A Utah woman was convicted on Monday of aggravated murder after poisoning her husband with fentanyl and self-publishing a children’s book about coping with grief.
Prosecutors said Kouri Richins slipped five times the dangerous dose of a synthetic opioid into a cocktail her husband Eric Richins drank in March 2022 at their home outside the affluent Park City suburb. They said she was $4.5 million in debt and falsely believed that when her husband died, she would inherit his property worth more than $4 million.
“He wanted to leave Eric Richins but he didn’t want to leave his money,” Summit County prosecutor Brad Bloodworth said.
Richins, 35, was also convicted of other crimes, including attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks before Valentine’s Day with a fentanyl sandwich that blackened him. Jurors also found Richins guilty of forging and fraudulently claiming insurance benefits after her death.
The jury deliberated for less than three hours. Later, family members from both sides of the case left the courtroom hugging each other and crying.
Sentencing was scheduled for May 13, the day her husband would have turned 44. The aggravated murder charge alone carries a penalty of 25 years to life in prison.
