In a dramatic court appearance, Kouri Richins, a grief author, delivered an extended monologue about love and described her husband’s murder as an “unforeseen tragedy.” Her speech came as she was sentenced to life without parole for the crime of poisoning him with a Moscow Mule cocktail. The poison was part of a sinister plan to begin anew with her lover, funded by her deceased husband’s multimillion-dollar estate.
The sentencing took place in Summit County Court in Park City, Utah, on what would have been Eric Richins’s 44th birthday. Clad in lime green prison attire, handcuffed and shackled, Kouri Richins, a 35-year-old mother of three, listened stoically as Judge Richard Mzarek pronounced her life sentence.
Prior to the sentencing, Richins stood at the podium, addressing the courtroom. Her speech, directed at her three young sons, was a mix of emotional appeal and denial. She emphatically maintained her innocence, denouncing the accusations as an “absolute lie” and expressing disbelief at her situation. Her repeated advice to her sons was to “be like your dad,” as she attempted to distance herself from the responsibility of his death.
Moments earlier, the 35-year-old mom-of-three stood at the podium and gave a rambling speech in which she spoke directly to the couple’s three young sons and continued to insist her innocence.
Richins blasted the ‘absolute lie’ that she is responsible for their father’s death, saying she ‘can’t believe this is real’ and repeatedly telling them: ‘Be like your dad.’
‘I would never have taken him from you boys. I know how much you need him, how much you love him,’ she sobbed, dabbing her face with tissues.
Despite the children, aged just nine, 11 and 13, revealing they are ‘scared’ of their mom in gut-wrenching statements read to the court, Richins sent a message to them that she isn’t planning on going away.
‘The cards and letters will never stop. I will never stop,’ she vowed, adding that, one day, ‘I am coming home.’
Kouri Richins pulled faces as therapists for her own three sons, aged just 13, 11 and nine, spoke of her abusive treatment of them after murdering their father, their fear that she would harm them if she was freed and how much they missed their father
Richins sat pulling faces, rolling her eyes and raising her eyebrows as Eric’s family members gave devastating victim impact statements
Eric and Kouri Richins’s three young sons begged the judge to jail their mom for life for their dad’s murder
Richins’s tearful display came after she sat pulling faces, rolling her eyes and raising her eyebrows as Eric’s family members gave devastating victim impact statements to the court.
The killer even pulled faces when therapists for her sons spoke of her abusive treatment of them, their fears that she could harm them if she ever walks free from prison and how much they miss their dad.
In their own words, the little boys shockingly revealed that their mom had locked them in their rooms and the basement, threatened to kill their pets and denied them food in the aftermath of their father’s murder.
Richins killed her Eric by giving him a Moscow Mule cocktail laced with a lethal dose of fentanyl at the family home in Kamas, Utah, back in March 2022.
For more than a year, the real estate agent then publicly played the grieving widow, publishing a children’s book titled Are You With Me? and even appearing on local TV to promote it and share her seemingly heartbreaking story of navigating grief with their sons.
In May 2023, the facade crumbled and Richins was charged with murder.
After a high-profile trial this March, in which jurors heard how she had botched a prior attempt to kill Eric with a poisoned sandwich on Valentine’s Day 2022, the real estate agent was convicted of five felonies of aggravated murder, aggravated attempted murder, two counts of insurance fraud and forgery.
Before the judge handed down the sentence of life with no possibility of parole, Richins gave what marks her first public comments about the case.
‘My sweet baby boys. I know that today you don’t want to speak with me or have a relationship with me,’ she said, her voice growing more high-pitched.
‘You may think you hate me. That’s okay. When the day comes that you’re ready, I will be here for you. I need you boys to know and understand that I have been desperately trying to get in contact with you.
Kouri Richins and her husband Eric Richins with their three young sons before his March 4, 2022 murder
Kouri Richins poisoned Eric Richins with a fentanyl-laced homemade Moscow Mule cocktail
‘That all of my communication has been cut off from you. Now I will use every opportunity I can to get to you.’
Richins said she feels ‘physically sick’ to think that she has been ‘convicted of taking one of the people out of my life who filled it the most.’
‘My husband, the father of my children. I’m still in shock. I’m still in disbelief. Accused and now convicted of such a heinous crime,’ she said.
She insisted to the boys that she loved their father and urged them to ‘ignore the noise’ throughout their lives because ‘love is enough.’
In a lengthy spiel about love, Richins claimed that both she and Eric ‘fell in love’ with people outside of their marriage and had affairs but that they were ‘a crazy beautiful mess’ of a family.
Richins told their sons to ‘never give up on truth’ and said that she hopes ‘one day, when this is all over, we can sit down and talk about all of this and sort it all out.’ ‘I promise you boys one day it will be over,’ she said.
Rather than admitting her guilt, Richins said that the boys had lost both of their parents, ‘one from unforeseen tragedy, the other from injustice in a system we are supposed to trust.’
Earlier, Richins’s youngest son, who was just five at the time of his dad’s murder, recalled what he remembered of that fateful day.
Kouri Richins reacts to an impact statement from Eric’s sister Katie Richins-Benson during her sentencing
Gene Richins, Eric’s dad, speaks about the toll his son’s murder has taken on their family
‘I woke up to sirens and there were a lot of people at our house. I was scared. I was in a bedroom with my brothers,’ he said in a statement read out by his therapist.
The little boy, now nine, said he had ‘no control and felt helpless.’
After his dad’s death, he said that Richins ‘put us in the basement’ and that ‘everything she did made me feel uncomfortable’ – prompting Richins to pull a face and raise her eyebrows.
‘I feel a lot better about myself now than I did with Kouri,’ he said.
Richins’s middle child, now 11, said in a statement read by a therapist that his mom tried to feed the boys uncooked lasagna and ‘made us watch videos of children starving in war areas.’
‘You took away my dad for no reason other than greed. You only cared about yourself and your stupid boyfriends,’ he said, adding that he felt like he had to become the parent to his younger brother.
‘You were not concerned about our health. When we got hurt, you didn’t even care. When C got run over by a side-by-side, you made him go to a soccer game without taking him to the doctor.’
‘I don’t want you out of jail because I will not feel safe if you are out. You have never said sorry for anything you have done. With you in jail, I will be able to feel safe without worrying about your hurting me or anyone I love.’
Kouri Richins parties during a ‘Celebration of Life’ one day after murdering her husband
Shortly after Eric’s death, Kouri Richins self-published a children’s book titled ‘Are You with Me?’
The couple’s oldest son, now 13, told the court that his mom was ‘always drunk,’ often locked him in his room, didn’t give him food, and threatened to kill his lizard and other pets.
‘I miss my dad. I don’t miss Kouri, I will tell you that,’ he said through a therapist.
All three children – who were five, seven and nine at the time of their dad’s murder – referred to Richins not as their mother, but simply as ‘Kouri.’
The boys and Eric’s family members joined with prosecutors in asking the judge to ensure Richins could never walk free from prison.
In their victim impact statements, Eric’s sisters Katie and Amy revealed that they had begged their brother to leave Richins, but he didn’t.
Katie said that Eric knew his wife was dangerous – prompting Richins to open her mouth in apparent shock and speak irately to her attorney.
Amy, who said she felt as though she had lost a sister as well as a brother, revealed that she received a message from a burner phone after Eric’s death warning her that ‘Kouri will have the last laugh.’ Police have since told her it came from Richins.
The trauma of the last four years has taken its toll on all aspects of their lives, she said, sharing the heartbreaking news that she miscarried twins.
Amy Richins wipes away tears as she delivers a victim impact statement to the court
Kouri Richins reacts during the sentencing hearing. During a 40-minute speech to the court, she continued to claim her innocence
In her emotional statement, Katie broke down in tears as she paid tribute to the ‘phenomenal brother, father, son, nephew, grandson, cousin, friend and businessman’ and spoke of the ‘permanent trauma’ the boys had suffered at the hands of their mother.
‘She could not have done anything more selfish and more cruel to those boys,’ Katie said.
Following Eric’s death, Richins tried to drive a wedge between the boys and his family and tried to steal the sons’ inheritance, she said.
In the four years since Eric’s murder, Richins has continued to torment the family, she said – citing the now-infamous ‘Walk the dog’ jailhouse letter in which Richins spoke about targeting Katie’s daughter.
‘It takes a sick mind to target kids,’ Katie said, as Richins shook her head.
Katie also hit out at her sister-in-law’s ‘vile effort to deflect blame’ by slandering Eric’s name following his death.
Eric’s elderly father Gene spoke of the pain of losing his child and how his son was betrayed by the person he should have been able to trust most.
‘Despite everything he gave, his life was taken from him not from a stranger but by a person he should have been able to trust most in his life,’ he said.
‘He was betrayed in the most unimaginable way possible,’ Gene said, as Richins raised her eyebrows.
Kouri Richins in her mug shot following her May 2023 arrest for her husband’s murder
While she didn’t shed any tears hearing her sons’ heartbreaking comments, Richins grew emotional when her own family members delivered statements, breaking down in tears when her own brother Ronnie said: ‘Little sister, I love you. I miss you. I miss your random banter. I miss your calls.’
Richins’s attorneys – who chose not to present a defense case for their client – said they did not agree with the verdict.
In all her years practising and the thousands of clients she has represented, attorney Wendy Lewis said that it was the first time she believed her client was innocent.
In Richins’s explosive trial this March, jurors heard how the realtor had been motivated by a desire to get her hands on Eric’s $4 million estate and to escape their marriage in order to start a new life with her lover.
Throughout 13 days of emotional testimony, much of the trial hinged on the state’s star witness, housekeeper Carmen Lauber.
Lauber testified that she sold drugs to Richins four times around the time of Eric’s death, including providing her with the fentanyl used to kill Eric.
A first plot to fatally poison Eric unfolded on Valentine’s Day 2022 when Richins laced a sandwich she bought for her husband from a local diner. Eric fell ill and allegedly told friends he feared his wife was trying to poison him.
It was after that failed plot that Richins allegedly requested more powerful fentanyl, asking Lauber for ‘the Michael Jackson stuff.’
Days later, Eric was dead.
Richins is also facing a separate trial on a string of financial charges
Another key moment came when Richins’s lover, Robert Josh Grossmann, took the stand, breaking down in tears as he revealed a shocking conversation where Richins had asked him what it felt like to kill someone in the military just days after Eric died.
The lovers’ text messages also became central to the case, along with Richins’ explosive internet searches, including ‘women Utah prison’, ‘how to delete cell phone data ‘and ‘if someone is poisoned, what goes down on the death certificate as.’
In closing arguments, prosecutors described Richins as a ‘black widow’ who was motivated by money and an affair to murder her husband.
It took just three hours for the jury to return a verdict of guilty on all five felony charges.
During the sentencing hearing, the prosecutor also asked the judge to grant a protective order to block Richins from ever contacting the children or Eric’s family.
Under the law, the judge said that it was not within his power to do so.
A restitution hearing has been scheduled for July 31.
Richins and her attorneys have vowed to appeal her conviction.
Richins is also facing a separate trial on a string of financial charges.
