Estimated read time: 6-7 minutes
- Jurors are now deliberating following closing arguments in Kouri Richins' murder trial in Park City.
- Prosecutors allege Richins fatally poisoned her husband Eric Richins on March 4, 2022, and said in their closing arguments that she planned ahead.
- Richins' attorneys argued there are other explanations for Eric Richins' death and not enough evidence to find her guilty.
PARK CITY — Eight jurors are now deliberating whether or not Kouri Richins killed her husband after hearing attorneys on both sides summarize what they want the jurors to focus on from three weeks of trial.
Richins — a 35-year-old Kamas mom, real estate agent and children's book author — is accused of fatally poisoning her husband, Eric Richins, who was pronounced dead in the early morning hours of March 4, 2022.
In their opening arguments, prosecutors went through the elements the jurors would need to find proof of in order to reach guilty verdicts for each of the five charges — aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder, first-degree felonies; two counts of insurance fraud, a second-degree felony; and forgery, a third-degree felony.
Kouri Richins' attorneys argued that there was insufficient evidence for a guilty verdict.
"Do not let them fool you. Do not fall for red herrings. Kouri Richins did not kill Eric Richins. The state did not prove this case beyond a reasonable doubt, and you have the courage. Have the courage to tell them this and find Kouri Richins not guilty," Wendy Lewis said.
Watch the trial here:
'Eric had to die'
Deputy Summit County attorney Brad Bloodworth told jurors that Kouri Richins is "intensely ambitious" and fueled by "an intense desire to appear privileged, affluent and successful." He said she wanted to leave her husband but did not want to leave his money.
He said she was dreaming of a future with her boyfriend, her debt was nearing $8 million, and she could no longer get payday loans.
"She was a risk-taker; there was a way forward. Eric had to die," Bloodworth said.
Bloodworth said she was the only other adult there when Eric Richins died, and she had the means, motive and opportunity. He said evidence shows she purchased and received illicit street drugs, and that Eric Richins was not suicidal and did not do illicit drugs.
He said she planned a trip with Josh Grossman months before her husband died, "knowing" her husband would not be alive.
The attorney said the amount of fentanyl, five times what could be lethal, shows she wanted Eric Richins "not only dead but good and dead." He cited testimony from two people who said she had asked if they had access to "the Michael Jackson drug."
"Kouri Richins was a suburban mother real estate agent. She does not know a lot about the illicit street drug world, but she knows Michael Jackson died from taking drugs," Bloodworth said. "She knows she wants it because it is lethal, it is fatal, it kills."
The attorney referred to a notebook where she wrote about what happened the night Eric Richins died, her conversations with others, and a letter found in her jail cell pointing out inconsistencies within her stories and when comparing those accounts to evidence. He said that when people make up stories, they are inconsistent.
Referring to comments from Kouri Richins' attorneys and a witness during the trial, Bloodworth said the 911 call was not the sound of a wife becoming a widow but "a wife becoming a black widow." He said she immediately gives her alibi, that she was in their son's room, and that there are six minutes between when the dispatcher asks her to start CPR and when she "supposedly" starts doing CPR.
He showed a statement Kouri Richins gave to police, noting that it started with their drinks the night before, not with her finding him cold.
"In Kouri Richins' mind, that's when the incident started," he said.
Bloodworth said she already had plans the morning Eric Richins died to run his business and sell their home — showing she had planned for him to be gone.
He said similarities between the alleged murder and the alleged attempted murder a few weeks earlier support that she is guilty of both charges.
'Paper-thin' evidence
Lewis told the jurors if there is another reasonable explanation for the evidence, they have to find her not guilty. She told them prosecutors were asking them to "make inferences based on paper-thin evidence."
Specifically, Lewis said if Kouri Richins thought she had obtained oxycodone and Eric Richins took that voluntarily and died, that is not murder.
"If Kouri was as motivated by money as they would have you think, would she really have killed her wealthy husband to run off with a handyman who lived for free in one of her houses? ... Eric was worth so much more to Kouri alive than dead," Lewis said.
She said the investigation was "sloppy" and "driven by bias." She questioned why it lasted four years, with warrants issued just weeks before the trial. Lewis said the private investigator hired by the Richins family was not bound by the same constitutional standards, yet police acted on information from him.
"Side-stepping these important constitutional rights by hiring a private investigator who then lets law enforcement know what to do taints this entire investigation — and you know what, that is terrifying," Lewis said.
Lewis also said Carmen Lauber, who testified about providing illicit drugs to Kouri Richins, is untrustworthy, and said had "everything to lose" because she was handed a "get out of jail free" card in exchange for testifying.
Lewis said Kouri Richins did not know what killed her husband when emergency responders arrived; she said if she had, it would have been easy to just answer "yes" when asked if he used illicit drugs — but instead she said "no."
She talked about searches made on Kouri Richins' phone after her other phone was seized, about prisons, and said an innocent person would be worried if they found out they were a suspect in a homicide. She said Kouri Richins made a profit on each home she flipped and believed she would on the mansion she was in the process of purchasing as well.
"Four years of investigation, and they are still trying to find evidence to make their case because they know they don't have enough. They're still trying to prove Kouri Richins guilty," she said.
A facade?
Bloodworth responded to Lewis' arguments by saying circumstantial evidence is just as valid as direct evidence. He said even if jurors believe the testimony from Lauber that is corroborated through phone records, there is enough proof for a conviction.
He ended his statements highlighting portions of the letter found in her jail cell and how the evidence corroborates that it is false testimony. He said Lewis' arguments that were specific to this case were based on explaining that letter titled "Walk the Dog!!"
"All the evidence in this case proves that Kouri Richins murdered her husband and the father of her three children, Eric Richins. There is no other rational explanation for the evidence. And despite all the evidence, Kouri Richins clings to the facade that has enabled her to get away with so much for so long. And despite all the evidence, Kouri Richins doubles down and blames Eric. She is intensely ambitious. See through her facade, check her ambition, do not let her get away with murder," he said.
Contributing: Shelby Lofton
