Utah decide to resolve if writer of kids's ebook on grief will face trial in her husband's demise

PARK CITY, Utah — A Utah girl who authorities say fatally poisoned her husband then revealed a youngsters’s ebook about dealing with grief is about to look in courtroom Monday for the beginning of a multiday listening to that may decide whether or not prosecutors have sufficient proof in opposition to her to proceed with a trial.

Kouri Richins, 34, faces a number of felony expenses for allegedly killing her husband with a deadly dose of fentanyl in March 2022 at their residence in a small mountain city close to Park Metropolis. Prosecutors say she slipped 5 occasions the deadly dose of the artificial opioid right into a Moscow mule cocktail that Eric Richins, 39, drank.

Further expenses filed in March accuse her of an earlier attempt to kill him with a spiked sandwich on Valentine’s Day. She has been adamant in sustaining her innocence.

Utah state Decide Richard Mrazik had delayed the hearing in Could after prosecutors mentioned they would want three consecutive days to current their proof. The case was additional slowed when Kouri Richins’ workforce of personal attorneys withdrew from representing her. Mrazik decided she was unable to proceed paying for personal illustration, and he appointed public defenders Wendy Lewis and Kathy Nester to take over her case.

Within the months main as much as her arrest in Could 2023, the mom of three self-published the kids’s ebook “Are You with Me?” a couple of father with angel wings watching over his younger son after passing away. The ebook may play a key position for prosecutors in framing Eric Richins’ demise as a calculated killing with an elaborate cover-up try. Prosecutors have accused Kouri Richins of constructing secret monetary preparations and shopping for the unlawful drug as her husband started to harbor suspicions about her.

Each the protection and prosecution plan to name on witnesses and introduce proof to assist form their narratives within the case. Mrazik is predicted to resolve after the listening to whether or not the state has introduced adequate proof to go ahead with a trial.

Among the many witnesses who could possibly be known as are relations of the defendant and her late husband, a housekeeper who claims to have bought Kouri Richins the medicine, and buddies of Eric Richins who’ve recounted telephone conversations from the day prosecutors say he was first poisoned by his spouse of 9 years.

Kouri Richins’ former lead protection legal professional, Skye Lazaro, had argued the housekeeper had motivation to lie as she sought leniency within the face of drug expenses, and that Eric Richins’ sisters had a transparent bias in opposition to her shopper amid a battle over his property and a concurrent assault case.

A petition filed by his sister, Katie Richins, alleges Kouri Richins had monetary motives for killing her husband as prosecutors say she had opened life insurance coverage insurance policies totaling almost $2 million with out his information and mistakenly believed she would inherit his property underneath phrases of their prenuptial settlement.

In Could, Kouri Richins was discovered responsible on misdemeanor expenses of assaulting her different sister-in-law shortly after her husband’s demise. Amy Richins instructed the decide that Kouri Richins had punched her within the face throughout an argument over entry to her brother’s protected.

Along with aggravated homicide, assault and drug expenses, Kouri Richins has been charged with mortgage fraud, forgery and insurance coverage fraud for allegedly forging mortgage purposes and fraudulently claiming insurance coverage advantages after her husband’s demise.