Kouri Richins, the Utah mom accused of killing her husband and writing a children’s book about her kids’ grief, offed him because she was an aggressive social climber who couldn’t deal with the debt she racked up as an “incompetent” business owner, prosecutors said in blistering closing arguments Monday.
Richins, 35, was “intensely ambitious” but also “unhappy” in her marriage to Eric Richins – with whom she shared three young sons, prosecutor Brad Bloodworth told jurors.
Her home-flipping business was $4.5 million in debt, and she wanted to collect Eric’s $4 million estate and run away with her handyman lover, Bloodworth added.
Kouri – of Kamas, Utah, a suburb of wealthy ski town Park City – is accused of slipping fentanyl into Eric’s Moscow Mule cocktail on March 4, 2022, killing him. She then wrote a kids book a year later to help their sons process the loss – “Are You With Me?” — which she promoted on TV and radio.
“She wanted to leave Eric Richins but did not want to leave his money,” Bloodworth said. “Their prenup meant if she left him she would also leave most of his money.”
The prosecutor explained that Kouri felt “aggrieved” because of her troubled upbringing — with her drunk dad landing in jail and her hard-gambling mom spending her time in casinos.
She also felt insecure about her social standing because of her time as a housecleaner for rich people.
So she “carefully curated the facade of a privileged, affluent, successful business owner,” Bloodworth argued.
But “behind the facade, Kouri Richins was incompetent,” the prosecutor alleged. “She took tremendous risks. She borrowed money by any means necessary at exorbitant rates. She gambled other people’s money and lost. Her business was imploding.”
“She was a risk taker,” Bloodworth said. “There was a way forward. Eric had to die.”
Kouri has been on trial for the past three weeks on charges of aggravated murder and related crimes for which she faces up to 25 years behind bars.
She’s pleaded not guilty.
