Author Of Children’s Grief Book Breaks Into 40-Minute Rant While Sentenced For Husband’s Murder

Kouri Richins, the Utah woman who wrote a children’s book on processing grief after her husband’s death, went on a 40-minute rant as she was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for killing him with fentanyl. 

In March, a jury found the 35-year-old guilty of aggravated murder for lacing her husband Eric Richins’ drink with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl, poisoning him with what’s known as a Moscow Mule cocktail, according to the Associated Press. Jurors also convicted the mother of three on four additional felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery, and attempted murder for giving her husband a fentanyl-laced sandwich on Valentine’s Day. 

Judge Richard Mrazik imposed the maximum sentence, rejecting the possibility of parole.

“A person convicted of those things is simply too dangerous to ever be free,” Mrazik said. 

Eric Richins, 39, was found dead in bed on March 4, 2022, at the couple’s Park City home. An autopsy report determined he died from fentanyl intoxication. The sentencing coincided with what would have been his 44th birthday.

According to the Associated Press, Kouri Richins, a real estate agent who operated a house-flipping business, was millions of dollars in debt and romantically involved with another man. She had taken out multiple life insurance policies on her husband without his knowledge, believing she would inherit more than $4 million after his death.

The victim’s father, Eugene Richins, urged the court to impose the maximum penalty to protect his grandchildren from their mother. 

“This sentence is important so Eric’s three sons never have to live with the fear that the person responsible for taking their father could ever harm them again,” he said during the sentencing hearing, according to the Associated Press. 

Speaking to her young children at the sentencing, Richins broke into a 40-minute rant where she insisted she was innocent while admitting that she is “not perfect.” 

“I know that today you don’t want to speak to me, have a relationship with me,” she said, according to ABC. “You may think you hate me, and that’s okay. I will never be angry at you for your feelings. When the day comes that you’re ready, I will be here for you, waiting for you, and loving you.”

“I have succeeded and I have failed as a person, as a wife, as a parent — we all do,” she added.

Richins’ arrest drew national attention, in part due to the children’s book she published. Released a year after her husband’s death, “Are You With Me?” aimed to help her boys process the loss of their father. The book, which has fewer than two stars in reviews, drew a wave of outraged responses.

“This is horrifying, writing a book about grief to then be the one who murdered your husband? How can you do that to someone?” one social media user said.

“What an absolute psychopath!” another person said.