KAMAS, Utah, May 8, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — A Utah mother and author of a children’s book about a child who deals with their father’s death has been charged with murder after allegedly using fentanyl to poison her husband.
Kouri Darden Richins, 33, of Kamas, was charged Monday with aggravated murder, a first-degree felony, in connection with the March 2022 death of Eric Richins, her husband and the father of her children.
Summit County prosecutors say Kouri Richins purchased illicit fentanyl and used it to poison her husband. She also faces three counts of possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, a second-degree felony.
Richins is the author of “Are You With Me?” — a children’s book published in March 2023 that “gently guides children through the difficult experience of losing a loved one,” according to the book’s description at Amazon.com. “Written by a loving mother who personally faced this challenge, this book is designed to offer comfort and solace to young minds in a way that is both accessible and engaging.”
Summit County sheriff’s deputies and EMS personnel responded at 3:22 a.m. on March 4, 2022, to a report of an unresponsive man at the Richins’ home at 282 Willow Court, according to charges filed in Summit County’s 3rd District Court.
They arrived to find Eric Richins on the floor at the foot of his bed, charges state. Life-saving measures were attempted, but he was pronounced dead at the home.
An autopsy and toxicology report from the Utah Office of the Medical Examiner determined Eric Richins died from an overdose of fentanyl that had been “ingested orally.” The medical examiner also indicated “the level of fentanyl in Eric’s system was approximately five times the lethal dosage” and that it was “illicit fentanyl,” not medical-grade fentanyl.
Kouri Richins told deputies she had been celebrating with her husband after closing on a house for her real estate business, the charges state. The couple’s children also were home at the time, according to the Summit County Sheriff’s Office.
“[She] stated that she made Eric a Moscow Mule in the kitchen and brought it to their bedroom where Eric consumed it while sitting in bed,” the charges state.
Kouri Richins told police she was sleeping with one of her children, who was having a night terror, and went back to her bedroom about 3 a.m.
“She felt Eric and he was cold to the touch,” the charges state. “That is when [she] called 911.”
Kouri Richins told deputies she had left her phone plugged in next to her bed and did not take it with her in the child’s bedroom, according to charging documents. Investigators later determined that the phone had been locked and unlocked several times prior to her 911 call, and messages on her phone had been deleted, the charges state.
After obtaining a search warrant on the couple’s phones and downloading the text messages, investigators found communications between Kouri Richins and “an acquaintance” with a history of illegal drug possession and distribution, according to charging documents.
When interviewed, that acquaintance told detectives they had been contacted by Kouri Richins sometime between December 2021 and February 2022 about getting some “prescription pain medication for an investor who had a back injury,” charges state.
The acquaintance obtained hydrocodone pills from a dealer and left them for her at a house she was flipping in Midway, the charges state.
About two weeks later, Kouri Richins said “her investor wanted something stronger and asked for ‘some of the Michael Jackson stuff,'” specifically asking for fentanyl, according to the charges. The acquaintance contacted a dealer in Ogden on Feb. 11, 2022, and procured
15-30 fentanyl pills, which they later delivered to Kouri Richins for $900, charges state.
On Feb. 14, 2022, Kouri and Eric Richins “had a Valentine’s Day dinner at their Kamas home,” according to charging documents. “Shortly after the dinner, Eric became very ill. Eric believed that he had been poisoned. Eric told a friend that he thought his wife was trying to poison him.”
Kouri Richins contacted the acquaintance again about two weeks later and asked for another $900 worth of fentanyl, charges state.
Eric Richins was found dead of a fentanyl overdose six days later, according to the charges.
