00:00:06
My sweet baby boys. I know that today you don't want to speak to me, have a relationship with
00:00:13
me, or you may think you hate me, and that's okay. I will never be angry at you for your
00:00:18
feelings. >> That was Kouri Richins addressing her children on May 13th at a sentencing
00:00:25
hearing. It was the first time any of us heard from Richins since the Utah mother
00:00:30
of three was found guilty of aggravated murder in her husband Eric Richins' 2022
00:00:36
fentanyl overdose death. She was also found guilty of four other charges including attempted aggravated murder,
00:00:44
two counts of insurance fraud, and forgery. >> And now I will use any opportunity I can
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to get a message to you. Even if that means sharing it publicly to the world, fully restrained in my
00:00:57
jail clothes, in one of the most horrible situations possible. >> She was sentenced to life in prison
00:01:03
without parole. Welcome to the season finale of Post Mortem. I'm your host 48 Hours
00:01:09
correspondent Anne-Marie Green, and joining me today is 48 Hours correspondent Natalie Morales to discuss
00:01:15
the dramatic conclusion of a case that has certainly gripped the nation. Natalie, welcome.
00:01:21
>> Thank you, Anne-Marie, for having me again, and boy, is this explosive, this sentencing hearing. Um, we not only
00:01:29
heard statements from Kouri for the first time, but also from Eric's sisters, also from Eric and Kouri's
00:01:36
children in a statement, which you'll hear as read by their counselors. Now, this is a case, as you know, it's been
00:01:43
getting a lot of media attention. We've reported on it extensively as well. We're going to break it all down for you
00:01:49
today. >> All right, so we are going to get into this, but first, a reminder, as usual,
00:01:53
everyone, if you haven't watched or listened to this episode, it is called Cory Richens behind the facade. Go check
00:02:00
it out now and then come on back for this conversation. And so, as you sort of point out, Natalie, a lot of people
00:02:08
had been following this case, but it has gone on for quite a while. So, why don't you give us a bit of a
00:02:14
recap? >> Well, let's go back to March of 2022 and, you know, Cory Richens at the time
00:02:19
was 31 years old, Eric 39 years old. They seemed to have it all by outward appearances. They seemed to be in a good
00:02:26
marriage. They had three young sons, but it was in the early morning hours of March 4th, 2022 that Cory called 911 and
00:02:35
she called and told the first responders that she had fallen asleep with one of the kids when she put him to bed. And
00:02:41
then when she woke up, she went back to her bedroom and she found Eric cold to the touch and not breathing. So, when
00:02:50
the first responders arrived, they tried to save Eric, but it was already too late. Now, initially authorities thought
00:02:57
that Eric may have died from an accidental drug overdose, but as investigators dug deeper, they suspected
00:03:05
that Cory poisoned Eric for financial gain. >> So, I think part of the reason why this
00:03:11
case caught so many people's attention is because Richens notoriously published a children's book about grief. This is
00:03:20
following her husband's death before being charged with murder along with the insurance fraud charges and the forgery
00:03:28
charges. But then in February of 2026, nearly 4 years after Eric's death, the trial
00:03:34
finally begins in Utah in a courthouse there. What was the prosecution's case? >> The prosecution alleged that Cory
00:03:43
poisoned Eric with fentanyl that was served to him either in a Moscow mule cocktail or a lemon drop shot after
00:03:52
apparently previously attempting to poison him via a breakfast sandwich. This was on Valentine's Day, which was 2
00:03:59
weeks earlier. The prosecution painted Kouri as a killer who was set on taking her husband's money because she was
00:04:07
deeply in debt with her house flipping business. And they pointed to the evidence that she was also the
00:04:12
beneficiary of multiple life insurance policies on her husband and forged a policy as well. Now, the prosecution
00:04:19
said that Eric Richens was considering divorcing his wife when he was killed and that they had argued over this
00:04:27
purchase of this multi-million dollar mansion that she was trying to flip for her real estate business. The
00:04:34
prosecution also said that Kouri was having an affair and her former paramour, Robert Joshy, I think he goes
00:04:41
by Josh more commonly, Grossman, he actually testified to their relationship and the affair that they had during the
00:04:49
trial. And the prosecution presented evidence that about 3 months before Eric's death, Kouri had even gone so far
00:04:57
as to book a Caribbean vacation for herself and for Grossman. Although, it turns out they never ended up going on
00:05:03
the trip cuz they broke up apparently after Eric died. >> Huh. Okay, so then a lot of motive there.
00:05:11
What about the defense? What did the defense argue? >> So, the defense said Eric was dependent
00:05:16
on drugs to deal with his chronic pain and he had back issues apparently. And they maintained that he most likely died
00:05:24
from an accidental overdose. Now, Kouri's attorney said that Eric might have actually gotten the fentanyl
00:05:29
himself when he had traveled to Mexico just a few weeks before he died. The defense also implied that he might have
00:05:36
taken a marijuana gummy that he didn't know was laced with fentanyl. And it was really interesting and I think kind of
00:05:44
shocking to the jurors and you're going to hear from them in just a little bit. The defense made the decision not to
00:05:50
call any witnesses and Corey did not testify during the trial. Why did the defense think that this was the best
00:05:58
approach? Many defense attorneys would advise their clients against testifying on their own behalf because it just
00:06:06
opens themselves up to then being cross-examined and harshly generally cross-examined by the prosecution. And
00:06:13
you know, in fact, I asked Sky Lazarro, who was Corey's original defense attorney, about that. She made the point
00:06:20
that if the defense also had called witnesses, the state then would have the opportunity to rebut the witnesses and
00:06:28
it's not the defense that has the burden of proof here. It is the prosecution. And Sky pointed out that the defense
00:06:37
likely thought they were in a strong position. In fact, um Greg Hall, who is Corey's really good
00:06:44
friend and has been her supporter through all of this. He was there during a lot of the trial. Greg said that when
00:06:50
the case wrapped, that the defense felt and Corey in particular felt really strong about their position. They felt
00:06:59
like they were winning. >> Well, I mean, their their senses were off because the jury deliberated for
00:07:05
about 3 hours before returning the verdict, right? They found her guilty on all five counts including aggravated
00:07:12
murder, attempted murder and two counts of insurance fraud and forgery. One of the things that is new in this episode
00:07:19
is 48 Hours actually interviewed two of the jurors from the trial, Laura and Eric and they requested that we only use
00:07:28
their first names. But they gave us some insight into, you know, what the jury was considering, how they deliberated.
00:07:36
What did they have to say? >> They both said, um Eric and Laura, that the minute the trial ended and they
00:07:43
walked back into the deliberation room, they felt completely convinced of Kouri's guilt, but they didn't know how
00:07:50
the others felt yet, and Laura was the foreperson on the case. Um, but she said she could just see that everybody was
00:07:57
bursting at the seams to talk. They shared what they thought about the witnesses, the strengths, the
00:08:03
weaknesses. Um, but when they did take that vote, Laura said it was quick. I mean,
00:08:09
deliberating for just 3 hours, it was pretty short, especially when you consider this is a murder charge and all
00:08:15
these other charges as well. Um, what evidence was the most convincing for them? So, the juror Eric felt there were
00:08:22
some inconsistencies with Kouri's story and with what was actually presented as evidence. They pointed to her behavior
00:08:30
right in the aftermath after discovering her husband was cold to the touch. They
00:08:35
first talk about that 911 call, as well as the video that came from the responding officer's body cam, and they
00:08:46
said it didn't seem like Kouri was trying very hard to resuscitate him. Now, you can contrast that with these
00:08:54
text messages that Kouri exchanged with a friend, where Kouri said that she was screaming, she was beating on Eric's
00:09:02
chest, trying to get him to come back to life. They were also looking on the body
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cam footage of the responding officers to see how Kouri was acting in those moments, and Kouri
00:09:14
is hiding her face a couple of times behind her hands. Like, you don't see tears.
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Laura, the juror, said, "It's difficult to judge how someone grieves or how somebody acts in a traumatic situation."
00:09:27
But, again, what was most impactful to Laura was the time that it took for Kouri, apparently, to start the CPR. So,
00:09:36
the prosecution in its closing arguments actually had a stopwatch to show that it
00:09:41
was approximately 6 minutes between when the 911 operator told Kouri to start and
00:09:48
when it appears that Kouri on the other side of that call actually says she started.
00:09:54
>> Wow. >> And the most convincing piece of that evidence came from the digital download
00:09:59
expert who was able to analyze the phone data and determined that Kouri did not put her phone on speakerphone, that she
00:10:08
was still holding it up to her ear when she said she was doing CPR, which again should be done with both hands,
00:10:14
suggesting she wasn't actually doing it or she was doing it one-handed, so not really giving it the full effort. Then
00:10:20
beyond that, you know, Kouri's money trouble really was the biggest motivating factor that they saw. That
00:10:26
was the main motive that that convinced [music] them that Kouri was responsible for Eric's murder.
00:10:37
>> So then, 2 months after her conviction on what would have been Eric's 44th birthday, Kouri Richins is back in court
00:10:45
for sentencing. She's now convicted, she's in shackles, she's wearing a prison uniform.
00:10:51
This sentencing hearing lasts nearly 5 hours. The judge allowed a lot of statements into the record, including
00:11:01
Kouri's three children, who are still quite young, 9, 11, and 13. They have prepared written statements that are
00:11:08
read by counselors. >> Right. And again, this is the first time that we're hearing from these three
00:11:16
boys. Um, the first time that they're expressing their feelings publicly. Uh, I want to play a few portions from that
00:11:23
court hearing. Now, the first statement was written by the youngest of the boys,
00:11:28
Weston. His counselor read his statement. >> I feel a lot better about myself now
00:11:34
than I did [clears throat] with Kouri. I can't ever see my dad again. I want her to go to prison forever.
00:11:42
If she got out, I would be so scared, really mad, and I wouldn't want to go with her anywhere.
00:11:48
>> I mean, it is heartbreaking. All of the three boys expressed feeling safer with
00:11:54
Kouri being locked up. The oldest explicitly asked the judge to give her that life sentence.
00:12:01
>> So, it gives you a a sense of you know, what what has been lost in this relationship with her children.
00:12:09
>> So, Ashton is Kouri Richins' middle child who accused Kouri of not caring for him or his brothers, but he also
00:12:18
accuses Kouri of harming the pets. He referred to his brothers in the statement just by their initials. Let's
00:12:25
listen to some portions of his statement read out loud by his counselor. >> You took away my dad for no reason other
00:12:31
than greed, and you only cared about yourself and your stupid boyfriends. You were not caring and watching over me
00:12:39
and my brothers. I had to be a parent to W. C and I would walk him to the bus stop,
00:12:47
feed him, and watch him. You wouldn't let our dog outside, and then the dog would pee inside. You created this
00:12:54
problem, then you would smack my dog on the head as hard as you could. You wouldn't let
00:13:00
me put my kitten in the garage for safety at night, and we found it eaten by raccoons the next day. You
00:13:08
wouldn't let us turn on and use the heater lamp for the chickens and bunnies, and they froze to
00:13:14
death. >> This is kind of all new information, right? This wasn't Was this sort of
00:13:20
stuff brought up at the trial? >> Nothing Nothing of this was brought up at the trial. What came into question
00:13:25
was how she was as a wife. >> Mhm. >> Not as how she was as a mother. >> These two children would have been quite
00:13:34
young at the time when they were living with her. Um Carter is the eldest son. And Carter
00:13:41
says that Kouri was often drunk, that uh that she would lock him in his room. Um
00:13:47
here's another counselor reading his statement. >> I felt like I had to take care of my
00:13:52
siblings. Ash mostly took care of me though because I was locked in my room. Ash would bring me food. Kouri would
00:14:00
lock me up if I told her she was drunk. This happened pretty much daily. I feel angry that she locked me in my room.
00:14:06
>> We should point out that about these statements, yeah, they're not calling her mom. They're
00:14:12
calling her Kouri. But we don't know if prompts were given to the children to get those kinds of statements or what
00:14:20
kinds of questions they were even asked by their counselors. >> Um the court also heard from Katie, that
00:14:26
is Eric's sister. Want to play some of that sound. >> There is no question that this case is
00:14:32
famous and that Kouri is now famous. But what Kouri never mentions in talking about her fame and notoriety are the
00:14:39
reasons why this case is now famous. >> [snorts] >> It is famous for how appalling and
00:14:46
sickening it is. It is famous because a mother meticulously planned to kill her husband, killed him while their children
00:14:53
were sleeping in the next room, and then had the audacity to hold herself out as
00:14:58
the author of a children's book about grief and loss. It is famous because she spent time
00:15:04
Googling luxury prisons for the rich in America. It is famous because from her jail cell, she scripted a bunch of phony
00:15:11
testimony so that her brother could perpetrate a fraud on the court. >> No love lost there.
00:15:18
>> Absolutely not. I I she's not just angry about the loss of her brother, but she clearly is disgusted by
00:15:28
Kouri Richins like that and her character, the type of character she thinks she is.
00:15:32
Eric has another sister, her name is Amy. She also spoke. >> I didn't just lose my brother.
00:15:40
I lost my sister-in-law. I lost someone I considered my friend. We had good times together.
00:15:51
That loss is so complicated now, your honor. Because it forces you to grieve someone
00:15:57
who is still alive while facing the horror of what they have done. It is grief that doesn't resolve.
00:16:05
It just sits there heavy every day. >> [snorts] >> This crime has fractured our family in
00:16:11
ways outsiders cannot understand. Kouri did not just kill Eric. She attempted to kill the spirit of everyone
00:16:18
who loved him. She lied to his children. She lied to the world and has shown no remorse while dancing on his grave for
00:16:27
profit. >> Mhm. >> Amy, I think is a little more retrospective and looking back on
00:16:34
the relationship that she had with Kouri and talking about that loss. Interesting
00:16:39
to hear her say, "I didn't just lose my brother, I lost my sister-in-law. I lost
00:16:43
someone I considered my friend." Um there were other people who spoke though on behalf of Kouri, like her friend Greg
00:16:51
who described her as a loving mother who always went out of her way to help other
00:16:56
people who were in need. And then her brother Ronnie said this and as Ronnie was speaking, Kouri was crying.
00:17:03
>> We don't with 100% certainty know what happened to Eric. No one does, but we do know with 100%
00:17:08
certainty >> [snorts] >> that it wasn't caused by you. We know that. The police know it, the
00:17:13
prosecution knows it, and everyone watching this trial knows it. >> [snorts] >> They cannot prove their theory, just the
00:17:19
opposite, and yet here we are. For some reason, unbeknownst to us, really bad things happen to really good
00:17:24
people. Kouri, you were just really too good of a person, I guess. >> Very stark contrast to the other
00:17:30
statements that we heard. >> Yeah. Yeah, I mean, one side paints her as just so heartless and so evil and so
00:17:39
greedy, and here you have, you know, the other side is like, "No, she was an incredible mother and an incredible
00:17:45
friend and an incredible sibling." >> Right, the too good of a person. Um you know, we did speak with Ronnie when we
00:17:51
first reported on this case on 48 Hours, and he clearly believes in her innocence, and the same goes for
00:17:59
Greg Hall, who I interviewed once again for this most recent hour. And they they all feel that the jury
00:18:06
missed the opportunity to get to know her. And you know, I mentioned that Kouri had been crying when she was
00:18:13
listening to her one brother there, but she had a lot of facial expressions during the sentencing hearing. She
00:18:18
looked surprised, she looked incredulous. She wasn't stone-faced, let's put it that way.
00:18:23
>> No, certainly not. I mean, the one thing that you you could say about Kouri, she was very expressive.
00:18:30
She at one point appeared to be smirking, she rolled her eyes, it seemed, when Katie was speaking, Eric's
00:18:36
sister. People look at that, and and they will make judgments based on that. Of course, she's already been judged by
00:18:43
the jury, they've already found her guilty, but now it's her sentencing hearing.
00:18:47
>> And then, of course, we heard from Kouri Richins herself, and she spoke for about
00:18:51
30 minutes in a statement that was sort of a letter for her sons. She expressed,
00:18:59
you know, regret for some of her behavior, but notably, she maintained her innocence, even apologizing to her
00:19:05
sons for how the case unfolded. I'm going to play a clip of that. >> I'm sorry. >> [snorts]
00:19:13
>> The eight people from a jury who have never met you or me or our family had the right to determine our future.
00:19:26
And they did that in less than 3 hours. >> [snorts] >> In a perfect world, there might be
00:19:34
justice. But in a perfect world, nothing ever goes wrong. Tragedies don't happen.
00:19:44
>> [snorts] >> Some think the verdict or the sentencing will be the answer that they seek or
00:19:57
that they need, but it won't. It will only give them something else to think about for a while.
00:20:05
It may help to disperse some of their hurt or their resentment, >> [snorts] >> but it won't relieve it.
00:20:14
This grief will outlive us all. >> And what's so interesting of you know, what she said there in my
00:20:22
opinion is she says, "I'm so sorry for the jury's decision. I'm so sorry the jury found me
00:20:29
guilty." She said that her sons have the right to be angry, of course, sad and confused
00:20:35
and that quote, "One day when this is all over, we can sit down and talk about all of this and sort it out." And she
00:20:42
ended by saying she will continue to call her boys every day even if her calls are blocked and that she loves
00:20:48
them forever because you know, Kouri has not had any real contact with the boys in all of these years since she was you
00:20:57
know, awaiting trial. So, the judge is taking all of this in. And the judge sort of openly debates whether or not to
00:21:02
sentence Kouri Richins to 25 years to life or life without parole. Uh he weighs the impact of the sentence
00:21:11
on her three sons and really expresses a desire that everyone impacted by Eric's
00:21:17
death find their way to a state of peace. Ultimately, the judge sentences Kouri Richins to life without the possibility
00:21:27
of parole. Natalie, is this the last we will hear from Kouri Richins? >> Probably not. Um according to her team,
00:21:37
Kouri plans to appeal the verdict, so this is going to keep going. Um you know, but
00:21:44
for the boys, I think, and for Eric's family, they feel that it's over. >> Mhm. >> And they want it to be done with.
00:21:51
>> Mhm. And and I mean, do we have any idea how her sons are doing today? >> Well, we know that they're living with
00:21:58
with Katie, that's Eric's sister, and her husband, Clint. They've really tried to keep them
00:22:06
away from all of this attention. You know, now they've lost both parents um and extended family as well. So, um the
00:22:15
ripple effects of something like this will continue. And and [music] unfortunately,
00:22:21
you know, it's the children who really pay the greatest price. >> Absolutely. Um well, Natalie, thank you so much for
00:22:29
joining me today for Postmortem. >> Good to talk about this with you again, Anne Marie.
00:22:33
>> If you liked this episode, please rate and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.