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Kouri Richins, Utah mother accused of fatally poisoning husband, to stand trial, judge rules
A Utah mother of three who published a children’s book about grief after her husband’s death and was later accused of fatally poisoning him will stand trial, a judge ruled Tuesday.
Utah state Judge Richard Mrazik ruled on the second day of Kouri Richins’ preliminary hearing that prosecutors had presented enough evidence against her to proceed with a jury trial.
Richins faces a slew of felony charges for allegedly killing her husband with a lethal dose of fentanyl in March 2022 at their home in a small mountain town near Park City. Prosecutors say Kouri Richins, 34, slipped five times the lethal dose of the synthetic opioid into a Moscow mule cocktail that Eric Richins, 39, drank.
Richins has been adamant in maintaining she is innocent. She entered pleas of “not guilty” to all 11 counts on Tuesday.
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The second morning of her preliminary hearing centered around an additional attempted murder charge filed in March that accused her of slipping fentanyl into her husband’s favorite sandwich on Valentine’s Day, causing a severe but nonfatal reaction.
Summit County Prosecutor Brad Bloodworth defended the charge by describing how he thinks Richins learned lessons during the first unsuccessful attempt on her husband’s life that helped her carry out the killing 17 days later.
One bite of his favorite sandwich —left with a note in the front seat of his truck on Valentine’s Day— made Eric Richins break out in hives and black out, prosecutors allege. His wife had bought the sandwich from a local diner in the city of Kamas two days after she also purchased fentanyl pills from the family’s housekeeper, according to witness statements and deleted text messages that were recovered by police.
Text messages and location data indicate Kouri Richins may have brought the sandwich home, then left to spend Valentine’s Day with another man with whom she was having an affair, Bloodworth said. A day after Valentine’s Day, she texted her lover, “If he could just go away … life would be so perfect.”
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In written testimony, two friends of Eric Richins recounted phone conversations from the day prosecutors say he was first poisoned by his wife of nine years. After injecting himself with his son’s EpiPen and chugging a bottle of Benadryl, he awoke from a deep sleep and told a friend, “I think my wife tried to poison me,” charging documents allege.
Housekeeper Carmen Lauber told police that Kouri Richins then asked her to procure stronger fentanyl, Detective Jeff O’Driscoll said on the first day of the hearing Monday.
“She learned that putting it in a sandwich, where Eric Richins could take a bite, feel the effects and set the sandwich down, was not the proper way to administer it,” Bloodworth told the judge. “She learned that it takes a truckload” of fentanyl to kill him.
Days later, Kouri Richins called 911 in the middle of the night to report that she had found her husband “cold to the touch” at the foot of their bed, according to the police report. He was pronounced dead, and a medical examiner later found five times the lethal dosage of fentanyl in his system.
In the months before her arrest in May 2023, the Utah mother of three self-published the children’s book “Are You with Me?” about a father with angel wings watching over his young son after passing away.
The book could eventually play a key role for prosecutors in framing Eric Richins’ death as a calculated killing with an elaborate cover-up attempt. The judge scheduled a pretrial conference on Sept. 23 for the prosecution and defense to discuss jury selection. A trial date has not been set.
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Bela Karolyi, the charismatic if polarizing gymnastics coach who turned young women into champions and the United States into an international power, has died. He was 82.
A spokesperson for USA Gymnastics confirmed to CBS News by email that Karolyi died Friday. No cause of death was given.
Karolyi and wife Martha trained multiple Olympic gold medalists and world champions in the U.S. and Romania, including Nadia Comaneci and Mary Lou Retton.
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“A big impact and influence on my life,” Comaneci, who was just 14 when Karolyi coached her to gold for Romania at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, posted on Instagram.
The Karolyis defected to the United States in 1981 and over the next 30-plus years became a guiding force in American gymnastics, though not without controversy. Bela helped guide Retton — all of 16 — to the Olympic all-around title at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles and memorably helped an injured Kerri Strug off the floor at the 1996 Games in Atlanta after Strug’s vault secured the team gold for the Americans.
Karolyi briefly became the national team coordinator for USA Gymnastics women’s elite program in 1999 and incorporated a semi-centralized system that eventually turned the Americans into the sport’s gold standard. It did not come without a cost. He was pushed out after the 2000 Olympics after several athletes spoke out about his tactics.
It would not be the last time Karolyi was accused of grandstanding and pushing his athletes too far physically and mentally.
During the height of the Larry Nassar scandal in the late 2010s — when the disgraced former USA Gymnastics team doctor was effectively given a life sentence after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting gymnasts and other athletes with his hands under the guise of medical treatment — over a dozen former gymnasts came forward saying the Karolyis were part of a system that created an oppressive culture that allowed Nassar’s behavior to run unchecked for years.
Still, some of Karolyi’s most famous students were always among his staunchest defenders. When Strug got married, she and Karolyi took a photo recreating their famous scene from the 1996 Olympics, when he carried her onto the medals podium after she vaulted on a badly sprained ankle.
Despite losing his boxing match to Jake Paul, Mike Tyson in a social media post Saturday said he had “no regrets” to getting “in ring one last time.”
The boxing legend was defeated by social media star Jake Paul in a highly anticipated fight on Friday night with an age difference of over three decades between the two contenders.
Netflix said Saturday that 60 million households worldwide tuned in to watch the match. The two fighters went eight full rounds, with each round two minutes long. Paul defeated Tyson by unanimous decision and the 27-year-old upset boxer and 58-year-old former heavyweight champion hugged afterward.
Paul was expected to earn about $40 million from the fight, and Tyson was expected to take around $20 million for the fight, according to DraftKings and other online reports.
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Tyson said on his social media that “this is one of those situations when you lost but still won. I’m grateful for last night.”
The fight almost didn’t happen after Tyson experienced an ulcer flare-up while on a plane in March. He addressed his illness Saturday, writing that he “almost died in June.” He said he had eight blood transfusions and “lost half my blood and 25lbs in hospital and had to fight to get healthy to fight so I won.”
Tyson retired from boxing in 2005 after a 20-year career. He last fought in a 2020 exhibition match against former four-division world champ Roy Jones Jr.
“To have my children see me stand toe to toe and finish 8 rounds with a talented fighter half my age in front of a packed Dallas Cowboy stadium is an experience that no man has the right to ask for. Thank you,” he said.
Alex Sundby and
contributed to this report.
