The young children of grief author Kouri Richins have begged a judge to never let her walk free from prison after she fatally poisoned their father with a Moscow Mule, voicing fears that their lives and those of their family members could be in danger.
In heartbreaking letters to Judge Richard Mzarik on the eve of their mother’s sentencing, Richins’s three sons, now aged 13, 12 and nine, said they are terrified of the 35-year-old as they revealed chilling new details about the night she murdered their dad.
‘If she got out I would be so scared,’ the youngest child, who was just five when he lost his dad, said.
‘Once she is gone, I will feel happy and I will feel safer and relaxed and trust people more. She took away my dad.’
Richins killed her husband Eric Richins by giving him a Moscow Mule cocktail laced with a lethal dose of fentanyl at the family home in Kamas, Utah.
For more than a year, the real estate agent then played the grieving widow, publishing a children’s book, titled Are You With Me? and even appearing on local TV to promote it and share her seemingly heartbreaking story of navigating grief with their sons.
But in May 2023, the facade crumbled and Richins was arrested and charged with Eric’s murder.
In an explosive trial this March, jurors heard how the realtor had been motivated by a desire to get her hands on Eric’s $4 million estate and to escape their marriage in order to start a new life with her handyman lover.
Kouri Richins and her husband Eric Richins with their three young sons before his March 4, 2022 murder
Kouri Richins listens during closing statements in her trial for the murder of her husband Eric
It took just three hours for the jury to return a verdict of guilty on all five felony charges of aggravated murder, aggravated attempted murder, two counts of insurance fraud and forgery.
Now, on what should have been Eric’s 44th birthday on Wednesday, Richins is returning to Summit County Court in Park City for her sentencing.
She faces 25 years to life or life in prison without the possibility of parole on the most severe charge of aggravated murder.
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In a sentencing memo filed on Monday, Summit County Chief Prosecutor Brad Bloodworth asked the judge to hand down the maximum penalty, arguing that the mom-of-three should ‘never again lurk among the rest of us.’
Bloodworth said that the children should never have to ‘worry that they may one day encounter’ her again and also alleged that Richins had physically and emotionally abused her eldest son after his father’s murder, citing documents from the Utah Division of Child and Family Services.
In their own words, Richins’s sons – who were just five, seven and nine when their mom murdered their dad – shared their own wishes that she be jailed for life in gut-wrenching statements where they referred to Richins not as their mom, but simply as ‘Kouri.’
‘I will not feel safe if Kouri is out,’ the couple’s middle child wrote.
‘With Kouri in jail, I will be able to continue to feel safe and live a happy and successful life without fear of her hurting me or anyone I love.’
Eric and Kouri Richins’s three young sons wrote letters to the judge begging him to jail their mom for life
Kouri Richins poisoned Eric Richins with a fentanyl-laced homemade Moscow Mule cocktail
The 12-year-old also revealed what really happened the night his father was murdered, laying out his mother’s lies in detail and showing how she had dragged the children into the case.
Richins had claimed to law enforcement that her middle child, then seven years old, had a nightmare and she had gone to bed in his room on the night of March 3, 2022.
She claimed she had returned to the couple’s bedroom in the early hours of March 4 to find Eric dead in their bed.
Her lies made the middle child her alibi which meant he could have been called to testify at her trial.
But on Wednesday, the young boy revealed a very different account of what happened, detailing the bizarre, out-of-the-ordinary activities inside the house that night.
His mom did not stay with him that night, he said.
Instead, the children were put to bed early without a bath something that was unusual.
The boy, who was just three weeks away from turning eight at the time, said that he tried to enter his parents’ bedroom but found the door locked and the television blaring inside.
Kouri Richins parties during a ‘Celebration of Life’ one day after murdering her husband
Shortly after Eric’s death, Kouri Richins self-published a children’s book titled ‘Are You with Me?’
He said his mom shouted at him to go away when he tried to use a broom to attempt to knock a door key from a height onto the floor so he could enter.
Richins later came into his room but he pretended to be asleep, he said.
The youngest son, who was just five at the time, later tried to enter his parents’ room and also found it locked.
Due to his age, the little boy has few memories of his father and mother but remembers wetting his pants in fear that night.
Now nine, he said he feels ‘hateful and ashamed’ when he thinks of Richins and would be ‘scared’ and ‘worried’ if she was ever released from prison.
These fears were also echoed by the couple’s eldest son, now 13.
‘I’m afraid if she gets out, she will come after me and my brothers, my whole family. I think she would come and take us and not do good things to us, like hurt us,’ he said.
‘I miss my dad, but I do not miss how my life used to be. I don’t miss Kouri, I will tell you that.’
Kouri Richins seen in her mug shot following her May 2023 arrest for her husband’s murder
The boy, who was nine at the time of the murder, described his dad as a ‘good person’ who helped those in need.
He faced abuse at the hands of his mother following his dad’s death, prosecutors said, adding that the boy now wears Eric’s clothes to school in his memory.
The children, who are living in the care of one of Eric’s sisters, also spoke of all the things they miss about their father.
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‘My dad can’t be my coach anymore and can’t be at any of my games,’ the middle son said.
‘He won’t be at my birthdays. He can’t teach me how to drive. He won’t be at my graduation.’
In the memo, prosecutors also asked the judge for a protective order to ban Richins from contacting her sons or other members of Eric’s family.
‘Given the tremendous trauma and upheaval that the Defendant inflicted upon their childhood, this court should ensure that she does not harm their adulthood,’ Bloodworth wrote.
Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty in the case meaning life with no possibility of parole is the maximum sentence.
Throughout 13 days of emotional testimony, much of the trial hinged on the state’s star witness, housekeeper Carmen Lauber.
Lauber testified that she sold drugs to Richins four times around the time of Eric’s death, including providing her with the fentanyl used to kill Eric.
Eric Richins’s sister Amy dabbed tears from her eyes as the verdict was read out in court in March
Richins is facing up to life in prison for Eric’s murder. She is also facing a separate trial on a string of financial charges
A first plot to fatally poison Eric unfolded on Valentine’s Day 2022 when Richins laced a sandwich she bought for her husband from a local diner. Eric fell ill and allegedly told friends he feared his wife was trying to poison him.
It was after that failed plot that Richins allegedly requested more powerful fentanyl, asking Lauber for ‘the Michael Jackson stuff.’
Days later, Eric was dead.
Another key moment came when Richins’s lover Robert Josh Grossmann took the stand, breaking down in tears as he revealed a shocking conversation where Richins had asked him what it felt like to kill someone in the military just days after Eric died.
The lovers’ text messages also became central to the case, along with Richins’ explosive internet searches including ‘women Utah prison’, ‘how to delete cell phone data ‘and ‘if someone is poisoned, what goes down on the death certificate as.’
In closing arguments, prosecutors described Richins as a ‘black widow’ who was motivated by money and an affair to murder her husband.
As well as her sentencing for Eric’s murder, Richins is also facing a separate trial on a string of financial charges.
