A mother who published a children’s book about grief following the sudden death of her husband has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after being convicted of his murder in the United States.
A jury in March found that Kouri Richins of Utah killed her husband in 2022 by poisoning him with a fentanyl-laced drink.
Prosecutors told the weekslong trial that Richins, 36, had accumulated millions of dollars in debt, taken out life insurance policies on her husband, and was involved in an extramarital affair.
When handing down the sentence on Wednesday, the day Eric Richins would have turned 44, Judge Richard Mrazi said: “A person convicted of those things is simply too dangerous to ever be free.”
The mother of three, who did not testify during her trial, spoke for about 30 minutes in court on Wednesday, largely addressing her children, CBS News reported.
“I know today you don’t want to speak to me and you hate me. That’s OK. When you are ready, I will be here for you,” she said.
Richins was also convicted of fraudulently claiming insurance benefits after her husband’s death at their home outside the ski resort town of Park City. Prosecutors said she believed she would inherit his estate, worth more than $4m (£3m).
They also said she had been planning a future with the man she was having an affair with.
She was further found guilty of attempted murder over an earlier incident in which she poisoned her husband’s sandwich.
Richins was arrested in March 2023, two months after she published the children’s book Are You With Me?, which she said was intended to help families cope with grief.
“We wrote this book and we’re really hoping that it provides some comfort for not just obviously, our family, but other families that are going through the same thing,” she told radio station KPCW in an interview before her arrest.
She dedicated the book to her husband, describing him as “my amazing husband and a wonderful father.”
