Left: Kouri Richins, a Utah mom of three who authorities say fatally poisoned her husband, Eric Richins, then wrote a kids’s e-book about grieving, seems on throughout a standing listening to Friday, Sept. 1, 2023, in Park Metropolis, Utah. (AP Picture/Rick Bowmer, Pool) / Proper: The so-called “Stroll the Canine” letter written by defendant Kouri Richins (through Utah’s Third District Courtroom).
The Utah mom of three accused of killing her husband after which writing a kids’s e-book about coping with loss is dealing with new authorized hassle: accusations of witness tampering.
Investigators say Kouri Richins, 33, laced a cocktail with lethal quantities of fentanyl earlier than giving it to her husband Eric Richins in March 2022. Kouri Richens instructed police she gave her husband a blended drink and a marijuana gummy earlier than they went to mattress. She allegedly went to lie down together with her son and returned to the bed room just a few hours later to seek out Eric Richens out chilly on the ground.
Testing discovered 5 instances the deadly dosage of fentanyl in his system. Police say they realized Kouri Richins bought fentanyl tablets within the days earlier than Eric’s loss of life.
She now faces expenses of first-degree aggravated homicide and second-degree possession of a managed substance with intent to distribute. A decide has denied bond, so she’s been behind bars since her arrest.
In paperwork filed on Sept. 15, the state of Utah submitted a letter to the court docket referred to as the “Stroll the Canine” letter. It’s a six-page, handwritten word that deputies present in her jail cell. In it, Kouri Richins instructs her mom, Lisa Darden, to have Richins’ brother, Ronald Darden, lie about her lifeless husband. She allegedly needed her brother to inform the court docket that her husband obtained the tablets that prompted his loss of life from Mexico.
Within the letter, Kouri Richins says Ronald Darden must say particularly that “Eric instructed Ronney that he obtained Ache Drugs and fentanyl from Mexico from employees on the ranch.”
She additionally says her mom ought to give her brother the message in particular person, as a result of Kouri Richins believes her mom’s house is bugged and her telephone is tapped.
In its movement, the state argues that Kouri Richins shouldn’t have any contact in any respect together with her mom or brother, as a result of the letter constitutes witness tampering.
However in response to the submitting, Kouri Richins’ lawyer, Skye Lazaro, filed a rebuttal movement, claiming the state violated the gag order that prosecutors requested by releasing the letter. Lazaro believes the knowledge may taint the jury and forestall Kouri Richins from getting a good trial in Summit County, Utah.
The protection additionally claims that the state might have obtained a replica of the letter illegally. The letter was initially in a big yellow envelope with Lazaro’s identify on the surface and “Legal professional Privilege” written on it in parentheses. In a photograph included within the submitting, the envelope seems to have been torn open.
Picture of a torn envelope with paperwork for Kouri Richins’ lawyer, offered in a court docket submitting on Sept. 15, 2023 (through Utah’s Third District Courtroom – Silver Summit).
A couple of yr after Eric Richens died, Kouri Richins printed a kids’s e-book referred to as “Are You With Me?” to assist their three sons cope with the lack of their father. It has since been faraway from Amazon.
Learn the “Stroll the Canine” letter, under.
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