Utah pain ‘killer’ author who allegedly poisoned her husband with a fentanyl-laced cocktail first tried to kill him with a poisoned sandwich a month earlier, court documents claim.
Kouri Richins, 33, of Kama in Utah, has been accused of poisoning her husband, Eric Richins, 39, by delivering a Moscow mule laced with fentanyl to him on March 3, 2022.
New documents filed Monday claimed it was not Kouri’s first attempt to try to kill her late husband.
Prosecutors have alleged that a sandwich she bought him on Valentine’s Day was left with a note in the front seat of his truck.
He purchased the sandwich at a local restaurant in town, and later that week, witnesses said he purchased several dozen fentanyl pills.
Two of Eric’s friends said they remembered him calling them later that day, after eating the sandwich, and saying, “I think my wife tried to kill me,” according to witness testimony.
Kouri Richins, 33, allegedly first tried to kill her late husband, Eric Richins, 39, with a poisoned sandwich a month earlier, court documents revealed.
Kouri, from Kama in Utah, has been accused of poisoning Eric by delivering a Moscow mule laced with fentanyl on March 3, 2022.
The legal documents said that before making that phone call, Eric rushed to inject his son’s EpiPen and drank a bottle of Benadryl after reacting to the drugs.
When he woke up from a deep sleep, he called his friends and told them he thought he was going to die and that it was his wife’s fault, according to the documents.
A housekeeper, who is also the state’s star witness, told police she had sold drugs to Kouri just a couple of days before the alleged first poisoning attempt.
According to the latest documents, Kouri allegedly told the housekeeper that he needed stronger medication because the pills he was initially given were not strong enough.
A month after that attempt, Kouri called 911 and reported finding Eric “cold to the touch” at the foot of his bed, according to the police report.
Medical examiners later discovered that her husband had five times the lethal dose of fentanyl in his system.
Summit County Chief Prosecutor Patricia Cassell has alleged that Kouri slipped the obscene amount of drugs into Eric’s cocktail that night, even though the wife’s family said his death was accidental.
Kouri’s brother, Erica, said that “Eric loved to party, he loved to have a good time.”
“The simplest answer is usually the correct one; it was most likely an accidental overdose.”
‘One or two pills may be accidental. Twenty (or five times the lethal dose) is not accidental. “It’s someone who wants to kill Eric,” Cassell said.
A day after her death, search warrant affidavits show Kouri signed the closing documents on the couple’s $2 million estate and invited friends to a party where she was drinking and celebrating.
Shortly after her husband’s death, the mother of three published a children’s book titled ‘Are You With Me?’ about a deceased father dressed in angel wings who takes care of his children.
Two of Eric’s friends said they remembered him calling them that same day, after eating the sandwich, and saying ‘I think my wife tried to kill me,’ according to witness testimony.
Richins and her husband had been discussing their plans to buy and remodel a 10-acre home worth $2 million, pictured, in the days before he was found dead.
Investigators have uncovered evidence that suggests Richins’ mother, Lisa Darden, 64, (pictured) may have played a role in Eric Richins’ death.
He promoted it on television and radio, describing the book as a way to help children grieve the loss of a loved one.
She said in an interview that she was motivated to write the book after searching Amazon and Barnes and Noble and finding “nothing” to help them “cope.”
Richins and her husband had previously been arguing about their plans to buy and remodel a 10-acre home worth $2 million in the days before he was found dead in his Utah home last March, according to court documents.
Prosecutors say Eric discovered his wife had taken out a $250,000 home equity line of credit and spent it, withdrawing $100,000 from her bank accounts and spending more than $30,000 on her credit cards.
Kouri Richins also stole about $134,000 from her husband’s business intended for tax payments, according to the documents.
Documents indicate she agreed to pay her husband back when he confronted her about the missing money.
Prosecutors alleged that Kouri purchased four different life insurance policies, totaling more than $1.9 million between 2015 and 2017.
In the new legal documents, it was revealed that Kouri had a negative bank balance, owed lenders more than $1.8 million, and was being sued by a creditor.
She was charged with two new counts of mortgage fraud and insurance fraud for allegedly falsifying loan applications and fraudulently claiming insurance benefits after Eric’s death.
The same night Eric died, she and Kouri’s mother, Lisa Darden, were celebrating the mansion’s recent closing. Kouri owned a real estate company and her husband owned a successful masonry business.
Utah police recently discovered that Darden may have been involved in orchestrating her son-in-law’s death with Kouri.
Investigators believe the wife, who has since been charged with aggravated murder and drug possession, got the idea to poison Eric from his mother.
In May 2023, a Summit County Sheriff’s Office detective filed a search warrant affidavit based on suspicion that Darden, 64, was “involved in planning and orchestrating Eric’s death” , based on his previous involvement in a mysterious death in 2006.
“While investigating associates of Kouri Richins, it was discovered that in 2006, Richins’ mother, Lisa Darden, was living with an adult woman with whom she was in a romantic relationship,” the detective wrote in the affidavit.
Shortly after her husband’s death, the mother of three self-published a children’s book titled ‘Are You With Me?’ about a deceased father with angel wings who takes care of his children
Kouri has been charged with aggravated murder and drug possession and after new legal documents were released Monday, she was hit with two new charges of mortgage fraud and insurance fraud for allegedly falsifying loan applications and fraudulently claiming insurance benefits.
“In April of that year, his romantic partner died unexpectedly.”
The partner was Gertrude Lee Moore, who died at the age of 49 “suddenly” on April 30, 2006. At Moore’s obituaryDarden was described as “her best friend.”
An autopsy revealed that Moore’s “immediate cause of death was intoxication from an oxycodone overdose.” Fox News reported.
“Further investigation showed that Lisa Darden had been named the beneficiary of her partner’s estate shortly before his death,” the detective continued.
‘The woman had current prescriptions for oxycodone and reportedly had trouble abusing her medications. She, however, was not in a state of recovery from addiction at the time of her death.’
Skye Lazaro, the attorney representing Kouri, denied the detective’s suggestion and said Darden’s partner was a victim of the national opioid crisis.
‘Summit County is well aware that opioid addiction and fentanyl overdoses are a rampant problem nationwide. According to the CDC, 150 people die every day from overdoses related to synthetic opioids like fentanyl,” Lázaro said in statements to Fox.
No charges have been filed against Darden.
Before his death in March 2022, Eric had changed his will to make his sister the sole beneficiary of his life insurance policy and was even considering divorcing Kouri, according to his family.
Family lawyer and spokesperson Greg Skordas previously told DailyMail.com that Eric feared Kouri was trying to kill him after two separate cases in which he became violently ill after drinking or eating with his wife.
His family has insisted that Kouri is responsible for his sudden death.