PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — A decide dominated {that a} Utah mom of three who wrote a youngsters’s e book about dealing with grief after her husband’s dying, and was later accused of fatally poisoning him, will stay in jail all through her trial after her sister-in-law referred to as her “determined, grasping and intensely manipulative” throughout a court docket listening to.
Kouri Richins knelt her head and cried as a detective testified about authorities discovering her husband useless and “chilly to the contact,” and prosecutors argued the proof in opposition to her was sturdy sufficient to disclaim her bail.
Her case turned a true-crime sensation final month when fees have been filed as a transfixed public pored over remarks Richins made selling “Are You With Me?” — the illustrated storybook about an angel wing-clad father watching over his youngsters after passing away.
Monday’s detention listening to provided each prosecutors and Richins’ attorneys an opportunity to preview their instances and supply contrasting theories of what occurred. Prosecutors referred to as to the stand a detective, a non-public investigator and a forensic accountant who painted an image of Richins as having calculatingly plotted to kill her husband, making monetary preparations and buying medicine present in his system after his March 2022 dying.
In a sufferer impression assertion she learn in court docket, Amy Richins, Eric’s sister, stated it was painful for the household to look at Kouri Richins promote “Are You With Me?” and referred to as her actions “betrayal and terror.”
“Since Eric’s dying, we’ve discovered — and sadly are regularly reminded — that Kouri is determined, grasping and intensely manipulative,” she stated.
“We’ve got watched as Kouri has paraded round portraying herself as a grieving widow and sufferer whereas attempting to revenue from the dying of my brother — whereas attempting to revenue from a e book about his dying and attempting to get life insurance coverage,” she added.
Richins’ attorneys argued the proof in opposition to her was each doubtful and circumstantial, noting that no medicine have been discovered on the household house after the dying and suggesting the state’s star witness — the housekeeper who claims to have bought Richins the medicine — had motivation to lie as she sought leniency within the face of state and federal drug fees.
“They offered proof to her, primarily, till she received it proper,” Skye Lazaro, Richins’ legal professional, stated of police interviews with the housekeeper.
Whereas a handcuffed Richins shook her head in defiance, prosecutors questioned the detective in regards to the housekeeper who claims to have bought her fentanyl weeks earlier than it was present in her husband’s system and the household’s “bug out baggage” filled with emergency provisions and passports they advised made her a flight danger unsuitable for bail.
She huffed deeply as they questioned the non-public investigator in regards to the search historical past on her gadgets — together with for “luxurious jail for the wealthy” and the data disclosed on dying certificates.
And with members of either side of the household sitting within the court docket gallery behind them, they requested the forensic accountant about Richins’ private monetary struggles and the tens of millions of {dollars} at stake in her husband’s property.
“One or two tablets is likely to be accident. Twenty — or 5 instances the deadly dose — is just not unintended. That may be a lot. That’s somebody who wished Eric useless,” Summit County Chief Prosecutor Patricia Cassell stated.
The detention listening to constructed off court docket paperwork through which prosecutors allege Richins slipped 5 instances the deadly dose of fentanyl right into a Moscow mule cocktail she made for her husband, Eric Richins, amid marital disputes and fights over a multimillion-dollar mansion she finally bought as an funding.
The court docket paperwork paint an image of a conniving lady who tried to lethally poison her husband a number of instances, together with on a trip to Greece and on Valentine’s Day weeks earlier than his dying. Witnesses interviewed as a part of the investigaiton allege in February 2022 she laced a sandwich made for him with hydrocodone. She repeatedly denied her involvement on the day of his dying in March 2022, even telling police, “My husband is energetic. He doesn’t simply die in his sleep. That is insane.”
In court docket filings, Richins’ attorneys say prosecutors “merely accepted” the narrative from Eric Richins’ household that his spouse had poisoned him “and labored backward in an effort to assist it,” spending about 14 months investigating and never discovering enough proof to assist their concept. She stated the prosecution’s case based mostly on Richins’ monetary motives proved she was “dangerous at math,” not that she was responsible of homicide.
“Being dangerous with cash doesn’t make you a assassin,” Lazaro stated.
The case has shined a highlight on the communities on bottom of Utah’s Wasatch Mountains close to Park Metropolis, one of many American West’s preeminent locations for snowboarding, mountain climbing and out of doors recreation. The couple and their three sons lived in a brand new improvement within the city of Francis, roughly 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of Salt Lake Metropolis. They argued over whether or not to buy an unfinished, 20,000-square-foot (1,860-square-meter) mansion in close by Halfway Utah, in response to court docket filings.
If the case goes to trial, it should probably revolve round monetary and marital disputes as attainable motives. Along with arguing over actual property, prosecutors additionally say Kouri Richins made main modifications to the household’s property plans earlier than her husband’s dying, taking out life insurance coverage insurance policies on him with advantages totaling almost $2 million.