PARK CITY, MARCH 17, 2026 — She wrote a book about grief to help her sons cope with losing their father. She appeared on television to promote it, describing the challenges of navigating loss as a family. Then a jury looked at everything else — the fentanyl, the debt, the secret affair, the life insurance policies, the deleted text messages — and took less than three hours to decide she was the one who caused that grief.
Kouri Richins, 35, was found guilty on all counts Monday by a jury in Park City, Utah — aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, two counts of insurance fraud, and forgery — in the March 2022 death of her husband Eric Richins, who died after consuming a Moscow Mule cocktail laced with nearly five times the lethal dose of fentanyl. She lowered her head and stared at the floor as the judge read the verdict. Her sentencing is scheduled for May 13. She faces 25 years to life in prison.
What Prosecutors Proved
The prosecution’s case was built on a single, devastating argument: Kouri Richins wanted to leave her husband but did not want to leave his money.
Eric Richins, 39, was found unresponsive in the couple’s bedroom at their home outside the ski town of Park City in the early morning hours of March 4, 2022. His wife told investigators she had made him a drink to celebrate a recent real estate sale. An autopsy revealed he had more than five times the lethal dose of fentanyl in his system — illicit street fentanyl, not medical-grade — and prosecutors spent three weeks in court explaining exactly how it got there.
The key witness was Carmen Lauber, the family’s housekeeper, who testified that Richins asked her to obtain pills multiple times in early 2022 — asking specifically for what she called the “Michael Jackson drug.” Lauber said she bought the pills from a man at a gas station in Draper, Utah, twice before Eric’s death and once shortly after. Cell phone data placed both their phones near that gas station on all three occasions.
Richins, prosecutors argued, had a clear motive. She was $4.5 million in debt and falsely believed she would inherit her husband’s estate worth more than $4 million. She had secretly taken out four life insurance policies on Eric between 2015 and 2017, totaling nearly $2 million in death benefits. Eric had discovered the policies, tried to remove her as beneficiary, and had consulted a divorce lawyer in the weeks before his death. The day after he died, Richins signed papers to finalize the purchase of a $2 million mansion.
She was also, prosecutors told the jury, planning a future with another man — a relationship revealed through text messages shown in court, one of which read: “I am in love with a man that’s not my husband.”
A Valentine’s Day Dry Run
The murder charge was not the only killing count Richins faced. Prosecutors argued Monday’s verdict-winning aggravated murder charge was preceded by an attempted killing on Valentine’s Day 2022, weeks before Eric’s death. Eric broke out in hives and struggled to breathe after eating a sandwich his wife had made for him that day, using his son’s EpiPen before falling asleep for hours. He survived. The jury convicted Richins of attempted aggravated murder for that incident as well.
A neighbor testified that Richins had told her around Christmas 2021 — weeks before either incident — that it would be better if her husband were dead, following an argument over finances. Eric’s sister told investigators he had expressed fears that his wife was trying to kill him.
The Book That Became Evidence
In the year after Eric’s death, before her arrest, Richins self-published a children’s picture book called “Are You with Me?” — dedicated to her husband, designed to help her sons process the grief of losing their father. She appeared on local television and radio to promote it, describing Eric’s death as unexpected and talking about the importance of helping children through loss.
Prosecutors pointed to the book’s publication and promotion as evidence of calculated behavior — a deliberate construction of a grieving widow narrative that Richins had planned from the moment she made the drink. The book that was meant to show her love for her late husband became, in the hands of prosecutors, one of the most damning elements of their case.
The Defense That Wasn’t
Richins’ legal team rested their case without calling a single witness — a decision that ended a trial expected to last five weeks after just three. They argued investigators were biased from the start, that the housekeeper’s testimony was unreliable given she received immunity in exchange for cooperation, and that prosecutors had not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Richins administered the fentanyl.
“They haven’t done their job, and now they want you to make inferences based on paper-thin evidence,” defense attorney Wendy Lewis told jurors. The jury disagreed — in less time than it takes to watch a feature film.
Richins will return to court on May 13. Her three sons, the ones she wrote the book for, will grow up without either parent at home.
