Her husband’s alleged fentanyl poisoning by a Utah mother and his arrest

Court documents reveal secret life insurance policies, stolen money, a contentious court battle and the hiring of a private investigator to investigate the death of a Utah man whose wife killed him. allegedly poisoned with an enriched drink.

The wife, Kouri Richins, was arrested and charged with killing Eric Richins last year during a quiet celebration at their home in Kamas, Utah, about 40 miles southeast of Salt Lake City, after closed a home for his business, authorities said.

A medical examiner said he had five times the lethal dose of fentanyl in his system at the time of his death on March 4, 2022.

Eric Richins had suspected his wife tried to poison him on several occasions and warned his family that she was to blame if anything happened to him, according to affidavits for search warrants obtained from the County Sheriff’s Office. Summit. A family spokesperson said he stayed in the marriage because of their three children.

As Richins prepares for a detention hearing next month, here are some key dates from the inquest.

Between 2015 and 2017

Richins is accused of buying at least four life insurance policies on her husband totaling nearly $2 million, according to an amended court document filed May 18 that led to the postponement of a detention hearing originally scheduled for May 19. Eric Richins was unaware of the policies, the document says.

September 2020

Eric Richins discovered that his wife allegedly obtained and spent a $250,000 home equity line of credit on their home in Kamas, withdrew at least $100,000 from her bank accounts and spent more than $30,000 using her cards of credit, according to the amended court document. He also alleged that Richins was “appropriating distributions from Eric Richins’ business for the purpose of making quarterly federal and state tax payments and not paying taxes.” The stolen tax payments totaled at least $134,346, according to the file.

He confronted her about the money and she agreed to pay him back, the court document says.

October 2020

Eric Richins consulted with both a divorce attorney and an estate planning attorney. Unbeknownst to his wife, he changed his will, formed a living trust and placed his estate under the control of his sister, Katie Richins-Benson, according to the amended court document.

He also transferred his interest in his business to the trust and named the trust as the beneficiary of his $500,000 life insurance policy, the document says.

January 1, 2022

Eric Richins and his business partner had $2 million life insurance policies that listed them as beneficiaries, but prosecutors alleged that on Jan. 1, 2022, Richins amended the policy to list them as beneficiaries, according to the amended court document.

Her husband was alerted to the change and handed over his business partner as beneficiary, the document said.

Later that month, she reportedly “filed a claim for a new $100,000 life insurance policy on the life of Eric Richins,” according to the document.

February 12, 2022

In early 2022, Richins called or texted an acquaintance named CL and asked for fentanyl, the document says. Richins’ phone data showed she contacted CL several times in January 2022, but authorities were unable to determine the content of the messages because she allegedly deleted data from her phone from January 2, 2022. shortly after Eric Richins’ death.

CL told authorities she obtained the fentanyl pills and gave them to Richins in a hand-to-hand transaction on Feb. 11 or 12, 2022, according to the document.

February 14, 2022

A Valentine’s Day meal turned into a nightmare when Eric Richins “erupted in hives and had difficulty breathing” after eating a sandwich his wife had made for him, the document says.

Prosecutors alleged in the document that Richins made her husband a sandwich and placed it in the seat of his truck with a love note. But after eating it, her husband fell ill and had to use their son’s EpiPen. The document said Eric Richins believed he had been poisoned and “told a friend he thought his wife was trying to poison him”.

End of February 2022

Richins allegedly contacted CL and said the fentanyl pills “were not strong enough and asked him to get stronger fentanyl,” the document says. CL told authorities that Richins “asked for ‘Michael Jackson stuff’ during that fentanyl request, but later admitted that the defendant may have referred to Michael Jackson when first requesting fentanyl” , according to the document. (The pop superstar died in 2009 at his Los Angeles home after receiving a lethal dose of propofol.)

CL again obtained pills for Richins, according to the document.

March 3, 2022

Richins would have owed more than $1 million at the time of her husband’s death, prosecutors said in the document. The day before her husband died, prosecutors said she spoke to a pawnbroker to whom she owed at least $1.8 million and had a lengthy phone call with the IRS. The document alleged that she had unpaid federal and state tax debts totaling $189,840 and that she also owed at least $514,346 to her husband.

March 4, 2022

Eric Richins, 39, died after being found unconscious in the bedroom of their home in Kamas after having a drink to celebrate his wife’s business deal.

He had five times the lethal dose of fentanyl in his system, according to the medical examiner, who said it was “illicit” fentanyl and not medical grade. He is also believed to have ingested the drugs orally, according to the medical examiner.

Details of that night differ in a search warrant affidavit and probable cause statement.

Richins told authorities that she and her husband were celebrating the closing of a home for her business, according to the statement. She said she made her husband a Moscow mule in the kitchen and brought it to their bedroom where he drank it as he sat up in bed, she said. Prosecutors said she slipped five times the lethal dose of fentanyl into the cocktail.

The affidavit, however, stated that Eric Richins had taken a dose of alcohol and a THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) candy.

Richins told authorities she fell asleep in one of her children’s bedrooms and when she woke up and went to her bedroom, her husband was cold to the touch, according to the two documents. The affidavit stated that Richins allegedly attempted CPR on her husband, but when medical personnel and firefighters arrived they said it did not appear that she performed CPR “due to the large amount of blood. that came from Eric’s mouth”.

She also told authorities that she left her phone plugged in in her room, however, investigators found it had been locked and unlocked several times and showed movement before 911 was called. according to the press release.

The couple had been married for nine years at the time of Eric Richins’ death, according to his online obituary. They have three sons.

March 6, 2022

Days after her husband’s death, Richins allegedly had a locksmith break into her husband’s safe, which contained between $125,000 and $165,000 in cash, according to the amended court document. When Eric Richins’ sister, Katie Richins-Benson, told Richins to leave the safe alone, prosecutors alleged in the filing that Richins got angry and punched Richins-Benson in the face and chest. neck.

Sheriff’s deputies responded and called Eric Richins’ estate attorney.

Richins was informed that her husband had created a living trust.

March 9, 2022

Richins allegedly wrote a backdated check for $1,300 to obtain fentanyl pills from CL, prosecutors said in the document. CL told authorities that on March 9 or 10, she left the pills in a fire pit in the backyard of a home owned by Richins, the document says.

July 15, 2022

Richins-Benson has hired a private investigator to monitor and track Richins, according to court documents Richins filed to remove his sister-in-law as trustee of Eric Richins’ trust. Richins and his sister-in-law have been in a legal battle over trust and estate since the death of Eric Richins.

Richins said in the documents that the private investigator would pull up in front of her house “to watch and watch her” and question her neighbors about her and her husband.

Greg Skordas, a spokesman for Eric Richins’ family, told NBC News the private investigator has been hired to investigate the death. The private detective refused to talk about the case.

March 7

A year after her husband’s death, Richins released a book called “Are You With Me?” and dedicated it to “my amazing husband and a wonderful father”. An Amazon description of the book says it was written to “create peace and comfort for children who have lost a loved one.”

In the 41-page book, a boy wonders if his father is with him when he’s sad or angry and if he’s with him on special occasions. The father reassures the boy that he is there for all these moments.

The book is no longer available on Amazon.

April 6

Richins, in an interview with Salt Lake City’s KTVX-TV, spoke about her book and her husband’s death, which she said happened “unexpectedly.”

“It took us all by surprise. My kids and I kind of wrote this book about the different emotions and grieving processes that we went through in the last year, hoping that it might somehow help other kids deal with it and find the happiness one way or another,” she told KTVX reporters.

She went on to explain how she would tell her children that their “dad is still there, just in a different way.” Richins said she wrote the book after seeing how her children struggled with their father’s death.

The station later updated her story to say she was unaware she was suspected of her husband’s death.

May 8

Richins was arrested for aggravated murder and three counts of possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute. She did not enter a plea and is due in court on June 12, the new date for the detention hearing.

His attorney has not commented on the allegations.