Summit County Court Examines Evidence Against Kouri Richins

Summit County prosecutors on Monday laid the groundwork for deciding whether Kouri Richins will face trial in her husband’s death.

The Kamas mother of three appeared in packed Third District Court Monday morning for the first day of a multi-day preliminary hearing to determine whether there is enough evidence to proceed with the case.

Kouri, 34, is accused of fatally poisoning 39-year-old Eric Richins with a fentanyl-laced Moscow Mule in his family’s home in early March 2022. Kouri was arrested in May 2023 and is charged with 11 felonies, including aggravated murder, attempted manslaughter, trafficking in controlled substances, mortgage and insurance fraud, and forgery.

The Summit County District Attorney’s Office presented expert testimony to the court supporting the prosecution’s theory that Kouri had a financial motive for killing her husband, while her defense attorney highlighted flaws in the evidence to maintain her innocence.

Sheriff’s Detective Jeff O’Driscoll was the first to take the stand. He explained the steps investigators took to identify Kouri as the prime suspect in the case.

Defense attorney Wendy Lewis questioned the detective about the initial searches of the house and the subsequent interviews with Kouri.

O’Driscoll described how a housekeeper who worked for the Richins family came into focus in the case after investigators discovered suspicious text messages between the woman and Kouri. The woman, a convicted felon, was arrested in April 2023 after investigators found drugs and a firearm in her home.

The housekeeper initially denied knowing anything about the circumstances of Eric’s death and the fentanyl trafficking, but later agreed to cooperate with the investigation to avoid a lengthy prison sentence. She was granted immunity by the U.S. Attorney’s Office and could be called as a witness in a trial.

The housekeeper claimed Kouri asked to buy up to 90 light blue or green pills believed to be fentanyl. However, O’Driscoll said officers did not find any of the pills when they searched the Richins’ home. The sheriff’s office did find THC gummy bears, loose prescription drugs and copper cups.

O’Driscoll could not confirm whether the drugs supplied to Kouri were the same ones Eric had taken when Lewis asked him. She also questioned why the sheriff’s office did not investigate other potential suspects, including people they had affairs with.

Private investigator Christopher Kotrodimos analyzed the digital evidence in the case. He testified that the history on Kouri’s devices had been deleted and identified call recordings from January 2022 to mid-March 2022 between Kouri and the housekeeper and between Kouri and her lover.

The two began communicating in November 2021, and according to Kotrodimos, they were in daily contact until March. They were having ongoing conversations at the time of Eric’s death.

Kotrodimos also noted phone activity on the night Eric died, including the device being unlocked at 3:07 a.m. and a 911 call being made about 15 minutes later.

Defense attorney Alex Ramos questioned Kotrodimos about his equipment extraction certificates, which were completed in 2013 and 2017 and were not renewed. Kotrodimos also said he did not perform the extractions himself, but only reviewed the data.

“You just read it. You read what was spewed out. … Everything you testified to, you basically testified to because you read it,” Ramos said.

Brooke Karrington, the state’s financial expert, spoke about Kouri’s alleged financial crimes.

The auditor reviewed bank statements, real estate such as trust deeds, and loan documents belonging to Kouri and Eric Richins. She examined the Richins’ joint account, Kouri’s personal account, and Kouri and Eric’s separate business accounts.

Karrington described the real estate market in 2019 when Kouri started his real estate business and how a line of credit was taken out on the family home. The house was in Eric’s name, as was the $250,000 loan. But it was actually Kouri who signed with power of attorney, Karrington said.

Kouri made several withdrawals with the loan in August 2019, around the time she began buying and selling homes for her business. Over the course of 2020, she purchased several homes valued at around $400,000 before moving on to a more sophisticated million-dollar property.

Due to the high costs, Kouri was forced to seek external investment and, among other things, to use the services of lenders, according to Karrington.

Eric consulted a divorce attorney in October 2020. Karrington said the financial arrangements were made after Eric learned about the home equity loan. At that point, he drafted his will and trust, naming his children as beneficiaries and his sister as trustee instead of Kouri.

Defense attorney Kathryn Nester noted that Eric did not go through with the divorce.

In at least six cases, Kouri allegedly falsified banking information by using bank statements from her husband’s construction company, K Richins Realty, to make it look like the money was in her company, allowing her to take out more loans.

Kouri owned about 15 properties in 2021. Karrington said Kouri owed about $4 million on the properties in December.

There were also between $500,000 and $600,000 in personal loans. Kouri made about 100 debt payments that month, at least one of which was more than $5,000 a week.

Nester argued that Karrington’s calculations do not take into account the profit margins from selling the properties after they are repaired and flipped. None of the homes were foreclosed on until Kouri was arrested in May 2023.

Karrington said there were some home sales that did not cover the outside investment, and deeds of trust were used to pay it off. She said the home equity loan was over its limit and credit lines were exceeded or nearly maxed out. Kouri ended 2021 nearly $40,000 in the red, according to Karrington.

The forensic accountant also listed about $1.5 million worth of life insurance policies on Eric — Nester pointed out that the largest of these had been taken out more than five years before his death — as well as a buy-sell agreement he had with his business partner. Prosecutors have alleged in court documents that Eric was unaware of some of the policies or the changes made to them.

At around 5 p.m., Judge Richard Mrazik adjourned the hearing. No witnesses were scheduled to be called. The defense said Kouri would waive her right to testify.

The preliminary hearing is scheduled to resume at 10 a.m. Tuesday. Mrazik is expected to decide whether there is enough evidence to proceed with the case.