A Utah woman was convicted Monday of murder after her husband was fatally poisoned with fentanyl and she then self-published a children's book about coping with grief.
Prosecutors said Kory Richins poured a five-times lethal dose of the synthetic opioid into a cocktail her husband Eric Richins drank in March 2022.
Prosecutors said she was $4.5 million in debt and falsely believed that when her husband died, she would inherit his estate worth more than $4 million. They also said she was planning a future with another man she was dating on the side.
"She wanted to leave Eric Richins, but she didn't want to leave his money," Summit County District Attorney Brad Blodgett said.
Richins stared at the floor and took deep breaths as the judge read the verdict.
Jurors deliberated for almost three hours. Afterward, family members of both sides left the courtroom hugging and crying.
Richins was also convicted of other charges, including attempted murder, which prosecutors said was another attempt to poison her husband with a valentine's day sandwich laced with fentanyl that left him unconscious. Jurors also found Richins guilty of forgery and fraudulently obtaining insurance benefits after his death.
Sentencing was set for May 13, the day he would have turned 44. The aggravated murder count carries a 25-to-life sentence.
"To be honest, we're all shocked," Eric Richins' sister Amy Richins said. She said the family can now focus on honoring her brother and supporting his sons. "We got justice for my brother."
The five-week trial ended last week when Kory Richins declined to testify and her legal team unexpectedly ended the case without calling any witnesses.
Richins' attorneys said they were confident prosecutors had not presented enough evidence to convict her of murder.
Prosecutors said Richins, a real estate agent focused on flipping houses, was deeply in debt. She opened multiple life insurance policies without her husband's knowledge, with benefits totaling about $2 million, they said.
They showed jurors text messages between Richins and Robert Josh Grossman, a man she is alleged to have had an affair with, in which she dreamed of leaving her husband, getting millions in a divorce and marrying Grossman.
Richins' phone internet search history included "what is a lethal dose of fentanyl," "luxury castles for the rich in America" and "if someone is poisoned (sic), what is written on the death certificate," a digital forensic analysis witness said.
Blodgett played a 911 call from the night Richins died. "It's not the sound of a wife becoming a widow," he said, citing the defense's opening statement. "It's the sound of a wife becoming a black widow."
