Kouri Richins sentenced to life without parole for husband’s murder

Kouri Richins was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, bringing a final legal reckoning to a case that fused murder, money and a carefully cultivated public image. Judge Richard Mrazik imposed the sentence Wednesday in 3rd District Court in Park City, Utah, on what would have been Eric Richins’ 44th birthday.

A Summit County jury convicted Richins in March after a 13-day trial and about three hours of deliberation. Jurors found her guilty of aggravated murder, attempted murder, two counts of insurance fraud and one count of forgery, closing a case that had drawn national attention well beyond Utah. Prosecutors said the sentence fit a killing they described as deliberate, financial and carried out with her children nearby.

Eric Richins was found dead in bed on March 4, 2022. An autopsy determined he died of fentanyl intoxication, and prosecutors said the amount in his blood was about five times the lethal dose. They alleged Richins obtained fentanyl illegally after asking two people for the “Michael Jackson drug,” then spiked her husband’s cocktail. Prosecutors also said she made an earlier failed attempt to kill him on Valentine’s Day 2022 by serving him a fentanyl-laced sandwich.

The sentencing hearing also kept the focus on the couple’s three sons, who were 9, 7 and 5 when their father was killed. In court filings, the boys said they fear their mother being released from prison. One said he is afraid she would come after him and his brothers, while another said he wants her to stay in prison forever. The children are now being raised by their aunt, Katie Richins-Benson, and her husband.

Prosecutors asked Mrazik to order restitution to two insurance companies totaling more than $1.3 million. Separate reporting said Richins collected more than $1.39 million in life-insurance payouts after Eric Richins’ death and before her arrest. That financial trail, paired with the forensic evidence and the alleged failed earlier attempt, helped turn the case into a broader reckoning over motive and deception.

Eric and Kouri Richins had been raising their children in Kamas, Utah. He ran a successful stonemasonry business, while she flipped houses in Summit County. The contrast between that life and the children’s book Richins later self-published about grieving after her husband’s death made the case especially stark, and it is that combination of image management, money and violence that made the sentence resonate so widely.