A Utah woman who wrote a children's book about coping with grief after her husband's death has been found guilty of aggravated murder after poisoning him with fentanyl.
On Monday, the jury also found Kouri Richins guilty of fraudulently benefiting from insurance after the death of her husband, Eric Richins, in March 2022, at their home near the ski resort town of Park City.
Prosecutors have said that Kouri Richins laced her husband's cocktail with fentanyl. They allege that Richins was $4.5 million in debt and mistakenly believed that she would inherit his more than $4 million fortune after his death.
They also say she was planning a future with another man with whom she was having a parallel relationship.
After her husband's death, Richins published a children's book on grief to help her sons and other children cope with the loss of a parent.
She has also been found guilty of other criminal charges, including a count of attempted murder, in what authorities describe as another attempt to poison her husband a few weeks earlier, on Valentine's Day, with a sandwich laced with fentanyl that caused him to have an allergic reaction and lose consciousness.
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Mother who wrote book about children's grief after father's death found guilty of murdering him
Richins' defense attorney said Eric Richins was addicted to painkillers and had asked his wife to provide him with opioids. However, Kouri Richins had previously stated to police in a video that her husband had no history of using illegal drugs.
Richins had pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The most serious charge - aggravated murder, provides for a sentence of 25 years to life imprisonment.
