Utah children’s book author Kouri Richins pulled incredulous faces as her relatives – including her young sons – begged a judge at her sentencing to keep her locked up for the rest of her life for fatally poisoning husband Eric Richins.
Richins – wearing a neon green jail t-shirt over a grey long sleeve shirt – continued to make astonished and outraged expressions as a handful of Eric’s kin emotionally spoke about how she ruined their lives with her “evil” deeds.
The 35-year-old Kamas mother-of-three also gave skeptical looks and spoke to her lawyers as three social workers read statements from her boys, who were ages 5, 7 and 9 when their father was murdered.
The kids described their devastation at how she took their dad away — and said she mistreated them and killed their household pets even before the murder.
Eric’s sister, Katie Richins-Benson claimed her 39-year-old brother – who would have turned 44 Wednesday – chose to stay with Kouri so that she wouldn’t have the chance in a custody battle to get time alone with the sons.
“He believed Kouri was the most evil person he had ever met,” Richins-Benson told the judge. “He knew her sons did not like her and preferred to be far away from her. He said he could never allow his children to spend half of their time alone with her.”
The comments prompted a dumbfounded look from Kouri.
Another of Eric’s sisters, Amy Richins, said Eric’s murder wreaked such havoc and stress on the family that Amy miscarried twins.
“Because of the unrelenting stress.. I suffered a traumatic miscarriage of twins. We lost our children, we lost the future we were building,” Amy said.
And three social workers read statements written by Kouri’s three young sons who all asked the judge to ensure their mother would never be allowed to be free again.
The sons claimed Kouri was neglectful of their household pets, refusing to allow a cat into their garage causing it to be mauled to death. They said she failed to feed their chickens causing them to die and even once hit their dog over the head “as hard as” she could.
She also threatened to kill their pet lizard because they didn’t want to watch TV with her, one son claimed.
One of the boys said Kouri was “drunk almost daily” and claimed would lock him in his bedroom.
He said his oldest brother “mostly took care of me because I was locked in my room.”
The same child said he believed he may have been drugged the night of his dad’s death because he woke up “shaking” and “couldn’t talk for a while.”
He claimed that when they were at the hospital, Kouri “resisted” having his blood drawn.
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The boys said they would only feel safe if Kouri was behind bars until her death.
“I want her to go to prison forever,” one of the boys said.
Richins was convicted of aggravated murder for the March 4, 2022 slaying and faces 25 years to life in prison or life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Kouri – a failed home flipper – killed Eric by dosing his Moscow Mule cocktail with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl believing she would inherit his $4 million estate – to help her clear her business debt and so she could run away with her handyman lover.
She also allegedly tried, unsuccessfully, two weeks prior to kill Eric by putting the same drug in his sandwich.
