Kouri Richins' 3 Sons Urge Life Term as Utah Mother Faces Sentencing for Father's Murder
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · May 13
Kouri Richins' 3 Sons Urge Life Term as Utah Mother Faces Sentencing for Father's Murder
6 articles · Updated · The Guardian · May 13
Three sons of Kouri Richins told a Utah judge they fear for their safety if their mother is ever released, ahead of Wednesday's sentencing on five felony convictions including aggravated murder.
Prosecutors are seeking life without parole, saying Richins, 35, killed husband Eric Richins in 2022 by spiking his drink with five times the lethal fentanyl dose and tried to poison him weeks earlier with a sandwich.
The boys' statements describe lasting trauma: the oldest, now 13, said he does not miss his mother and fears she would hurt the family, while the younger two said jail is the only way they feel safe.
Prosecutors also allege Richins abused the oldest child after Eric's death and killed for money, citing millions in debt, secret life-insurance policies and her mistaken belief she would inherit an estate worth more than $4 million.
Richins was arrested in 2023 after promoting a children's grief book about losing a father, and she still faces more than two dozen separate financial charges that have not yet gone to trial.
With sentencing hours away, will a judge grant the children's plea to keep their mother imprisoned for life?
She wrote a book on grief after murdering her husband. What other chilling evidence sealed the Utah author's fate?