May 18, 2026

THE GRIEF AUTHOR GETS LIFE: KOURI RICHINS SENTENCED ON ERIC'S BIRTHDAY

THE GRIEF AUTHOR GETS LIFE: KOURI RICHINS SENTENCED ON ERIC'S BIRTHDAY

Daily Crime and Justice returns from its two-week vacation hiatus with an entire episode devoted to one case: the sentencing of Kouri Richins. In March, a Utah jury convicted the children’s grief-book author of murdering her husband, Eric, with a lethal dose of fentanyl. Last week, on what would have been Eric’s 44th birthday, a judge sentenced Richins to life without parole. Garret Fisher recaps the case, walks through a wrenching sentencing hearing where three young sons asked a judge to keep their mother imprisoned forever, and examines Richins’ defiant, tearless courtroom statement — a self-described love letter that never once said sorry.

Join our new FB groups page here. Take the poll!

Join the Daily Crime & Justice community on social media! We're building a passionate group of true crime enthusiasts who love diving deep into the most shocking cases in America.
Follow us on Facebook and Instagram by searching "Daily Crime & Justice" on either platform.


You'll get exclusive behind-the-scenes content, breaking news updates on cases we're covering, and early alerts when new episodes drop. Our social media is where Garret Fisher's hottest takes live, including reactions that don't make it into the show.

But more importantly, it's where YOU come in. Share your theories, debate the verdicts, and connect with fellow listeners who are just as obsessed with justice as you are. Did the jury get it right? What questions do you still have? Your comments and insights often shape future episodes.


We cover the trials that matter, but our community makes the conversation unforgettable. Come for Garret's signature cynical commentary, stay for the incredible discussions with thousands of true crime fans who get it.

WEBVTT

1
00:00:03.200 --> 00:00:13.759
Kalaroga Shark Media. Good morning. I'm Garrett Fisher and this

2
00:00:13.800 --> 00:00:16.800
is Daily Crime in Justice for Tuesday, May nineteenth, twenty

3
00:00:16.839 --> 00:00:20.640
twenty six. We're back. Two weeks ago production packed up

4
00:00:20.719 --> 00:00:23.280
and went on vacation. And if you stayed with us

5
00:00:23.320 --> 00:00:26.559
through the Fighting Back Series, The Central Park Five, The

6
00:00:26.679 --> 00:00:32.000
Radium Girls, Stella le Bec, Aaron Brokovich, Karen Silkwood, then

7
00:00:32.079 --> 00:00:36.479
thank you. Genuinely. Those ten episodes were about ordinary people

8
00:00:36.560 --> 00:00:39.759
who took on something enormous and refused to let go.

9
00:00:39.960 --> 00:00:41.719
And I hope they landed for you the way they

10
00:00:41.799 --> 00:00:45.439
landed for me. But the Daily Docket doesn't take a vacation.

11
00:00:45.960 --> 00:00:48.399
While we were gone, the courts kept running and one

12
00:00:48.439 --> 00:00:51.200
case in particular reached the end of its road, a

13
00:00:51.240 --> 00:00:53.799
case we have followed on this show since February, a

14
00:00:53.880 --> 00:00:57.079
case we covered Gavel to Gavel in March, and a

15
00:00:57.119 --> 00:01:00.280
case that last week finally arrived. At the moment, every

16
00:01:00.320 --> 00:01:03.759
trial is building toward the sentencing. You know the name

17
00:01:04.319 --> 00:01:07.519
Houri Richins, the Utah mother of three who wrote a

18
00:01:07.599 --> 00:01:10.560
children's book about grief, a book about a father with

19
00:01:10.640 --> 00:01:13.799
angel wings watching over his sons from heaven, and then

20
00:01:13.879 --> 00:01:16.280
turned out to be the reason those sons needed it.

21
00:01:17.040 --> 00:01:20.680
In March, a jury convicted her of murdering her husband,

22
00:01:20.879 --> 00:01:24.840
Eric Richins, poisoning him with a lethal dose of fentanyl

23
00:01:24.959 --> 00:01:28.040
so she could collect his life insurance and walk away

24
00:01:28.040 --> 00:01:31.400
from millions of dollars in debt. Five counts. Guilty on

25
00:01:31.439 --> 00:01:33.799
every one of them. We brought you that verdict the

26
00:01:33.879 --> 00:01:36.200
day it came down. What we have not brought you

27
00:01:36.480 --> 00:01:40.120
until today is what happened next. And what happened next

28
00:01:40.319 --> 00:01:43.879
is the whole show. Because last Wednesday, Coury Richins walked

29
00:01:43.920 --> 00:01:46.280
into a Park City courtroom to learn how she would

30
00:01:46.280 --> 00:01:49.000
spend the rest of her life. And the date of

31
00:01:49.079 --> 00:01:53.359
that hearing was not an accident. It was May thirteenth.

32
00:01:53.599 --> 00:01:57.560
It would have been Eric Richards's forty fourth birthday. We

33
00:01:57.599 --> 00:01:59.719
are going to talk about why that date matters and

34
00:01:59.799 --> 00:02:02.239
why her own lawyers fought so hard to move it.

35
00:02:02.599 --> 00:02:05.400
We are going to talk about the three boys, Eric

36
00:02:05.439 --> 00:02:08.360
and Corey's sons, all of them under fourteen years old,

37
00:02:08.759 --> 00:02:11.240
who had statements read aloud in that courtroom by the

38
00:02:11.280 --> 00:02:14.360
counselors who have been helping them survive this. I want

39
00:02:14.400 --> 00:02:16.719
you to hear what those children said about their mother,

40
00:02:16.919 --> 00:02:20.439
because it is the most important testimony in this entire case,

41
00:02:20.800 --> 00:02:23.639
and it did not come from a forensic accountant. And

42
00:02:23.840 --> 00:02:26.840
we are going to talk about how Coury Richins behaved

43
00:02:27.199 --> 00:02:30.240
while she listened to all of it, because she did

44
00:02:30.240 --> 00:02:33.919
not sit still. She rolled her eyes, she made faces,

45
00:02:34.439 --> 00:02:37.840
she mouthed the word what at her attorneys, and then

46
00:02:37.919 --> 00:02:40.360
when it was her turn to speak, she talked for

47
00:02:40.439 --> 00:02:43.000
more than half an hour and called none of it

48
00:02:43.159 --> 00:02:46.560
an apology. Look, I'm going to be honest with you.

49
00:02:46.919 --> 00:02:49.360
This is not a who done it anymore. The jury

50
00:02:49.400 --> 00:02:52.000
answered that question in three hours back in March. What

51
00:02:52.120 --> 00:02:55.000
is left is something harder and in some ways uglier,

52
00:02:55.680 --> 00:02:58.719
the question of whether a person convicted of murdering the

53
00:02:58.800 --> 00:03:02.120
father of her children is capable of understanding what she

54
00:03:02.280 --> 00:03:06.319
did last Wednesday in front of those children's words. She

55
00:03:06.439 --> 00:03:15.159
gave us her answer. Let's start where this show always starts,

56
00:03:15.639 --> 00:03:17.960
with the person who is not here to tell you

57
00:03:18.000 --> 00:03:21.199
his side of it. Eric Richins was thirty nine years

58
00:03:21.199 --> 00:03:25.240
old when he died. He lived in commas Utah, a

59
00:03:25.280 --> 00:03:27.800
small town east of Park City, the kind of place

60
00:03:27.840 --> 00:03:31.840
where people know each other. He ran a stonemasonry business

61
00:03:31.840 --> 00:03:34.919
with a partner, Cody Wright, and by every account, he

62
00:03:35.080 --> 00:03:39.199
was good at it, successful, hard working, the type of

63
00:03:39.280 --> 00:03:43.280
man who his partner testified would power through a sickness

64
00:03:43.360 --> 00:03:46.960
or an injury rather than slow down. He had survived COVID,

65
00:03:47.439 --> 00:03:51.360
he had survived lime disease. He kept going. He loved

66
00:03:51.360 --> 00:03:54.080
to hunt, and he loved his three sons more than

67
00:03:54.120 --> 00:03:58.120
anything in the world. Here is the detail about Eric

68
00:03:58.159 --> 00:04:00.919
that I cannot stop thinking about, and it did not

69
00:04:01.080 --> 00:04:04.120
come out fully until the sentencing hearing, so hold on

70
00:04:04.199 --> 00:04:07.639
to it. Eric Richards, in the period before his death,

71
00:04:07.759 --> 00:04:11.639
had consulted a divorce attorney. His marriage was over and

72
00:04:11.719 --> 00:04:15.159
he knew it, but he did not file. And according

73
00:04:15.199 --> 00:04:18.040
to his own sister, the reason he did not file

74
00:04:18.199 --> 00:04:23.480
was that he was afraid, genuinely, specifically afraid that a

75
00:04:23.560 --> 00:04:27.240
divorce court might give his wife equal custody of their boys.

76
00:04:27.480 --> 00:04:31.560
He could not accept that risk, so he made a decision.

77
00:04:31.639 --> 00:04:34.680
His sister described in that courtroom last week, and I

78
00:04:34.759 --> 00:04:39.199
want to quote her because it is devastating. He chose to,

79
00:04:39.439 --> 00:04:42.920
in her words, live his life through hell every single

80
00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:47.279
day until his youngest son turned eighteen, rather than risk

81
00:04:47.360 --> 00:04:50.759
his children being alone with coury. He was right to

82
00:04:50.759 --> 00:04:53.920
be afraid. He just did not understand how little time

83
00:04:53.959 --> 00:04:58.160
he had. On March fourth, twenty twenty two, Eric Richins

84
00:04:58.199 --> 00:05:01.319
was found dead in his bed. His wife called nine

85
00:05:01.399 --> 00:05:03.199
one one and said she had come back to their

86
00:05:03.279 --> 00:05:05.879
room in the early morning hours and found him cold.

87
00:05:06.639 --> 00:05:09.680
She told the dispatcher they had been celebrating, she had

88
00:05:09.879 --> 00:05:13.160
just closed a real estate deal, a mansion she had flipped,

89
00:05:13.600 --> 00:05:17.720
and that she had made him a cocktail a moscow mule.

90
00:05:18.560 --> 00:05:21.879
The autopsy found fentanyl in his blood at five times

91
00:05:21.879 --> 00:05:26.000
the minimum lethal dose, and then for fourteen months, Corey

92
00:05:26.079 --> 00:05:29.079
Richins performed. She put her name on a children's book

93
00:05:29.120 --> 00:05:33.199
about grief called Are You With Me? A book featuring

94
00:05:33.240 --> 00:05:35.839
a father with angel wings watching over his young son.

95
00:05:36.720 --> 00:05:39.000
She went on a local morning show to promote it.

96
00:05:39.439 --> 00:05:42.279
She presented herself to her community and to a television

97
00:05:42.319 --> 00:05:45.319
audience as a widow helping her babies cope with the

98
00:05:45.439 --> 00:05:49.480
unimaginable loss of their dad. Prosecutors later showed the jury

99
00:05:49.480 --> 00:05:53.120
text messages establishing that a ghostwriter actually wrote the book.

100
00:05:53.720 --> 00:05:57.560
Corey Richins was not processing grief, she was managing a brand.

101
00:05:58.279 --> 00:06:01.279
In May twenty twenty three, she was a rested. Here

102
00:06:01.360 --> 00:06:03.639
is what the trial laid bare and I'll keep it

103
00:06:03.720 --> 00:06:07.199
tight because we covered it in full. In March, Coury

104
00:06:07.279 --> 00:06:10.720
Richins was drowning. Her real estate company was, in the

105
00:06:10.720 --> 00:06:15.120
words of the prosecution's forensic accountant, imploding millions of dollars

106
00:06:15.160 --> 00:06:18.639
in debt, hundreds of bounced checks, short term loans from

107
00:06:18.680 --> 00:06:21.600
hard money lenders with balloon payments she could not make.

108
00:06:22.199 --> 00:06:25.680
She was having an affair under the couple's prenup. A

109
00:06:25.759 --> 00:06:29.519
divorce left her with very little, but Eric's death she

110
00:06:29.600 --> 00:06:32.319
believed would hander his estate and more than a million

111
00:06:32.360 --> 00:06:35.360
dollars in life insurance money. What she did not know

112
00:06:35.519 --> 00:06:38.399
was that Eric had quietly seen all of this coming.

113
00:06:39.079 --> 00:06:41.759
He had moved his assets into a trust for his

114
00:06:41.879 --> 00:06:46.800
sons and named his sister as trustee. The money Coury

115
00:06:46.879 --> 00:06:49.879
Richards killed for was money that was never going to

116
00:06:49.920 --> 00:06:53.720
reach her. The prosecution's case was that she tried twice.

117
00:06:54.240 --> 00:06:56.959
The first attempt was on Valentine's Day twenty twenty two,

118
00:06:57.600 --> 00:07:00.920
a sandwich allegedly laced with benten al left in Eric's

119
00:07:00.920 --> 00:07:04.560
truck with a love note. He got violently ill and

120
00:07:04.639 --> 00:07:08.759
he survived. And then, according to the family's former housekeeper,

121
00:07:08.800 --> 00:07:11.519
who testified that she had sold drugs to Kury on

122
00:07:11.639 --> 00:07:16.040
multiple occasions, Kury came back looking for something stronger. The

123
00:07:16.040 --> 00:07:18.800
way the housekeeper described that request is one of the

124
00:07:18.920 --> 00:07:22.199
chilling moments of this trial. And I'll flag for you

125
00:07:22.240 --> 00:07:24.680
that there's a wrinkle in the exact wording, which is

126
00:07:24.720 --> 00:07:26.720
why I'm not going to put a specific phrase in

127
00:07:26.759 --> 00:07:30.199
your ear here. What matters is the meaning of it.

128
00:07:30.560 --> 00:07:33.240
The first method had failed, and she wanted something that

129
00:07:33.279 --> 00:07:37.560
would not Seventeen days after the Valentine's Day attempt, Eric

130
00:07:37.639 --> 00:07:41.759
Richards was dead on March sixteenth of this year. After

131
00:07:41.879 --> 00:07:45.319
thirteen days of testimony and a defense that rested without

132
00:07:45.319 --> 00:07:49.079
calling a single witness, the jury deliberated for just under

133
00:07:49.079 --> 00:07:53.000
three hours and convicted Kury Richins of aggravated murder, attempted

134
00:07:53.040 --> 00:07:58.279
aggravated murder, forgery, and two counts of insurance fraud. Five counts,

135
00:07:58.439 --> 00:08:02.639
five convictions. That was March. The sentencing was last week,

136
00:08:03.079 --> 00:08:17.560
and that is where this gets hard. Welcome back. The

137
00:08:17.600 --> 00:08:21.160
sentencing hearing for Coury Richins was held last Wednesday, May

138
00:08:21.199 --> 00:08:24.519
thirteenth in Summit County, Utah. And I need you to

139
00:08:24.519 --> 00:08:27.279
sit with that date for a second, because Coury Richins's

140
00:08:27.360 --> 00:08:31.000
own defense team certainly did they filed a motion to

141
00:08:31.079 --> 00:08:34.039
move it. They argued they needed more time to prepare.

142
00:08:34.440 --> 00:08:38.120
But here's the thing. Everyone in that courtroom understood May

143
00:08:38.159 --> 00:08:42.639
thirteenth would have been Eric Richards's forty fourth birthday. Judge

144
00:08:42.720 --> 00:08:47.480
Richard Morazak denied the motion, the sentencing went forward. On

145
00:08:47.559 --> 00:08:51.000
the birthday, Eric's sister Amy Richins stood up in that

146
00:08:51.039 --> 00:08:53.120
courtroom and said something about that date that I have

147
00:08:53.200 --> 00:08:55.960
not been able to shake. She said, birthdays are supposed

148
00:08:55.960 --> 00:08:58.440
to be proof of life, a day to celebrate another

149
00:08:58.519 --> 00:09:00.840
year of growth, and in ste it's dead. She said,

150
00:09:01.240 --> 00:09:04.240
this birthday had become a cruel reminder of another year

151
00:09:04.399 --> 00:09:07.720
Eric will never see, and a reminder of the fatherhood

152
00:09:07.759 --> 00:09:12.200
that was stolen from his three sons. Stolen, that is

153
00:09:12.240 --> 00:09:14.840
the right word. And the people who can tell you

154
00:09:14.960 --> 00:09:18.960
exactly what was stolen are the boys themselves. Eric and

155
00:09:19.039 --> 00:09:22.360
Coury Richins had three sons at the time their father

156
00:09:22.440 --> 00:09:25.279
was killed. They were small. One of them was nine

157
00:09:25.320 --> 00:09:29.200
years old. They are all still under fourteen today, and

158
00:09:29.360 --> 00:09:32.480
since April twenty twenty four they have not been in

159
00:09:32.519 --> 00:09:35.679
their mother's custody at all. They have been raised by

160
00:09:35.840 --> 00:09:40.000
Eric's sister, Katie Richins, and her husband the boys did

161
00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:44.080
not speak in that courtroom themselves. Three counselors, the people

162
00:09:44.120 --> 00:09:47.000
who have been doing the quiet, unglamorous work of helping

163
00:09:47.039 --> 00:09:51.720
these children survive, read statements the boys had written. I

164
00:09:51.720 --> 00:09:54.120
am going to tell you what those children said, because

165
00:09:54.360 --> 00:09:56.799
nobody else's words in this case carry the weight that

166
00:09:56.840 --> 00:09:59.720
theirs do. One of the boys wrote that after his

167
00:09:59.759 --> 00:10:02.519
death died, his mother would put him and his brother's

168
00:10:02.559 --> 00:10:06.080
in the basement. He wrote that he felt scared because

169
00:10:06.120 --> 00:10:09.799
he thought something really bad was happening again. He wrote

170
00:10:09.799 --> 00:10:12.159
that when someone talks about his mother it makes him

171
00:10:12.200 --> 00:10:16.039
feel hateful and ashamed. He asked the judge to send

172
00:10:16.039 --> 00:10:19.399
her to prison forever. The middle son, the one who

173
00:10:19.519 --> 00:10:22.679
was nine when his father was poisoned, who is thirteen now,

174
00:10:23.080 --> 00:10:25.440
wrote that his mother should get a life sentence because

175
00:10:25.480 --> 00:10:28.039
what she did was very sick, because it had no

176
00:10:28.200 --> 00:10:31.399
reason to happen, and because it hurt a lot of people,

177
00:10:31.720 --> 00:10:35.759
including him. And here is the detail from this hearing

178
00:10:35.799 --> 00:10:37.919
that I think will stay with me longer than any

179
00:10:37.960 --> 00:10:42.679
piece of forensic evidence in the entire trial. Prosecutors say

180
00:10:42.720 --> 00:10:45.519
that boy now wears his late father's clothing to school

181
00:10:45.879 --> 00:10:49.080
thirteen years old, putting on his dead dad's shirt in

182
00:10:49.120 --> 00:10:50.919
the morning so he can carry a piece of him

183
00:10:50.960 --> 00:10:54.519
through the day. The third son did not soften anything.

184
00:10:55.039 --> 00:10:57.960
He wrote directly to his mother, you took away my

185
00:10:58.080 --> 00:11:01.279
dad for no reason other than God read, and you

186
00:11:01.360 --> 00:11:05.879
only cared about yourself and your stupid boyfriends. All three

187
00:11:05.919 --> 00:11:10.440
boys asked the judge for the same thing. Prison, no parole.

188
00:11:10.919 --> 00:11:13.399
There's a playbook for how the state frames a case

189
00:11:13.480 --> 00:11:16.960
like this, it's sentencing, and the lead prosecutor, Brad Bludworth,

190
00:11:17.039 --> 00:11:20.879
ran it cleanly because he did not need theatrics. He

191
00:11:20.960 --> 00:11:24.120
had the timeline. He reminded the court that on Valentine's

192
00:11:24.200 --> 00:11:27.720
Day twenty twenty two, Coury Richins tried to murder her

193
00:11:27.799 --> 00:11:31.320
husband and failed. And then he said the thing that

194
00:11:31.440 --> 00:11:34.639
is the entire moral center of this case. He said

195
00:11:34.679 --> 00:11:37.279
that over the next seventeen days, she did not think

196
00:11:37.440 --> 00:11:40.639
what have I done? She thought how can I do better?

197
00:11:41.399 --> 00:11:44.720
And then she murdered Eric in the presence of their children,

198
00:11:44.919 --> 00:11:49.159
using poison for money. That is not a crime of passion,

199
00:11:49.600 --> 00:11:52.919
that is a project. She failed. She reviewed her failure,

200
00:11:53.120 --> 00:11:56.120
she corrected for it, and she tried again until it worked.

201
00:11:56.879 --> 00:11:59.480
Judge Moreazak said he was looking hard at exactly that

202
00:11:59.559 --> 00:12:02.720
sequence of events when he handed down his sentence. And

203
00:12:02.840 --> 00:12:07.320
the sentence is this for the aggravated murder of Eric Richins,

204
00:12:07.639 --> 00:12:11.159
life in prison without the possibility of parole on top

205
00:12:11.200 --> 00:12:15.440
of that, consecutively, meaning stacked one after the other, not

206
00:12:15.600 --> 00:12:18.759
served at the same time. Up to five years for forgery,

207
00:12:19.159 --> 00:12:21.559
one to fifteen years for each of the two insurance

208
00:12:21.559 --> 00:12:24.879
fraud counts, and five years to life for the attempted murder.

209
00:12:25.600 --> 00:12:29.159
Coury Richins is thirty six years old. She is going

210
00:12:29.200 --> 00:12:32.000
to die in prison. That is what the sentence means.

211
00:12:32.320 --> 00:12:34.440
You would think that would be the end of it.

212
00:12:34.440 --> 00:12:37.639
It was not, because we have not yet talked about

213
00:12:37.639 --> 00:12:40.679
how Coury Richins behaved while all of this was being said,

214
00:12:41.159 --> 00:12:54.440
and that that is its own story. Welcome back. Most

215
00:12:54.440 --> 00:12:57.360
defendants at a sentencing hearing do one of two things.

216
00:12:57.840 --> 00:13:02.440
They sit stonefaced, or they cry. Coury Richins did something else.

217
00:13:02.799 --> 00:13:06.559
According to Court TV's coverage from inside that courtroom, while

218
00:13:06.720 --> 00:13:10.399
Eric's sisters delivered their victim impact statements, while they described

219
00:13:10.440 --> 00:13:14.279
their brother, while they grieved him out loud, Coury Richins

220
00:13:14.320 --> 00:13:19.639
could be seen rolling her eyes, making faces faces described

221
00:13:19.679 --> 00:13:25.480
as disgust or surprise, mouthing the word what and turning

222
00:13:25.519 --> 00:13:29.120
to whisper with her attorneys. When her former sister in law,

223
00:13:29.240 --> 00:13:31.960
Katie told the court that Eric had believed Coory was

224
00:13:32.039 --> 00:13:35.399
the most evil person he had ever met, Coory mouthed

225
00:13:35.759 --> 00:13:39.600
what again, and it kept going while the counselors read

226
00:13:39.639 --> 00:13:43.559
the children's statements. Three little boys telling a courtroom how

227
00:13:43.559 --> 00:13:46.600
their mother had frightened them and hurt them, asking a

228
00:13:46.720 --> 00:13:49.200
judge to keep her away from them forever. And the

229
00:13:49.240 --> 00:13:53.559
person those words were about was, by multiple accounts, making faces.

230
00:13:53.960 --> 00:13:56.799
Here is what I want you to notice, though, because

231
00:13:56.919 --> 00:14:02.440
it is the tell. Her demeanor changed, the eye rolling

232
00:14:02.519 --> 00:14:05.480
stop the moment the hearing turned to her side when

233
00:14:05.519 --> 00:14:08.039
a letter from her own mother was read. When her

234
00:14:08.039 --> 00:14:11.279
own sister and her own brother spoke about her coury,

235
00:14:11.360 --> 00:14:15.080
richins dissolved. She sobbed at the defense table. So she

236
00:14:15.480 --> 00:14:19.679
was capable of being moved. She was fully capable of

237
00:14:19.720 --> 00:14:23.039
emotion in that courtroom. She just did not spend any

238
00:14:23.080 --> 00:14:24.960
of it on Eric, and she did not spend any

239
00:14:25.000 --> 00:14:27.279
of it on her sons. She saved all of it

240
00:14:27.360 --> 00:14:30.399
for herself. And then she got to speak, and she

241
00:14:30.519 --> 00:14:34.600
spoke for more than half an hour court TV described

242
00:14:34.639 --> 00:14:37.679
her statement as something that came across less like remorse

243
00:14:38.159 --> 00:14:40.679
and more like a love letter. To her three boys,

244
00:14:41.279 --> 00:14:45.480
She told them repeatedly to be like your dad, the

245
00:14:45.519 --> 00:14:48.679
man a jury found she murdered. She admitted for the

246
00:14:48.720 --> 00:14:51.840
first time to the affair, though she also accused Eric

247
00:14:51.879 --> 00:14:56.200
of cheating on her, and she offered her sons marriage advice.

248
00:14:56.960 --> 00:15:00.320
She told them never to keep secrets, always to put

249
00:15:00.320 --> 00:15:04.360
a spouse first. She said their love hers and Erics

250
00:15:04.399 --> 00:15:07.600
never failed. She told the boy she loved them, that

251
00:15:07.679 --> 00:15:09.960
she was not angry at them for hating her, that

252
00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:14.080
she would be waiting whenever they were ready. She pleaded

253
00:15:14.080 --> 00:15:16.159
with them to ask their guardians for the letters and

254
00:15:16.279 --> 00:15:18.960
cards she says she has been sending what she did

255
00:15:18.960 --> 00:15:22.840
not do. Not once in more than thirty minutes was apologized,

256
00:15:23.279 --> 00:15:26.720
and she was explicit about that. She told the courtroom.

257
00:15:27.039 --> 00:15:30.159
Never apologize for something you didn't do, Never admit to

258
00:15:30.200 --> 00:15:33.320
something you didn't do. Never beg for mercy for something

259
00:15:33.360 --> 00:15:36.080
you didn't do. She said she could not believe the

260
00:15:36.080 --> 00:15:39.279
conviction was real. She called it cruel and heartless that

261
00:15:39.360 --> 00:15:41.879
eight jurors who had never met her got to decide

262
00:15:41.919 --> 00:15:44.759
her future in less than three hours. She is pledged

263
00:15:44.840 --> 00:15:48.679
to appeal, and she is entitled to do that. An

264
00:15:48.679 --> 00:15:51.799
appeal is a real and legitimate part of the process,

265
00:15:52.279 --> 00:15:56.000
and a conviction is not the absolute last word until

266
00:15:56.000 --> 00:15:59.360
that runs its course. I want to be fair about that,

267
00:16:00.039 --> 00:16:01.720
but I also want to be honest with you about

268
00:16:01.840 --> 00:16:05.559
the rest of it. Prosecutors in a sentencing memo said

269
00:16:05.639 --> 00:16:08.759
that even after the conviction, Coury Richand sent a message

270
00:16:08.799 --> 00:16:12.720
to an admirer vowing to expose the County, the prosecution,

271
00:16:12.960 --> 00:16:16.919
the judge, and Eric's family, declaring that sentencing was not

272
00:16:17.080 --> 00:16:21.000
the end, it was the beginning, and that, in her words,

273
00:16:21.279 --> 00:16:25.279
they picked the wrong one. Now I have to flag

274
00:16:25.360 --> 00:16:29.679
this clearly, and I want you to hear the flag. Curry.

275
00:16:29.759 --> 00:16:32.919
Richin's defense attorney pushed back hard on that memo, calling

276
00:16:33.000 --> 00:16:36.879
it unreliable and irrelevant and saying its contents were misleading

277
00:16:37.000 --> 00:16:40.279
or outright falls. So I am not going to present

278
00:16:40.360 --> 00:16:43.480
that message to you as established fact. What I can

279
00:16:43.519 --> 00:16:46.399
tell you is this, the prosecution put it in front

280
00:16:46.399 --> 00:16:49.399
of the court, the defense disputed it, and you are

281
00:16:49.440 --> 00:16:52.360
allowed to hold both of those things at the same time.

282
00:16:53.399 --> 00:16:55.799
There was one more strange piece of this hearing, worth

283
00:16:55.879 --> 00:16:58.440
knowing about the judge allowed the defense to bring in

284
00:16:58.480 --> 00:17:01.320
statements from people who had never met Eric or Courry

285
00:17:01.360 --> 00:17:04.759
at all, including a woman whose own father was sentenced

286
00:17:04.759 --> 00:17:07.799
to life without parole for murdering her mother, who asked

287
00:17:07.799 --> 00:17:10.359
the judge to leave a door open for parole in

288
00:17:10.400 --> 00:17:13.400
case the Richens boys ever changed their minds about wanting

289
00:17:13.440 --> 00:17:16.839
their mother in their lives. Some of those statements were

290
00:17:16.839 --> 00:17:20.920
read anonymously. I understand the human impulse there, I do,

291
00:17:21.640 --> 00:17:23.960
But I keep coming back to those three boys who

292
00:17:23.960 --> 00:17:27.279
were not anonymous, who used their names, who said exactly

293
00:17:27.319 --> 00:17:31.240
what they wanted. They ask for prison forever the court

294
00:17:31.319 --> 00:17:34.160
listened to them. Look, I'm going to be honest with you.

295
00:17:34.519 --> 00:17:37.599
I have covered a lot of these and what makes

296
00:17:37.640 --> 00:17:40.640
this one sit wrong is not the murder alone. It

297
00:17:40.720 --> 00:17:44.640
is the fourteen months afterward, the book, the morning show,

298
00:17:45.119 --> 00:17:47.880
the performance of Grief sold to a community and a

299
00:17:47.920 --> 00:17:51.880
TV audience, while three real children actually lived inside that

300
00:17:51.920 --> 00:17:55.640
grief because of what she did. That is not a mistake.

301
00:17:56.240 --> 00:18:00.599
That is a choice made over and over every single

302
00:18:00.599 --> 00:18:03.519
morning she woke up and decided to keep the act running.

303
00:18:04.519 --> 00:18:07.640
Coury Richins' next court day is a restitution hearing on

304
00:18:07.759 --> 00:18:11.279
July thirty. First, we will tell you what happens, but

305
00:18:11.359 --> 00:18:14.079
the verdict that actually matters in this case was not

306
00:18:14.200 --> 00:18:17.079
read by a judge. It was written by three boys

307
00:18:17.279 --> 00:18:20.640
in their own words, and read aloud by the counselors

308
00:18:20.680 --> 00:18:23.759
trying to help them heal. They told the truth about

309
00:18:23.759 --> 00:18:32.279
their mother, and a courtroom finally believed them. That is

310
00:18:32.400 --> 00:18:36.480
Daily Crime and Justice for Tuesday, May nineteenth, twenty twenty six.

311
00:18:37.400 --> 00:18:41.240
The Whole Show, one case, because Eric Richins earned a

312
00:18:41.240 --> 00:18:46.000
whole show. Eric Richards was a Stonemason from Commas, Utah.

313
00:18:46.119 --> 00:18:48.720
He was thirty nine years old. He built things with

314
00:18:48.759 --> 00:18:51.880
his hands. He powered through every sickness life through at him,

315
00:18:52.200 --> 00:18:54.319
and he stayed in a marriage he wanted out of

316
00:18:54.720 --> 00:18:58.559
through what his sister called hell because he was afraid

317
00:18:58.599 --> 00:19:00.640
of what would happen to his son's if he left.

318
00:19:01.079 --> 00:19:04.039
He was trying to protect them. He ran out of time,

319
00:19:04.559 --> 00:19:07.680
and his three boys are growing up without him, raised

320
00:19:07.680 --> 00:19:10.039
by an aunt, one of them wearing his father's clothes

321
00:19:10.079 --> 00:19:12.680
to school so he can keep his dad close. Someone

322
00:19:12.720 --> 00:19:16.920
has to say his name, So we did Eric Richins,

323
00:19:17.359 --> 00:19:20.079
be honest, be the kind of person a child would

324
00:19:20.160 --> 00:19:23.079
actually want to be like. And then go be it

325
00:19:23.279 --> 00:19:26.519
every day when no one is watching. Do better. We'll

326
00:19:26.519 --> 00:19:30.960
see you tomorrow. Disclaimer Daily Crime and Justice is a

327
00:19:31.000 --> 00:19:35.279
production of Calarogus Shark Media. This episode covers the May thirteenth,

328
00:19:35.400 --> 00:19:38.720
twenty twenty sixth, sentencing of Coury Richins, who is convicted

329
00:19:38.759 --> 00:19:41.359
in March twenty twenty six in the death of her husband,

330
00:19:41.559 --> 00:19:45.440
Eric Richins. Coury Richins has maintained her innocence, and her

331
00:19:45.480 --> 00:19:48.799
attorneys have stated they intend to appeal. Her conviction and

332
00:19:48.839 --> 00:19:52.880
sentence are subject to that appeal process. Accounts of the

333
00:19:52.960 --> 00:19:56.359
length of her courtroom statement vary across sources, from roughly

334
00:19:56.480 --> 00:19:59.960
thirty to forty five minutes. A message attributed to cour

335
00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:03.200
Mary Richins and a prosecution sentencing memo was disputed by

336
00:20:03.240 --> 00:20:07.200
her defense team, who characterized the memo as unreliable and

337
00:20:07.519 --> 00:20:11.319
in part falls. We have presented it as a contested

338
00:20:11.400 --> 00:20:15.839
claim and not as established fact. In our March trial coverage,

339
00:20:15.880 --> 00:20:19.319
the housekeeper's testimony about a requested drug was referenced using

340
00:20:19.319 --> 00:20:21.720
a different celebrity name than the one appearing in some

341
00:20:21.880 --> 00:20:27.240
published trial reporting. Listeners should treat that specific detail as unsettled.

342
00:20:27.680 --> 00:20:30.359
Reporting in this episode is drawn from Court TV coverage

343
00:20:30.359 --> 00:20:34.160
and the trial record. Commentary and editorial opinion are the

344
00:20:34.240 --> 00:20:36.839
views of the host and are clearly framed as such.

345
00:20:37.440 --> 00:20:40.079
Nothing in this program constitutes legal advice.