March 17, 2026 — Park City, Utah — BREAKING VERDICT
A Utah jury has convicted Kouri Richins — the 35-year-old children's book author who wrote a grief guide for her sons after her husband's death — of aggravated murder for poisoning her husband Eric Richins with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl in March 2022. The jury deliberated for just under three hours before returning unanimous guilty verdicts on all five charges Monday at Summit County Courthouse in Park City, Utah. Richins bowed her head and began breathing heavily when the verdict was read. She now faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole. Sentencing is scheduled for May 13, 2026.
⚖️ The Verdict: Guilty on All 5 Counts
The eight-person jury found Kouri Richins guilty of every charge she faced:
- ☠️ Aggravated Murder — for the death of Eric Richins on March 4, 2022 (maximum: life without parole)
- 🔪 Attempted Aggravated Murder — for the failed Valentine's Day poisoning attempt, two weeks before Eric's death
- 💰 Insurance Fraud (Count 1) — fraudulently claiming life insurance benefits
- 💰 Insurance Fraud (Count 2) — second count of fraudulent insurance claims
- 📝 Forgery — related to real estate transaction signed the day after Eric's death
"Honestly, I feel like we're all in shock. It's been a long time coming," Eric Richins' sister Amy Richins said outside the courthouse following the verdict. "So just very happy that we got justice for my brother."
💀 How Eric Richins Died: The Moscow Mule That Killed Him
Eric Richins, 39, was found unresponsive in the couple's home in Kamas, Utah in the early morning hours of March 4, 2022. An autopsy revealed he had approximately five times the lethal dose of fentanyl in his system when he died. The medical examiner confirmed the fentanyl was illicitly obtained — not medical-grade — and had been orally ingested.
Prosecutors argued that the night before Eric was found dead, Kouri had made him a Moscow Mule cocktail and a lemon drop shot to celebrate a real estate deal she had just closed. It was into those drinks, prosecutors alleged, that she slipped the deadly fentanyl dose.
Summit County Prosecutor Brad Bloodworth told the jury in his closing argument: "The amount of fentanyl found in his system shows that Kouri Richins wanted Eric not only dead, but good and dead." He described Richins as a "black widow" — an "intensely ambitious" social climber who "wanted to leave Eric Richins but did not want to leave his money."
💔 The Valentine's Day Attempt: 'He Survived — She Learned From Her Mistake'
The attempted aggravated murder charge stemmed from a separate incident just two weeks before Eric's death.
On Valentine's Day 2022, Eric Richins broke out in hives and experienced difficulty breathing after eating a sandwich his wife had made for him. He used his son's EpiPen and took Benadryl before falling asleep for several hours. He survived — but barely.
Prosecutors argued that Kouri had poisoned the Valentine's Day sandwich with the same fentanyl-laced pills — and that when Eric survived, she "learned from her mistake" and used a far larger dose in his drinks two weeks later.
A neighbor testified at trial that Richins had told her around Christmas 2021 — just two months before the Valentine's Day attempt — that "it would be better if her husband were dead" after the couple had a fight.
🏠 The Housekeeper Who Sold Her the Fentanyl: Carmen Lauber's Bombshell Testimony
The most pivotal witness at trial was Carmen Lauber — a housekeeper who worked for Kouri Richins and who testified that she sold fentanyl pills to Richins multiple times in early 2022.
Lauber testified that she bought pills from a man named Robert Crozier at a gas station in Draper, Utah — twice before Eric Richins' death and once shortly after. Cell phone data confirmed both Lauber's and Crozier's phones were near the gas station on February 11, February 26, and March 9, 2022 — the last date being after Eric's death.
In a gut-wrenching moment, Lauber recalled a phone call with Kouri after Eric died. "I said, 'Please tell me these pills were not for him.' She said: 'No, they were not. Eric passed away from a brain aneurysm.'"
The defense attacked Lauber's credibility heavily — noting she was already in a drug court program on separate charges and had been warned by investigators that they could pull her deal if she didn't cooperate. A video shown to the jury showed a law enforcement officer telling Lauber: "Give us the details that will ensure Kouri gets convicted of murder." Lauber was ultimately granted immunity for her cooperation. The jury believed her anyway.
Richins had told Lauber she wanted "the Michael Jackson stuff" — a reference to propofol, the anesthetic drug that killed Michael Jackson — according to Lauber's testimony. Prosecutors argued those requests eventually led to the procurement of illicit drugs containing fentanyl.
💸 The Financial Motive: $2 Million in Insurance, $7.5 Million in Debt
Prosecutors presented a compelling financial motive. Kouri Richins had secretly purchased four life insurance policies on her husband between 2015 and 2017 — totaling nearly $2 million — without his knowledge. She had later changed the beneficiary to herself without Eric's authorization. Eric discovered the changes and switched the beneficiary back to his business partner.
At the time of Eric's death, Kouri's house-flipping real estate business was a staggering $7.5 million in debt. Despite the financial catastrophe, she had been pushing to buy a $2 million mansion that she claimed she could "flip" — a plan Eric had opposed. The couple had argued bitterly about the purchase.
"She wanted to leave Eric Richins but did not want to leave his money," Bloodworth told the jury. He described her as someone who wanted the appearance of success despite her business failures.
Court filings also showed that Eric Richins was considering divorcing Kouri when he was killed. Less than two years before his death, Eric had accused her of "abuse and misuse of his finances" and taken steps to separate his assets from her — though prosecutors said she didn't know about this when she killed him.
The day after Eric died, Kouri Richins allegedly signed papers to finalize the purchase of that $2 million mansion — the same property she and Eric had been fighting about.
📚 The Children's Book: 'Are You With Me?' — The Detail That Captivated the Nation
What made the Kouri Richins case a national sensation was not just the murder — it was what she did afterward. About a year after Eric's death, Kouri Richins self-published a children's picture book titled "Are You With Me?" — a guide for children on how to cope with the loss of a loved one. The book, which she dedicated to her "amazing" husband, features a father with angel wings watching over his young son.
She appeared on Good Things Utah, a local Utah morning television show, to promote the book — describing the challenges she and her three sons had faced navigating their grief after Eric's "unexpected" passing.
Weeks after that television appearance, she was arrested and charged with aggravated murder.
The irony was shattering: a woman who allegedly poisoned her husband was being praised on local television for writing a grief book for her children about the death she had engineered. The case drew thousands of viewers to online trial livestreams over three weeks of proceedings.
In a further twist revealed at trial, prosecutors showed text messages demonstrating that a ghostwriter had actually written most of the book — not Kouri Richins herself.
💌 The Damning Text Messages
Prosecutors presented a series of text messages that painted a devastating picture of Kouri Richins' state of mind before and after her husband's death:
- 💬 About Eric to her boyfriend: "If he could just go away and you could just be here! Life would be so perfect!!!"
- 💬 To a friend: "In many ways, it would be better if he were dead."
- 💬 After Eric's death: "They will not take from me what is mine."
- 💬 To protect herself: "If I die, Eric did it." (sent before Eric's death — a pre-emptive attempt to shift blame)
A forensic analyst testified that hundreds of text messages were deleted from one of Richins' phones between January and mid-March 2022 — the critical window surrounding the Valentine's Day poisoning attempt and Eric's death.
💑 The Secret Affair: Josh Grossman's Emotional Testimony
Kouri Richins was having an extramarital affair at the time of her husband's death. Her former boyfriend, Robert Josh Grossman, was called as a prosecution witness. He became emotional on the stand as he testified about their relationship and the hopes they had shared for a future together.
Grossman told the court that the relationship ended a few months after Eric's death — and that at the time, he had not believed Kouri was involved in the killing. The text messages prosecutors showed the jury told a different story.
🏛️ The Trial: Three Weeks, 40+ Witnesses, Zero Defense Witnesses
The trial was expected to run through March 26. Instead, it ended abruptly Monday when the defense rested its case without calling a single witness. Kouri Richins did not testify in her own defense.
Prosecutors called more than 40 witnesses over three weeks. The defense's strategy was to argue the state had not met its burden of proof — that investigators had conducted a "sloppy and biased investigation" and could not definitively prove how Eric ingested the fentanyl.
"They cannot tell you how Eric ingested that fentanyl," defense attorney Wendy Lewis argued. She pointed out that Eric's housekeeper's drug dealer testified he was selling oxycodone — not fentanyl — at the time of the relevant purchases, creating a gap in the chain of evidence.
The defense also highlighted that investigators had not tested the glasses used the night Eric died — a significant hole in the physical evidence. "They haven't done their job, and now they want you to make inferences based on paper-thin evidence," Lewis argued.
The jury rejected the defense argument entirely — deliberating for less than three hours before returning unanimous verdicts on all five counts.
📅 What Comes Next: Sentencing on May 13
Kouri Richins' sentencing hearing is scheduled for May 13, 2026 at 9:30 a.m. MST at Summit County Courthouse in Park City, Utah, before Judge Richard Mrazik.
The aggravated murder conviction carries a sentence of 25 years to life in prison — with the maximum being life without the possibility of parole. Given the jury's unanimous verdict and the prosecution's characterization of her as a calculating, cold-blooded killer who targeted her husband multiple times, a lengthy sentence appears likely.
Eric Richins' three sons — who were young children when their father was murdered — will grow up without him. Their mother will almost certainly spend the rest of her life in prison for his killing.
📊 Key Facts at a Glance
- 👤 Defendant: Kouri Richins, 35, Kamas, Utah — mother of three, real estate agent, children's book author
- 👤 Victim: Eric Richins, 39 — husband, killed March 4, 2022
- ☠️ Cause of death: 5x lethal dose of fentanyl — orally ingested in Moscow Mule cocktail
- 📍 Location: Family home in Kamas, Utah (near Park City)
- 📅 Murder date: March 4, 2022
- 📅 Arrest: May 2023
- 📅 Trial began: February 23, 2026
- 📅 Verdict: March 16, 2026 — Guilty on all 5 counts
- ⏱️ Jury deliberation time: Under 3 hours
- 📅 Sentencing: May 13, 2026
- ⚖️ Maximum sentence: Life without parole
- 💰 Insurance policies: ~$2 million (4 policies, purchased without Eric's knowledge)
- 💸 Business debt: $7.5 million
- 🏠 Day after murder: Signed papers on $2 million mansion purchase
- 📚 Book title: "Are You With Me?" — self-published grief guide, 2023
- 🔑 Key witness: Carmen Lauber — housekeeper, sold fentanyl pills to Richins
- 💌 Key text: "If he could just go away and you could just be here! Life would be so perfect!!!"
📡 Sources: CNN (March 16–17, 2026), CBS News (March 16), NBC News (March 17), Washington Post (March 17), Axios Salt Lake City (March 17), Court TV (March 17), Fox News (March 17), AP/Boston Globe (March 16), KUTV News — all reporting from Park City, Utah, March 16–17, 2026.
🔄 Last updated: March 17, 2026 — verdict announced Monday evening.
🔖 Tags: Kouri Richins, Kouri Richins Guilty, Eric Richins, Fentanyl Murder, Utah Murder Trial, Are You With Me Book, Black Widow, Park City Utah, Summit County, Crime News 2026
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