Utah real estate agent jailed for life for fatally poisoning husband with fentanyl

Kouri Richins, 35, was sentenced to life without parole for murdering her husband Eric with a fentanyl-laced drink. The case drew wide attention after she published a children's grief book.

Utah woman sentenced to life in prison for poisoning husband, then writing children's book on grief

A 35-year-old Utah real estate agent has been sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for the murder of her husband, journaldemontreal.com reports. The case attracted widespread attention in the United States after it emerged that the convicted woman had published a children's book about grief following her husband's death.

Judge Richard Mrazik handed down the sentence on Wednesday — the birthday of the victim, Eric Richins, who would have turned 44. "A person convicted of these things is simply too dangerous to ever be free," Mrazik said from the bench.

Kouri Richins was formally found guilty of aggravated murder by a jury in March. Prosecutors demonstrated that she had administered a dose of fentanyl five times the lethal threshold to her husband, concealed in a vodka cocktail. According to evidence presented at trial and reported by The Guardian, Eric Richins consumed the drink at the couple's home near Park City on March 4, 2022.

The jury also heard that Richins had attempted to poison her husband weeks earlier, on Valentine's Day, using a fentanyl-laced sandwich. She was found guilty on several additional criminal counts as well.

Richins was arrested in March 2023. Two months before charges were filed, she had been actively promoting a children's picture book titled Are You With Me? — a story about a boy coping with the death of his father, which she said she wrote to help her own children process their grief.

Financial pressures formed a central thread of the prosecution's case. Richins carried significant debt despite her work in real estate, had taken out multiple life insurance policies on her husband without his knowledge, and stood to inherit an estate valued at more than four million US dollars. Text message exchanges presented at trial showed her discussing her desire to leave the marriage and obtain a large financial settlement through divorce.

Search history retrieved from her mobile phone, including queries about lethal fentanyl doses and poisoning methods, was also entered into evidence.

Following sentencing, Richins maintained her innocence, calling the verdict "an absolute lie." Before the hearing, the couple's three children submitted statements to the court saying they feared for their safety should their mother ever be released.

Under Utah law, a murder conviction can carry a sentence ranging from 25 years to life imprisonment without parole.

Source: Google News CA — Québec (FR)