'Dad is still here': Inside the chilling case of Kouri Richins, Utah mom who wrote grief book after husband’s death gets life sentence for his murder

Kouri Richins, the Utah mother who gained national attention after publishing a children’s book about grief following her husband’s death, has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for murdering him. Judge Richard Mrazik delivered the sentence on Wednesday (May 13), the same day that would have marked the 44th birthday of her late husband, Eric Richins. Following a lengthy trial earlier this year, an eight-person jury found Richins guilty of aggravated murder for fatally poisoning her husband in March 2022. She was also convicted of attempted aggravated murder for allegedly trying to kill him weeks earlier on Valentine’s Day, along with insurance fraud and forgery tied to his life insurance policies.

“A person convicted of those things is simply too dangerous to ever be free,” Judge Mrazik said while announcing the sentence. The judge also ordered Richins to serve additional consecutive prison terms related to the other convictions. As the sentence was delivered, Richins reportedly looked toward her defense attorney and raised her eyebrows. Before sentencing, Richins addressed her three young sons in court through an emotional statement. “As much as you’ve been influenced into thinking that dad was murdered, that I took your dad from you, that is completely wrong. An absolute lie,” Richins said. “And the thought of that is still as absurd today as it was four years ago.”

Statements written by the couple’s children were later read aloud in court by therapists. All three expressed fear about their mother potentially being released one day.

“You took away everything from my brothers and me. I don’t want you out of jail because I will not feel safe if you are out,” wrote the couple’s middle child, identified as “A.R.” “You have never said sorry for anything that you have done to my brothers or me. I don’t want you to hurt anyone again.” Members of Eric Richins’ family also urged the court to impose the harshest sentence possible. “Please do not leave those boys to wonder whether Kouri might track them or their children down in the future,” said his sister, Katie Richins-Benson. “Please do not create a possibility for Kouri to endanger Eric’s boys, my daughters, my family, or anybody else ever again.”

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Defense attorney Wendy Lewis argued against a life sentence without parole, saying the children could someday want a relationship with their mother. “A life without the possibility of parole, the sentence cannot be changed,” Lewis said. “If Kouri and Eric’s boys someday change their mind and it is too late to say something different than what they’ve said today, this day will become one more day that haunts them.” Some of Richins’ family members defended her character during the hearing, calling her a loving mother and claiming she had been wrongfully convicted.

“We don’t with 100% certainty know what happened to Eric, no one does,” her brother Ronney Darden told the court. “But we do know with 100% certainty that it wasn’t caused by you.” Her legal team confirmed plans to appeal the conviction and seek a new trial. Judge Mrazik said that the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole could theoretically release Richins in the future if officials determined “by clear and convincing evidence at some future point that she is permanently incapable of being a threat to the safety of society.”

How did the case unfold?

Eric Richins was found dead inside the couple’s home in Kamas during the early morning hours of March 4, 2022. According to statements given to investigators, the couple had celebrated a successful real estate transaction that evening with drinks. Richins told police she later slept in one of her son’s rooms because he was having nightmares. When she returned to the master bedroom hours later, she claimed she found her husband dead. An autopsy later determined Eric Richins died from a fentanyl overdose, with prosecutors saying he had nearly five times the lethal amount in his system.

During the 13-day trial, prosecutors presented testimony from more than 40 witnesses, including family members, investigators, associates connected to the drug supply, and people close to Richins. A key witness, house cleaner Carmen Lauber, testified she sold illicit pills to Richins several times in early 2022. Prosecutors also presented cellphone data placing Richins near locations where the drugs were allegedly obtained. The prosecution argued Richins had multiple motives, including financial problems, an extramarital affair, and a desire to escape her marriage.

Her alleged lover, Robert Josh Grossmann, became emotional while messages exchanged between the pair were shown in court. “I do want a future together. I do want you. Figure life out together,” Richins texted Grossmann weeks before her husband’s death. “If he could just go away, and you could just be here! Life would be so perfect!!! I love you.” Prosecutors also highlighted testimony from a forensic accountant who said Richins’ real estate business was drowning in debt despite appearances of success.

Eric Richins reportedly carried around $2.2 million in life insurance policies, including one prosecutors said Richins fraudulently secured shortly before his death. “She murdered Eric Richins,” prosecutor Brad Bloodworth told jurors during closing arguments, “and then she submitted a claim to get the money.” The jury also convicted Richins of attempting to murder her husband on Valentine’s Day 2022. Prosecutors said Eric Richins told friends he felt like he was dying after eating a sandwich his wife had prepared for him.

Investigators additionally pointed to internet searches found on Richins’ cellphone, including:

• What is a lethal dose of fentanyl
• If someone is poisoned, what does it go down on the death certificate as?
• Kouri Richins Kamas net worth

Authorities argued Richins later attempted to redirect suspicion by publishing her children’s book, Are You With Me?, roughly a year after her husband’s death. While promoting the book on local television in April 2023, just weeks before her arrest, Richins said the story was intended to help her children process grief. “Just because he’s not present here with us physically, that doesn’t mean his presence isn’t here with us,” Richins said. “Dad is still here. It’s just in a different way.”