Kouri Richins files appeal after life sentence in Summit County murder case

Kouri Richins’ fight moved from the verdict to the appellate courts as soon as her lawyers filed notice that they are challenging the life-without-parole sentence imposed in Summit County. The filing does not reopen the facts of the case. Instead, it shifts the battle to whether the trial in Third District Court was handled correctly under Utah law.

Richins, the Kamas mother of three, was convicted of aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, forgery and two counts of insurance fraud after jurors deliberated for about three hours. Prosecutors said Eric Richins was poisoned with fentanyl in 2022 for financial gain. With the appeal now filed, the conviction stands unless a higher court finds a legal error serious enough to change it.

Utah’s appellate rules let the state Supreme Court transfer criminal appeals to the Utah Court of Appeals, which normally handles the first round of review. Court records show the notice of appeal was filed May 26, and the case was referred to the Court of Appeals the next day. That review is limited: appellate judges do not retry the case, hear new evidence or decide which witnesses were more believable. They look for legal mistakes, constitutional issues and problems in the way the trial was managed.

That means the most important questions now are not about what happened in the underlying case, but about whether the process was fair and legally sound. For Eric Richins’ family, the appeal does not undo the sentence or trigger a new trial in the near term. It keeps the case alive in the courts, but the punishment remains in place while the record is reviewed.

The appeal also keeps pressure on Summit County, where the case has become as much a budget issue as a courtroom one. County officials say the defense has already cost taxpayers about $1.3 million. Earlier reporting put the figure near $500,000, with another $500,000 set aside in the 2026 budget before the total climbed higher. The county also tried to move the cost into Utah’s Indigent Aggravated Murder Defense Fund, but that request was rejected because the fund was intended for future cases rather than ongoing ones.

Richins’ trial lawyers, Kathy Nester, Wendy Lewis and Alexander Ramos, filed the appeal and also moved to withdraw from her separate unresolved criminal case. That raises the possibility that the appellate phase could begin under new counsel, adding another layer of complexity to a case that has already drawn intense attention in Summit County and beyond, in part because Richins had earlier self-published the children’s grief book Are You With Me?