Kouri Richins, a Utah mom of three, who authored a children's book about grief before she was accused of killing her husband, is now asking a Summit County court to dismiss her charges, alleging that a "fair trial is no longer possible" due to prosecutorial misconduct.
Utah authorities in May charged Richins, 33, with aggravated murder and three counts of drug possession in connection with her 39-year-old husband Eric Richins' fentanyl poisoning death last year.
"[T]he State has violated Ms. Richins’ due process rights by falsely and publicly declaring that she is guilty of ‘witness tampering,'" Richins' attorney Skye Lazaro said in a 52-page motion filed Wednesday. "Making matters worse, the State attempted to support its false narrative by filing inadmissible evidence, including a police report, on the Court’s public docket. The State’s misconduct has resulted in widespread publicity such that a fair trial is no longer possible. Accordingly, dismissal is warranted."
The motion references a letter that police said they had found folded in a book in Richins' jail cell that asks her brother to give false testimony.
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In the letter that prosecutors have titled the "Walk the Dog (WTD) Letter" because of Richins' large script at the top of the letter reminding her mother to "Walk The Dog!!," the suspect writes that her attorney "wants to link getting drugs and pills from Mexico, so we need some kind of connection."
The letter further instructs Richins' brother, Ronald "Ronney" Darden, to testify about Eric's "Mexico trips" to buy "pain pills and fentanyl."
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"Reword this however he needs to, to make the point[.] Just include it all," the letter reads. "The connection has to be made with Mexico and drugs. . . . Upon information and belief LOL."
In a September 15 filing, prosecutors said "no such link exists" between Eric Richins, Mexico and the fentanyl that led to his death. Prosecutors also accused Richins of witness tampering but did not file any formal witness tampering charges against the defendant, nor has she ever been convicted of doing so, according to Lazaro.
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Lazaro is now alleging that the state did not properly file the letter and its corresponding police report explaining how police had obtained the letter from Richins' cell.
Richins' attorney further pushed back against a statement in the police report saying that officers had found Richins' letter "hidden inside a book."
Rather than finding the letter in a book in Richins' cell, Lazaro said, "the State apparently obtained the WTD Letter through a potentially illegal search of Ms. Richins’ documents, which were stored in an envelope titled ‘Skye Lazaro (Attorney Privilege).'" The motion includes a photo of the torn envelope.
Lazaro is accusing the state of violating "ethical standards" and causing irreparable harm to Richins' "right to a fair trial."
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The 33-year-old mother, who was trying to get her real-estate business off the ground at the time of her husband's death, is accused of poisoning her husband's cocktail after she apparently closed a deal on a $2 million mansion under construction in Wasatch County. She wanted to flip the mansion and sell it for a profit, a warrant states, though Eric thought the project would be too expensive.
Prosecutors allege Eric's death was motivated by money.
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Kouri apparently purchased four different life insurance policies on Eric's life totaling more than $1.9 million between 2015 and 2017. On January 1, 2022, months before his murder, Kouri "surreptitiously and without authorization changed the beneficiary for Eric's $2 million life insurance policy to herself," a court document states.
Prior to his death, Eric removed Kouri from his will and made his sister the beneficiary instead, according to investigators.
Eric's family told authorities that he had been in fear for his life after Kouri allegedly had tried to poison him once several years ago in Greece and again on Valentine's Day 2022, when he says she tried to poison his sandwich.
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A day after finding Eric dead in their bed, Kouri allegedly closed a deal on the Wasatch County mansion "alone."
Kouri told investigators the morning of March 4, 2022, that she did not know what had happened to her husband after calling police to report his death, calling the incident "insane," according to a transcript from police-worn body camera footage taken at the scene of Eric's alleged murder.
After Eric's death, Kouri wrote a children's book about death and coping with grief titled, "Are You With Me?" that was listed for $15 on Amazon.
A description for the book on Amazon describes it as "a must-read for any child who has experienced the pain of loss, and for parents who want to provide their children with the emotional support they need to heal and grow."
