Jury selection is set to begin Monday in the trial of Kouri Richins, the Utah mother who prosecutors allege killed her husband before publishing a children’s book about coping with grief.
Richins, 35, allegedly poisoned her husband Eric by putting a fatal dose of fentanyl in his drink, leading to his sudden death in 2022. He was 39. Prosecutors say Richins’ real estate company was under financial pressure and that she was the beneficiary for multiple life insurance policies on her husband.
A year after her husband’s death, Richins was on television promoting a children’s book that she said she wrote to help her three sons deal with the loss of their father.
Richins was arrested and charged with her husband’s murder in May 2023. She pleaded not guilty and was denied bail on multiple occasions. She also faces multiple financial charges.
Richins’ attorneys have tried to get the trial moved out of her community, arguing that the 35-year-old could not get a fair trial where the vast majority of potential jurors knew about the case, but the judge denied a change of venue. CBS News legal contributor Caroline Polisi said she wasn’t surprised by the decision and said that while “this is a sensationalized case” with “national attention,” prosecutors should be able to assemble an impartial jury.
“It is highly unlikely that all of these jurors that are going to be seated haven’t read about it, but it is not unlikely that they can find at least eight jurors, four alternates, that can remain fair and impartial,” Polisi said.
CBS affiliate KUTV reported that potential jurors were asked to respond to a 23-page questionnaire containing 99 questions, including inquiries about where they get their news, what TV they watch, and what organizations they support. Nathan Evershed, a former prosecutor who is not affiliated with the case, said the document is “about as long as I’ve ever seen.” Many of the questions are routine, he said, but some are case-specific.
“When they started getting into opinions about the case, when they started getting into backgrounds of connections with victim rights organizations, social media accounts, these things, you can see they’re really trying to get granular on this,” Evershed told KUTV. “Tell us about what you listen to. Tell us about social media. Tell us about very specific opinions on very specific things.”
Jury selection is scheduled to take five days, KUTV reported. Richins’ trial is set to begin on Monday, February 23.
Richins’ mother, Lisa Darden, told “48 Hours” that she is “a hundred percent” certain her daughter will be found innocent.
“For anybody who knows Kouri just knows … She could not have done this. … She’d never do this,” Darden said.
