No death penalty for a Utah mom accused of killing her husband, then writing a kid book about death

SALT LAKE CITY — Prosecutors is not going to search the loss of life penalty in opposition to a Utah mom who wrote a kids’s ebook about dealing with grief after her husband’s loss of life and is now accused of fatally poisoning him.

Prosecutors say Kouri Richins, 33, poisoned Eric Richins, 39, by slipping 5 occasions the deadly dose of fentanyl right into a Moscow mule cocktail she made for him final yr.

After her husband’s loss of life, the mom of three self-published a kids’s ebook titled “Are You with Me?” a few deceased father carrying angel wings who watched over his sons. She promoted the ebook on tv and radio, describing the ebook as a approach to assist kids grieve the lack of a liked one.

Prosecutors determined to not search the loss of life penalty after conferring with the sufferer’s father and two sisters, in keeping with a courtroom submitting Friday.

Following a June listening to during which Richins’ sister-in-law referred to as her “determined, grasping and very manipulative,” a decide has ordered that Richins stay in jail pending trial.

Prosecutors say Richins deliberate at size to kill her husband, making monetary preparations and buying medicine present in his system after his March 2022 loss of life.

Richins’ attorneys level out that no medicine have been discovered on the household residence after her husband’s loss of life. They’ve additionally steered {that a} witness, a housekeeper who claims to have offered Richins the medicine, had motivation to lie as she sought leniency within the face of state and federal drug fees.

Richins made main adjustments to the household’s property plans and took out life insurance coverage insurance policies on him with advantages totaling practically $2 million, prosecutors allege. Her attorneys counter that the prosecution’s case primarily based on monetary motives proved she was “unhealthy at math,” not responsible of homicide.

Richins, in the meantime, is dealing with a lawsuit looking for over $13 million in damages for alleged monetary wrongdoing earlier than and after his loss of life.

The lawsuit filed in state courtroom by Katie Richins, the sister of Eric Richins, accuses Kouri Richins of taking cash from her husband’s accounts, diverting cash meant to pay his taxes and acquiring a fraudulent mortgage, amongst different issues, earlier than his loss of life.