiased toward other possible suspects and that investigators had indeed reviewed additional electronic devices.

O'Driscoll said his office is still investigating the case and in recent weeks a search warrant was executed to seize a voice recording device.

Chris Kotrodimos, a retired police officer and investigator who testified during the detention hearing on phone records in the case, testified about communications on Lauber and Grossman's phone. He said Kouri Richins began communicating with Grossman in November 2021 and continued to communicate with him almost daily, primarily via text message, until after her husband's death.

Read the full story from KSL.com here.

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