Kouri Richins Case Will Go to Trial

UPDATE Aug 27, 2024 4:35 PM CDT

A Utah mother of three who published a children's book about grief after her husband's death and was later accused of fatally poisoning him will stand trial, a judge ruled Tuesday. Utah state Judge Richard Mrazik ruled on the second day of Kouri Richins' preliminary hearing that prosecutors had presented enough evidence against her to proceed with a jury trial. She faces a slew of felony charges for allegedly killing her husband with a lethal dose of fentanyl in March 2022. The 34-year-old appeared stoic as the judge delivered the news that a jury would soon decide her fate, the AP reports. She has been adamant in maintaining she is innocent and entered pleas of "not guilty" to all 11 counts on Tuesday. Her trial is set to begin on April 28.

Aug 27, 2024 2:30 AM CDT

Detectives on Monday described in court how they zeroed in on a Utah mother known for penning a children's book about grief as the main suspect in her husband's fatal poisoning. The multiday hearing will determine whether prosecutors have enough evidence against her to proceed with a trial, the AP reports. Kouri Richins, 34, faces several felony charges for allegedly killing her husband with a lethal dose of fentanyl in March 2022 at their home in a small mountain town near Park City. Prosecutors say she slipped five times the lethal dose of the synthetic opioid into a Moscow mule cocktail that Eric Richins, 39, drank. Additional charges filed in March accuse her of an earlier attempt to kill her husband with a spiked sandwich on Valentine's Day. She has been adamant in maintaining she is innocent.

• Detective Jeff O'Driscoll with the Summit County Sheriff's Office was called to the stand Monday to describe his interactions with the state's key witness, a housekeeper who claims to have sold fentanyl to Kouri Richins on three occasions. He said police first linked housekeeper Carmen Lauber to Kouri Richins through a series of text messages and later arrested Lauber, saying drugs and other illegal items were found at her home.
• Lauber, 52, originally denied any knowledge of how Eric Richins died, but she later opened up in an interview with O'Driscoll after he told her the drug charges against her might be reduced or eliminated in exchange for helpful information, the detective said. The housekeeper "went back and forth on what happened, what didn't happen and in what order things happened," O'Driscoll explained in court. He said Lauber told him she had sold Kouri Richins up to 90 blue-green fentanyl pills, and her supplier later confirmed to detectives that he had sold her the fentanyl she requested. Officers did not find any fentanyl pills in the Richins' home, the detective said.
• Richins' public defenders used the first day of the hearing to build upon arguments presented by her former lead attorney, Skye Lazaro. They insinuated that Lauber had motivation to lie as she sought leniency in the face of drug charges. Lauber has received a letter of immunity from the US Attorney's Office and is not currently in custody.

Utah state Judge Richard Mrazik is expected to decide as early as Tuesday whether the state has presented sufficient evidence to go forward with a trial.

(More Kouri Richins stories.)