An illicit affair with a handyman and an alleged plot to secure a multi-million-dollar windfall lie at the heart of a trial currently unfolding high in the Utah mountains.
Kouri Richins, a 35-year-old former realtor and mom-of-three, is on trial accused of murdering her husband Eric in March 2022 by poisoning him with a fentanyl-laced Moscow Mule cocktail – before playing the heartbroken widow and publishing a children’s book about grief.
According to prosecutors, it was a plan allegedly driven by Richins’s desire to start a new life with her wealthy husband’s $4 million estate and her new lover.
Now, in an explosive moment on day six of Richins’s murder trial, new secrets were spilled about the state of the couple’s marriage – with Eric’s own alleged infidelity revealed for the first time.
In 2019 – three years before his sudden overdose death – the 39-year-old stonemason allegedly had an affair with a woman at work, jurors heard.
The revelation came during the testimony of Allison Wright, a friend of the Richins who took the stand inside Summit County Courthouse in Park City on Monday.
Wright had known Eric since high school and is married to Cody Wright, Eric’s business partner at C&E Stonemasonry. She too worked an admin job at the company.
The couples were close and would regularly go on vacation together. During one such trip to Costa Rica in February 2019, Wright testified about a moment when Richins confided in her about the state of her marriage when the two women were alone.
Once a mom-of-three living a seemingly idyllic life in Kamas, Utah, Kouri Richins is now accused of plotting to kill her husband over mounting debts, allegedly planning to use his life insurance payout to fund her lifestyle and house-flipping business
Richins and Eric were building an enormous $2 million mansion on 10 acres of land at the time of his death
It was a conversation that ‘stood out to her,’ she said.
‘Kouri opened up and shared that things were difficult at home,’ Wright testified.
Richins, she recalled, told her she felt ‘trapped’ in her marriage, specifically because of a prenuptial agreement they had entered into when they married.
Under the prenup, Richins had no rights to Eric’s stonemasonry business in the event of their divorce. In the event of his death, however, she would.
Richins was ‘frustrated in the relationship’ but also felt ‘it would be difficult to leave’ because of how her financial situation would change, Wright testified.
‘Eric would end up financially secure and for her, it would be the opposite,’ Richins allegedly told her.
Richins feared that her lack of finances would also impact her relationship with the couple’s children – that their three sons would prefer the more wealthy lifestyle their father could offer.
Prosecutors allege that Richins killed her husband, in part, for money.
At the time of Eric’s death, Richins was around $4.5 million in debt to more than 20 different lenders due to her flailing real estate endeavors.
Eric’s estate, meanwhile, was worth around $4 million, through his successful stonemasonry business and his life insurance policies.
In an explosive moment on day six of Richins’s murder trial, new secrets were spilled about the state of the couple’s marriage – with Eric’s own alleged infidelity revealed for the very first time
Kouri Richins inside Summit County Courthouse on Monday March 2, where she is on trial for her husband’s murder
Prosecutors allege that Richins took out one of the policies on her husband in the weeks leading up to his alleged murder.
Wright’s testimony appeared to rattle Richins and her defense team, who sought unsuccessfully to have it excluded from the trial.
Dressed in a cream knitted sweater and black pants, with her brunette hair scraped back into a neat bun, Richins looked every inch the soccer mom she once was – if it not for the chunky metal ankle shackles peeking above her cream heeled court shoes.
The revelation came during the testimony of Allison Wright, a friend of the Richins, who took the stand inside Summit County Courthouse in Park City, Utah, on Monday morning
Sitting next to her lead attorney Kathy Nester, Richins showed little emotion during the day’s proceedings.
But when Wright took the stand, she grew more animated, staring intently at her, pursing her lips and whispering to her defense attorneys.
The defense objected to the testimony, leading to the jury being excused for a brief shadow testimony, before Wright was also excused, and the two sides sparred over its relevance.
When the judge overruled the objection, Richins turned to her defense team and pulled a face.
When cross-examination then got underway, the defense then revealed details of Eric’s alleged affair for the first time.
Nester put it to Wright that Richins was only unhappy in her marriage in 2019 because at that time she believed Eric was having an affair.
Wright said she was not aware of any affair but admitted ‘there was a friendship with a lady but I don’t know exactly what was going on.’
Three shocking GIFs found on Richins’s cell phone including a Trump meme with the slogan ‘I’m rich’, a person wiping their nose on money, and a meme that reads: ‘Idiots. Idiots everywhere’
The memes were found on Richins’s device at around 8.30am on March 4, 2022 – around five hours after Eric died
Meanwhile, at the time of Eric’s death, Richins was having an affair with handyman Robert Josh Grossmann and they had planned a luxury Caribbean getaway for April 2022.
The affair ended months after Eric’s death that March and Grossmann has since fallen off grid, with prosecutors efforts to locate him to testify at her trial coming up short.
However, new cell phone data presented in court on Monday revealed that Richins had wiped her communications with Grossmann from her phone before law enforcement could seize it.
Among the data recovered from Richins’s phone was several internet searches for how to delete cell phone data, and for Utah prisons including ‘can deleted text messages be retrieved’ and ‘luxury prisons for the rich in america.’
Romantic messages between Richins and Grossman were also shown in court as well as three shocking GIFs found on Richins’s cell phone including a Trump meme with the slogan ‘I’m rich’, a person wiping their nose on money, and a meme that reads: ‘Idiots. Idiots everywhere.’
The memes were downloaded to Richins’s device at around 8.30am on March 4, 2022 – around five hours after Eric died. It’s unclear if she sent or received them.
Richins tried to wipe her phone. But several internet searches were recovered including for how to delete cell phone data, and for Utah prisons including ‘can deleted text messages be retrieved’ and ‘luxury prisons for the rich in america’
Eric was found dead from a fentanyl overdose in the couple’s bedroom of their Kamas home on March 4, 2022.
An autopsy found he had more than five times the lethal limit in his system. Last week, Richins’ housekeeper testified that she gave Richins the fentanyl that was used to kill Eric.
For more than a year, Richins was seen as a grieving widow, even authoring a children’s book, titled Are You With Me?, about dealing with grief.
The mom-of-three appeared on local TV to promote the book in April 2023, describing how she had wanted to find a way to help the couple’s three young sons cope with the sudden loss of their father.
But, according to prosecutors, it was all an act.
Just one month after that heartfelt media appearance, Richins was arrested and charged with five felonies: aggravated murder, aggravated attempted murder, two counts of insurance fraud and forgery. If convicted, she faces life in prison.
Richins denies the allegations and has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
In the defense opening statement, Richins’s defense presented its case that Eric himself may have bought the lethal fentanyl during a trip to Mexico two weeks prior to his death.
Prosecutors have been unable to track down Richins’s lover Josh Grossmann (pictured right in a 2024 mugshot)
Shortly after her husband’s death, the mother of three self-published a children’s book titled ‘Are You with Me?’
They also argued that Eric’s Mormon family wanted the widow to take the blame for his death because they could not accept the possibility that he willingly took illegal drugs.
Eric’s family and friends have been present for every day of the trial, filling the back row of the courtroom on Monday.
The family remains locked in a civil case with Richins over Eric’s estate, which Eric’s sister Katie Richins-Benson was given power of attorney over.
Richins is also facing charges in a separate financial case.
