Utah mom Kouri Richins — who killed her husband and then wrote a book about processing grief for their sons — was sentenced to life behind bars Wednesday after making a defiant, saccharine speech to the judge about how she had been persecuted.
Judge Richard Mrazik threw the book at the 35-year-old mother after it was revealed her three young sons said they were terrified of her and wouldn’t feel safe unless she remained imprisoned for life.
Before the sentence, Richins gave a 30-minute address that was aimed mainly at her boys — who are now being care for by the sister of Eric Richins, the man she was convicted of killing.
Richins was convicted by a jury in March of aggravated murder and related crimes for the March 4, 2022 killing of husband Eric Richins, 39. His 44th birthday would have been Wednesday.
During a day-long sentencing hearing, Kouri appeared in court wearing a neon green jail t-shirt and a long-sleeve grey shirt and pulled faces while Eric’s family begged a judge to never let her be free again.
Kouri appeared incredulous with her expressions ranging from outrage to astonishment including when Eric’s sister, Katie Richins-Benson, claimed Eric didn’t divorce her because he didn’t want to risk her sons being alone with her half the time.
“He believed Kouri was the most evil person he had ever met,” Richins-Benson told the judge. “He knew her sons did not like her and preferred to be far away from her. He said he could never allow his children to spend half of their time alone with her.”
Three social workers also read statements from her sons, about how she took their dad away, mistreated them and neglected their pets. Richins spoke to her lawyers as the statements were read and appeared skeptical.
Later, Richins teared up and dabbed her eyes and nose with a tissue as her lawyers read statements from her mother, sister and aunt pleading for mercy and saying how devoted she was to her kids and what a good person she is. The family said she became a certified paralegal and got a master’s degree in business all while she was behind bars.
She later sobbed as her brother, Ronnie Deardan, proclaimed her innocence and said he missed her.
Kouri’s defense attorney, Wendy Lewis, said Kouri should be sentenced to 25 years to life saying a sentence that doesn’t allow for parole is saved for the worst of the worst. And she said Kouri maintains her innocence to this day.
“A sentence of life without parole is saved for the most heinous crimes,” Lewis said. “This simply is not the type of crime that we see get life without parole.”
Jurors heard evidence that Kouri — a failed home flipper — carried out the killing believing she would inherit Eric’s $4 million estate to help her wipe out her millions in business debt and run away with her handyman lover.
She first tried to murder Eric two weeks earlier by dosing his sandwich with fentanyl.
Kouri finally succeeded in her evil plan when she laced Eric’s Moscow Mule with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl, killing him in their Kamas home while their sons slept, prosecutors said.
She wasn’t arrested until a year later and after she wrote a children’s grief book entitled “Are You With Me?” promoting it on local tv and radio stations, prosecutors claimed.
Kouri’s sons — now ages 9, 12, and 13 — advocated for their mom to spend the rest of her life behind bars explaining they feared she would harm them and their loved ones if she were freed, the boys were quoted saying in a court filing by prosecutors.
“I’m afraid if she gets out, she will come after me and my brothers, my whole family,” her eldest son allegedly said. “I think she would come and take us and not do good things to us, like hurt us.”
Kouri’s lawyer, Wendy Lewis, called the prosecutor’s sentencing letter a “character assassination” of their client.
Kouri faces a second trial for alleged financial crimes tied to Eric’s murder.