PARK CITY, Utah — A girl who allegedly spiked her husband’s drink with fentanyl after which wrote a kids’s guide about grief after he died is now accused of secretly taking out virtually $2 million in life insurance coverage insurance policies on him.
The allegations in opposition to Kouri Richins have been raised in an amended court docket doc filed Thursday that led to the postponement of a detention listening to initially scheduled for Friday.
Richins, 33, is charged with aggravated homicide and three counts of possession of a managed substance with intent to distribute following the loss of life of her husband, Eric Richins, final March 4.
He was discovered unresponsive within the bed room of their house in Kamas, about 40 miles southeast of Salt Lake Metropolis, after she made him a Moscow Mule to have fun a enterprise deal. An post-mortem and a toxicology report discovered that he died from a fentanyl overdose, in keeping with a possible trigger assertion.
Prosecutors stated Richins slipped 5 occasions the deadly dose of fentanyl into the cocktail.
A yr after his loss of life, she printed a guide about grief titled “Are You With Me?” to “create peace and luxury for kids who’ve misplaced a liked one,” in keeping with an outline on Amazon. She devoted the guide to “my wonderful husband and a beautiful father.” It has since been faraway from Amazon.
The court docket doc filed Thursday alleged that in September 2020, Eric Richins discovered that his spouse had obtained and spent a $250,000 house fairness line of credit score on their house in Kamas, had withdrawn no less than $100,000 from his financial institution accounts, and spent greater than $30,000 on his bank cards.
Richins can be accused of appropriating distributions made out of her husband’s enterprise “for the aim of constructing federal and state quarterly tax funds and never paying the taxes,” the doc alleged. The stolen tax funds totaled no less than $134,346, it stated.
Eric Richins confronted his spouse in regards to the cash and she or he agreed to pay him again, in keeping with the doc.
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Eric Richins. (Walker Mortuary)
The next month, in October 2020, Eric Richins consulted a divorce lawyer and an property planning lawyer, the doc stated. Unbeknownst to his spouse, he modified his will, shaped a dwelling belief, positioned his property underneath the management of his sister Katie Richins-Benson, and designated the belief because the beneficiary of his $500,000 life insurance coverage coverage, in keeping with the submitting.
It additional alleged that between 2015 and 2017, Richins purchased no less than 4 life insurance coverage insurance policies on her husband totaling virtually $2 million. Eric Richins was unaware that she had bought the insurance policies, the doc stated.
Richins additionally allegedly modified a separate life insurance coverage coverage that her husband needed to record herself because the beneficiary. The coverage had initially listed his enterprise associate because the beneficiary.
Eric Richins was alerted to it and was capable of change it again to his enterprise associate, the submitting stated.
Kouri Richins (KPCW.org through AP)
The doc additionally supplied further particulars on Richins’ alleged makes an attempt to poison her husband with fentanyl drugs she obtained from an acquaintance recognized in court docket paperwork as C.L.
Eric Richins’ household has stated that she tried to poison him a number of occasions.
A type of makes an attempt occurred final Valentine’s Day. In response to the submitting, Richins allegedly made her husband a sandwich and left it on the seat of his truck with a love observe.
“Shortly after consuming the sandwich, Eric Richins broke out in hives and had issue respiration,” it stated. “Eric discovered his son’s EpiPen and administered it to himself and slept.”
Eric Richins believed he had been poisoned and advised a pal that he thought his spouse was making an attempt to poison him, in keeping with the doc. Regardless of his suspicions, he stayed within the marriage due to his kids, his household’s spokesperson stated.
Late final February, Richins allegedly requested C.L. to get stronger fentanyl drugs, the doc stated.
“C.L. initially said that the defendant particularly requested for ‘a few of the Michael Jackson stuff’ throughout this request for fentanyl, however subsequently conceded that the defendant might have made the Michael Jackson reference throughout her first request for fentanyl,” it stated. (The pop celebrity died in 2009 at his Los Angeles house after having acquired a deadly dose of propofol.)
C.L. obtained the drugs for Richins, the doc stated.
A health worker stated that Eric Richins had 5 occasions the deadly dosage of fentanyl in his system when he died and that it was “illicit” fentanyl, not medical-grade. It’s also believed he ingested the medicine orally, in keeping with the assertion.
Days after her husband’s loss of life, Richins allegedly had a locksmith drill into his secure, which contained between $125,000 and $165,000 money, in keeping with Thursday’s submitting. When Eric Richins’ sister recommended that Richins shouldn’t contact the cash, she allegedly turned enraged and punched the lady within the face and neck.
The doc alleges that final March 9 or March 10, after her husband’s loss of life, Richins advised C.L. to go away extra fentanyl drugs in a hearth pit at a house she owned.
Prosecutors stated they wanted extra time to supply discovery associated to the brand new allegations within the doc, in keeping with a movement filed Thursday.
Richins’ attorneys stated they wanted time to evaluation the invention and put together for the listening to.
“The State amended the charging Data and has not turned over discovery but that helps it,” Skye Lazaro, an legal professional for Richins, stated in an emailed assertion. “Subsequently we couldn’t be ready to argue in regards to the sufficiency of the proof.”
The brand new detention listening to is scheduled for June 12.
Alicia Victoria Lozano reported from Park Metropolis, Utah, and Minyvonne Burke from New York Metropolis.
This text was initially printed on NBCNews.com