Thursday, May 14, 2026 - The three young sons of Utah children's book author Kouri Richins pleaded with a judge to keep their mother in prison for the rest of her life. Following her murder conviction, their terrifying victim impact statements detailed their fears of retaliation and the trauma they experienced
They said ahead of her sentencing hearing Wednesday, May 13, that they
would feel unsafe if their mother was ever released from prison after she
was found guilty in March of k!lling their father.
Richins, 35, faces several decades to life in prison on five
felony convictions, including aggravated murd£r and her three sons say they are
"afraid" of her.
Prosecutors said she laced her husband Eric Richins'
cocktail with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl in March 2022 at
their home near the ski town of Park City.
She then self-published a children's book titled "Are You With
Me?" about a boy coping with the d£ath of his father shortly before her
arrest in May 2023. She even promoted the book on a local Utah television news
program.
In the book, Eric Richins is portrayed as an angel who is always close
by.
"Yes, I am with you on Christmas," Kouri Richins writes,
"You can't see my smile but it's there. I'm here, and we're
together."
Kouri Richins' attorneys declined to comment Tuesday, May 12, before her
sentencing hearing, which falls on the day her husband would have turned
44.
The statements from their sons, who were ages 9, 7 and 5 when their father
di£d, came in a memo from prosecutors urging Judge Richard Mrazik to sentence
Richins to life without parole.
The oldest child, now 13, said he wants the court to know that he does not
miss his mom.
"I'm afraid if she gets out, she will come after me and my brothers,
my whole family," he said. "I think she would come and take us and
not do good things to us, like hurt us."
Prosecutors allege that the boy suffered emotional and physical abuse from
Kouri Richins after his father's de@th, which they say is supported by findings
from the Utah Division of Child and Family Services that are contained in a
sealed court document.
Kouri Richins was a real estate agent with a house-flipping business who
was millions in debt and planning a future with another man, prosecutors said.
She had opened numerous life insurance policies on her husband without his
knowledge and falsely believed she would inherit his estate worth more than $4
million after he di£d.
"He [Eric Richins] told his family, 'If I di£, you need to take a look at
her because I think she's trying to k!ll me,'" family spokesman Greg
Skordas told "48 Hours" in a February 2024 interview.
Prosecutors alleged Kouri Richins had asked the family housekeeper to
procure fentanyl for her in early 2022, and the housekeeper admitted to
investigators that she had sold fentanyl to her, court documents obtained by
"48 Hours" state.
"He wasn't an opioid user...This doesn't smell right," Skordas
told "48 Hours" of Eric Richins' cause of d£ath.
Jurors also found Kouri Richins guilty of other felonies, including
insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murd£r for trying to poison her husband
weeks earlier on Valentine's Day with a fentanyl-laced sandwich that made him
black out.
And according to court documents, Eric Richins' family suspected that his
wife had also attempted to poison him in 2019 during a vacation in Greece, when
he fell ill after she served him a drink.
The Richins' middle child, now 11, refuted his mother's claim that she
slept in his bedroom with him on the night of his father's d£ath. He recalled
unusual circumstances from that night, like being put to bed early without a
bath, his parents' bedroom being locked and the television blaring from inside.
The boy said his mother yelled at him to go away after he used a broom to try
to reach a key to their bedroom, where Richins later told a 911 operator she
found her husband cold to the touch.
The 11-year-old told the judge he is sad that his dad can no longer take
him camping and fishing, coach him in sports or be present for major
milestones. Like his older brother, he said he would feel unsafe if his mom
wasn't behind bars.
"With (her) in jail, I will be able to continue to feel safe and live
a happy and successful life without fear of (her) hurting me or anyone I
love," his statement read.
The youngest son said he feels "hateful and ashamed" when people
talk about his mom because "she took away my dad." He said he would
be "so scared" if his mother got out of prison.
Once she is gone I will feel happy and I will feel safer and relaxed and
trust people more," said the boy, whose current age was not provided in
the memo.
Kouri Richins also faces more than two dozen money-related criminal
charges in a separate case that has not yet gone to trial.
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