‘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

Utah mother and children’s author Kouri Richins was sentenced to life without parole for poisoning her husband with fentanyl Photograph: (AFP)

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Utah mother and children’s author Kouri Richins was sentenced to life without parole for poisoning her husband with fentanyl

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.”

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.