New details in the case against a Utah woman accused of fatally poisoning her husband reveal the husband met with a divorce attorney before he died and his widow took out nearly $2 million in life insurance policies without his knowledge, prosecutors say.
Kouri Darden Richins, who wrote a book about grief after her husband’s March 2022 death and was later arrested on accusations of killing him, reportedly owed hundreds of thousand dollars in debt, new court papers obtained by USA TODAY show.
Earlier this month police charged Richins, a 33-year-old mother of three, with one count of criminal homicide and three counts possession of GHB, a narcolepsy drug, in connection to the slaying of Eric Richins, 39. Autopsy and toxicology reports found Eric Richins died from a lethal dose of fentanyl at the couple’s home in Kamas, a small mountain town about 40 miles east of Salt Lake City.
An investigation into his death began March 4, 2022, when Summitt County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to the couple’s home and found Eric Richins dead on the floor at the foot of his bed. His wife told deputies the couple were celebrating closing on a home purchase for her business the night before, an arrest warrant shows.
According to the warrant, Richins poisoned her husband by slipping five times the lethal dose of fentanyl into a Moscow mule she made for him.
She later self-published a children’s book titled “Are You with Me?” and promoted it on television and radio, in an effort to help children grieve the death of a loved one.
A secret life-insurance policy change
Amended charging documents released by Summit County District Court prosecutors Thursday show between 2015 and 2017, Kouri Richins purchased four life insurance policies on her husband with benefits totaling $1,947,000.
“He did not know about them,” prosecutors wrote.
Authorities have not said how her husband discovered the changes but said, in October 2020, Eric Richins met with a divorce attorney and estate planner, just one month after he learned his wife carried out a handful of other major financial moves without his knowledge.
The amended documents go onto show that in September 2020, Eric Richins learned his wife took out a $250,000 home equity line of credit, withdrew more than $100,000 from his bank accounts, and spent more than $30,000 on his credit cards. She also stole more than $134,000 from her husband’s business that were to be used for tax payment, court papers show.
A confrontation and pay-back agreement
When he confronted his wife about the theft she agreed to repay him, court records show.
Investigators also said he was seeking to divorce his wife and had recently changed his life insurance policy and will.
Prior to March 1, 2022, Kouri Richins’s outstanding state and federal tax liability totalled nearly $190,000; she owed a money lender nearly $1.85 million and she owed her husband more than $514,000.
On March 3, 2022, hours before her husband died, the amended complaint goes onto say, she had a “lengthy” telephone call with the IRS, and she talked to her money lender.
Eric Richins came from “a large family, well-known locally, with members active in local politics and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” the Associated Press reported. He met Kouri Richins when she worked as a cashier at a Home Depot where he shopped, a former coworker told KUTV.
His family members told police he suspected his wife previously tried to poison him, including once a vacation to Greece several years ago. Family also “raised questions about marital disagreements stemming from changes to his will and the purchase of a incomplete nearby mansion in Midway, Utah, that Kouri Richins bought hoping to quickly sell,” the AP reported.
Richins remained jailed without bond on Monday.
Prosecutors said she is due in court for a detention hearing on June 12.
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Contributing: The Associated Press.
Natalie Neysa Alund covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on Twitter @nataliealund.
