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Kouri Richins, the Utah children’s book author is facing life in prison after she was convicted of murdering her husband — but that’s not the end of her legal woes.
She faces a second trial for alleged financial crimes tied to a plot to cash in on the spouse’s millions.
Richins, 35, was found guilty by a jury on five charges tied to a plot to kill hubby Eric Richins by slipping five times the lethal amount of fentanyl into his Moscow Mule at their Kamas home on March 4, 2022.
Kouri — who had three sons with Eric — will learn her fate at her May 13 sentencing, which would have been Eric’s 44th birthday.
But the failed home flipper still faces trial on an additional 26 charges in connection to accusations she carried out a financial scheme in a bid to steal Eric’s $4 million estate, including taking out massive high-interest loans, forging documents and moving money through shell companies before she offed him.
Following Kouri’s arrest, over a year after Eric’s death and after she penned a kids book to help her sons grieve, a juvenile court gave custody of the three sons to Eric’s family, the Park Record reported.
She’s been in jail since she was cuffed in May 2023.
During the three-week trial that wrapped in Summit County Court in Park City Monday evening, prosecutors claimed that Kouri was motivated to slay Eric over greed and desire to appear successful and affluent.
Meanwhile, the defense called the investigation against Kouri “sloppy” and suggested Eric accidentally overdosed after taking fentanyl.
Kouri ran her real estate business into $4.5 million in debt and wanted to run away with her handy man lover but couldn’t inherit if she divorced Eric because of a prenup.
So she hatched a murder plot — which she practiced in an unsuccessful bid to kill Eric two weeks earlier by lacing his sandwich with the same street drug she ultimately slayed him with, prosecutors argued.
Before the murder, Kouri took out life insurance policies in Eric’s name without his knowledge, totaling $2 million. She also took out a $250,000 loan on their mansion without his knowledge, prosecutors claimed.
Eric discovered the secret home equity loan in October 2020, prompting him to meet with a divorce lawyer and ultimately move his assets into a protected trust that his sister oversaw. Eric cut Kouri out of his will and changed his life insurance policy removing her as the beneficiary, prosecutors claimed.
In the pending criminal case, Kouri is also accused of stealing $134,000 from her husband’s stone masonry company, taking out $100,000 from his bank accounts and spending over $30,000 on his credit cards.
She faces charges of money laundering, mortgage fraud, communications fraud, forgery and issuing bad checks.
A trial date has not been set yet in that case. Her next court appearance in that case is set for April 17.
Eric’s family separately sued Kouri for over $13 million for the money she allegedly stole from him.
Eric’s sister, Amy Richins, told reporters Monday that the family were now turning their attention to caring for Kouri and Eric’s sons and honoring his memory.
“Honestly I feel like we’re all in shock. It’s been a long time coming,” Amy said. “Just very happy that we got justice for my brother.”
Kouri’s children’s book, “Are You With Me?” — which she self-published and promoted on local tv and radio a few months before she was busted — has since been taken down for purchase on Amazon.
With Post wires
English (US)