Utah mother on trial for poisoning her husband, lawyer breaks down ‘very damaging’ evidence: Lexie Rigden
Criminal defense attorney Lexie Rigden analyzes how text and Google evidence could incriminate the Utah mom.
Kouri Richins, a Utah mom of three and children's book author accused of murdering her husband in 2022, allegedly texted her lover on the night of her husband's death.
Authorities in 2023 charged Richins, now 35, with aggravated murder and drug possession, alleging she poisoned her husband, Eric Richins, on March 3, 2022, with illicit fentanyl as a means to collect millions in life insurance funds. Now, she is facing a new attempted murder charge for allegedly poisoning her husband on Feb. 14, 2022, as well.
"It seems that the [Summit] County Attorney's Office and the Summit County Sheriff's Office are continuing their investigation, and … they've been able to discover more and more about what happened prior to the time Eric was ultimately killed," Greg Skordas, an attorney representing Eric's family, told Fox News Digital. "I think it's entirely appropriate that they've continued that investigation … and that it's brought more charges."
Prosecutors also allege in new charging documents that Kouri texted her "paramour" on the night of Eric's murder.
An obituary for Eric Richins describes him as an "avid outdoorsman and dedicated hunter." He enjoyed helping his family's cattle ranch and growing his "successful" masonry business. The obituary also describes him as a dedicated family man. (Facebook/Kouri Richins)
"At 7:22 p.m. on March 3, 2022, the night of Eric Richins’ death, the Defendant’s Paramour text messaged the Defendant a photograph of two people kissing that was captioned, ‘love you,’" the documents filed on Monday state. "At 8:36 p.m., the Defendant responded, ‘… love you [kiss emoji].’"
Skordas previously told Fox News Digital after Kouri was initially charged in Eric's murder that he believed she was having an affair.
UTAH MAN ALLEGEDLY MURDERED BY AUTHOR WIFE TOOK ‘HIGHLY UNUSUAL' STEPS TO BOOT HER OUT OF WILL
Kouri Richins, left, a Utah mother of three who authorities say fatally poisoned her husband, Eric Richins, then wrote a children's book about grieving, stands with her attorney Skye Lazaro during a status hearing on Friday, Sept. 1, 2023, in Park City, Utah. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, Pool)
"We always knew Kouri was having an extramarital affair," he said Wednesday. "It's just that the district attorney's office hadn't … equated that to having relevance to the charges. As they dug deeper, it really, I think, establishes another motive besides financial for her to want Eric out of her life."
"[I]t really, I think, establishes another motive besides financial for her to want Eric out of her life."
Skye Lazaro, Kouri's defense attorney, maintained her client's innocence in light of the new charge.
Kouri Richins, left, a Utah mother of three who authorities say fatally poisoned her husband, Eric Richins, then wrote a children's book about grieving, speaks with her attorney Skye Lazaro during a status hearing on Friday, Sept. 1, 2023, in Park City, Utah. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, Pool)
"We have reviewed the State's Amended Information filed today. There is nothing in the document that affects Kouri's approach to defending whatever charges the State levies against her," Lazaro said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "She continues to maintain her innocence."
Prosecutors initially alleged that Kouri killed Eric in an effort to collect millions in life insurance funds and flip a $2 million Wasatch County mansion that was under construction at the time of Eric's death — an investment that his family said he did not approve of.
Warrants show that Kouri Richins closed a deal on the 22,000-square-foot home a day after Eric Richins' death on March 5, despite the fact that Eric had plans to tell her not to purchase the mansion, KPCW reported. (TownLift, Will Scadden)
The same night Eric died, authorities say he, Kouri and her mother, Lisa Darden, were celebrating Kouri's recent closure of the mansion in question. The then-33-year-old, who owned a real estate company, wanted to finish building the mansion and sell it for a profit, according to search warrants.
Kouri allegedly poured her husband a Moscow mule laced with fentanyl while celebrating that evening. A medical examiner determined that Eric had more than five times the lethal amount of illicit fentanyl in his system when he died. The examiner also found "16,000 ng/ml of Quetiapine," described as an "atypical antipsychotic medication that is "widely used as a sleep aid," in Eric Richins’ gastric fluid, new charging documents state.
Utah prosecutors are accusing Kouri Richins of poisoning her husband Eric Richins with fentanyl in 2022 at their home in Kamas, outside of Park City, while their three young sons were sleeping. (Facebook/Kouri Richins)
The next day, Kouri allegedly closed a deal on the mansion "alone" after her husband was pronounced dead.
Previous court documents have included information about the alleged Valentine's Day poisoning, but Kouri had not been formally charged in that incident until Monday.
This photo provided by KPCW.org shows Kouri Richins at the KPCW studio in Park City, Utah, on April 12, 2023. (KPCW.org via AP)
Eric's family told authorities after his murder that he had been in fear for his life when Kouri allegedly tried to poison him several years ago in Greece and again on Valentine's Day in 2022. Eric told two close friends that on Valentine's Day, he ate a sandwich Kouri left for him with a note and immediately broke out in hives. He took his son's Epipen and ingested Benadryl before falling asleep for hours.
"I think my wife tried to poison me."
Kouri told other witnesses that she had purchased the sandwich from a diner and maintains that she did not poison it.
Eric Richins took Kouri Richins out of his will prior to his death. His estate is worth about $3.6 million. (Facebook/Eric Richins)
Eric had also taken complex steps to boot Kouri from his will as early as 2020, according to his estate-planning lawyer.
"His first goal was to protect him in the short-term from fairly recently discovered and ongoing abuse and misuse of his finances by his wife Kouri Richins. … His second was to protect the three young sons he and Kouri had together in the long-term by ensuring that Kouri would never be in a position to manage his property after his death," Eric's estate-planning attorney, Kristal Bowman-Carter, wrote in previously filed court documents.
Earlier this month, a recently unsealed search warrant implicated Kouri's mother, Lisa Darden, in Eric's death.
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother of three who authorities say fatally poisoned her husband then wrote a children's book about grieving, looks on during a bail hearing Monday, June 12, 2023, in Park City, Utah. A judge ruled to keep her in custody for the duration of her trial. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, Pool)
In May 2023, a Summit County Sheriff's Office detective submitted a search warrant affidavit expressing his belief that Darden may have been "involved in planning and orchestrating Eric's death," based on her own connection to a suspicious death in 2006.
While investigating Kouri, detectives learned that in 2006, Darden was living with a female romantic partner who died unexpectedly of an oxycodone overdose.
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"Further investigation showed that Lisa Darden had been named as the beneficiary of her partner’s estate a short time before her death," a detective wrote in the search warrant. "The female did have current prescriptions for oxycodone and reportedly struggled with abusing her meds. She, however, was not in a state of recovery from addiction at the time of her death. Based on my training and experience, this would likely rule out the possibility of an accidental overdose."
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother of three who authorities say fatally poisoned her husband then wrote a children's book about grieving, looks on during a bail hearing Monday, June 12, 2023, in Park City, Utah. A judge ruled to keep her in custody for the duration of her trial. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, Pool)
Lazaro denied the detective's suggestion, saying Darden's partner was a victim of the national opioid crisis, which killed 112,000 Americans between May 2022 and May 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
UTAH CHILDREN'S BOOK AUTHOR HAD ‘PERFECT’ MARRIAGE WITH HUSBAND BEFORE ALLEGED MURDER: FRIEND
Darden's partner, Lazaro said, "was one of the millions that suffered from, and ultimately succumbed to, opioid addiction," which "is hardly ‘suspicious.’"
"It is tragic, and unfortunately, quite common," the attorney said.
The house where Kouri Richins and Eric Richins lived is shown on May 11, 2023, in Francis, Utah. Kouri Richins is the woman who wrote a children’s book about grief after her husband’s death and was later arrested on accusations of killing him. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
In May 2022, about two months after Eric's death, Darden allegedly told Kouri that a witness — who told police Kouri contacted him for fentanyl in January 2022 — was "running his mouth," the new charging documents state.
Skordas said "getting information from" Darden's phone "has directed law enforcement toward her … and her involvement in this."
"It's just a natural product of some of the search warrants that follow the investigation being done here to bring Lisa Darden into the equation," the attorney said.
Skordas added that it is "not a concern" to his team that "new charges are being brought and new evidence is being investigated" in the case ahead of a preliminary hearing for Kouri.
