March 17, 2026
GUILTY: Surprise Late Verdict For Grief Author Kouri Richins
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RSS Feed A Utah jury of 8 took less than 3 hours to find 35 year old mom of three, Kouri Richins guilty of fatally poisoning her husband Eric with a fentanyl spiked Moscow mule. Closing arguments and jury instructions took most of the day, so it was a surprise when they continued to deliberate into the evening to come back with guilty verdicts on all counts. RIchins’ reaction was palpable as the judge read the the verdicts aloud, her head fell and she never looked up again.
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00:00:10
Speaker 1: Hey, the folks.
00:00:10
Speaker 2: It is Tuesday, March seventeenth, and a verdict in the so called Grief author murder trial also known as the poisoned husband murder trial guilty on all counts. And it didn't even take the jury long to come to a decision. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ Robes. Even if you're not surprised by the verdict, it was a little surprising that we got one yesterday.
00:00:38
Speaker 3: That was what I was going to say. It was fairly shocking. This isn't fairly typical. The jury spent all day listening to jury instructions, closing arguments that went on for quite some time, and a rebuttal, so they didn't even get the case until after three pm Local time five pm East Coast time.
00:00:57
Speaker 4: A lot of.
00:00:57
Speaker 3: Juries might stay for an hour and then head home and start out fresh the next morning. This jury powered through. They must have known early on they were onto something. There was a consensus.
00:01:09
Speaker 2: He gave them the option, y'all go home if you want to, we'll check back in in a little bit. And we were watching the clock, we were wrapping up our night. We were like, yeah, we can go ahead and chill. We had gone on, we had dinner in a movie on, we had moved on, and then.
00:01:23
Speaker 4: I might have fallen asleep. Actually you did, and you were like, the jury has a verdict.
00:01:30
Speaker 1: Couldn't believe it.
00:01:30
Speaker 2: So we got the alert that yes, the verdict was going to be read around eight thirty Eastern time, and sure enough, Robes, what it ended up being two and a half three hours of jury deliberations and they came back five counts against her.
00:01:44
Speaker 1: Guilty.
00:01:44
Speaker 2: Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty on all counts, including aggravated murder for the poisoning death of her husband, Eric Richins. A reminder hear of this case. She's accused of giving her husband a fentanyl laced drink and then later right a children's book meant to help kids with the grief of losing a parent. It's that case, Robes. They had a long day yesterday. When the day started, I wouldn't have given any chance that there was going to be a verdict.
00:02:14
Speaker 3: Oh my goodness, no, I thought I thought we might get one today. But this was three weeks of testimony, forty two witnesses, and yes, the defense did not put any witnesses up but there was a lot to go through and a lot of questions, and they only had one question at the beginning, something that I didn't even really understand, some technicality, something that they wanted explained, and boom, they were off to the races and it was quick.
00:02:41
Speaker 4: It was surprising. And you know what, we thought.
00:02:43
Speaker 3: About this because in Utah you only have eight jurors, so there were twelve seated. The judge announced that four of them were alternates. He excused them, so eight men and women left. And they must have all been on the same page, and they must have realized it early on. That's why they decided, Hey, guys, let's just power through this and we'll be done.
00:03:04
Speaker 2: They told him, And we were watching the clock. Set we are I think he gave them the first hour set. We're going to check in on you in about an hour, just to see where you are and see if you want to stick around or if you want to go home.
00:03:15
Speaker 1: Robes. We were watching the clock.
00:03:16
Speaker 2: It got past that hour, then hour and a half, in two hours, and we thought, hmm, what's going on. But we still weren't necessarily thinking a verdi would come, and in fact it did. Those charges included we said aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder. Actually, Robes, that was the one that you thought she'd be guilty, but you said, if there's one that maybe they could come back not guilty on, it was the aggravated or attempted aggravated murder when they said she tried to kill them once.
00:03:41
Speaker 1: With a sandwich.
00:03:42
Speaker 3: Yeah, to me, that was a very We talk about how this case was circumstantial, and obviously we've seen time and time and time again that prosecutors can successfully prosecute a murder case without direct evidence, and that.
00:03:57
Speaker 4: Was this case specifically. But when it came to the tell aggravated murder, it seemed a little it seemed.
00:04:05
Speaker 3: Like that was the one that had the least amount of even circumstantial evidence. It was they thought that maybe he got a little sick, he had to take an EpiPen. He also had allergies, so it could have been. To me, there was a reasonable doubt that maybe he did have And look, I have allergies, so I understand having an allergic reaction, having some stomach pain, having to take an EpiPen, having to take some steroids.
00:04:29
Speaker 4: To me, that was that was a little bit more of a stretch of proof. Yeah, more of a stretch might be a better way to put it. But no, the jury came back guilty.
00:04:38
Speaker 2: They essentially said you did everything the prosecution said you did is what they came back with. Because insurance frau, she had two counts of that. They were there forgery. They found her guilty of that as well. Now, the courtroom yesterday, we did talk about beforehand robes. The judge gave the families and friends of the defense and the victim more space in the court room, so it was packed, and it was packed with mostly friends and family, not really the public. This has always just talked about. But let's go with Corey Richand's demeanor before the verdict came robes. You were actually pointing at the screen and watching her chest go up and down.
00:05:18
Speaker 3: Yes, so she has tried to remain stoic, I would say, which might not have been a good call on her part because it ended up looking She ended up looking annoyed and irritated for a lot of the trial and especially during closing. But you could see when you watched her closely, her chest was rising and falling pretty rapidly. She was trying to control her breathing. She was panicked or could tell. And that makes a ton of sense, but.
00:05:46
Speaker 2: It also flew in the face robes of what we've been seeing out of her the last several days of this trial. A different Corey Richins, who was more animated, involved, and quite frankly, looked a little more confident.
00:06:00
Speaker 4: I think that was something that people said.
00:06:02
Speaker 3: She was rolling her eyes, she had kind of a smug sneer on her face when she disagreed.
00:06:08
Speaker 4: With what was being said.
00:06:09
Speaker 3: And then there were even moments when she's when her attorney did score some points here and there in cross examination, or certainly when she would come back from her closing you saw Corey Richan's smile. There was some confidence. That was the first time we saw that. The last couple of days. She actually seemed like I might actually get away with this.
00:06:29
Speaker 2: Even during closing arguments. I would say she had some of that confidence. What did you make of And we only mention this because these things do matter, and they matter to all of these things. Right we hear the defense attorneys take into account, but her look yesterday, how she actually appeared when she was in the courtroom, including her attire.
00:06:53
Speaker 3: Yes she dressed like a conservative, a conservative kind of meek and humble librarian mom. That would be the best way I would describe her. Her look, with her hair, her very light makeup, her very conservative clothing, and look that flew in the face of what prosecutors were trying to describe her as this ambitious real estate vixen of a woman who had a lover on the side who thought her thought she was, you know, the shit, and so yes, this confident, sassy, sexy real estate agent who wanted to ditch her husband.
00:07:32
Speaker 4: She liked her luxurious lifestyle and she wanted it all.
00:07:36
Speaker 3: She did not look that part in court from start to finish, and especially yesterday.
00:07:40
Speaker 1: That was a good way to put it.
00:07:42
Speaker 2: Vixen of a woman is how they were trying to describe her, and the Rosica of the defense was trying to counter that sometimes with her appearance now robes the setup for this. We have always talked throughout this trial about how much we love this judge, and sure enough, before the jury came in, I thought this was it was direct kind, but he put everybody on notice about how to behave when the verdict was going to be read.
00:08:07
Speaker 3: I appreciated this judge from start to finish. His calm demeanor and his calm reactions even when the lawyers were not and when I say lawyers, I mean mostly the defense attorney was really impressive and remarkable. And it's true when you see a judge setting a tone, people follow and so yes, he got ahead of any potential emotion.
00:08:28
Speaker 4: Think about this.
00:08:29
Speaker 3: This was a courtroom, not just with bystanders or people in the community or in the public or the media, which is often what you see in courtrooms, maybe a sprinkling of family and friends who.
00:08:39
Speaker 4: Might be invested. This was a courtroom packed with one side against the other, with.
00:08:46
Speaker 3: Rose packed that were Eric Richards's family and friends, and then rose packed with Corey Richins family and friends. That was a potential powder keg of a courtroom.
00:08:58
Speaker 2: Everyone in there had an emotional in this outcome. Everybody in there, if they had reacted audibly, would have been understandable. He actually instructed them, if you need to sit on your hands, do what you need to do, if you need to put your hands over your face, put your head, whatever you gotta do. But I don't want to hear anything. They listened. I was shocked once it was the verdict was read that there wasn't reaction from the gallery, but Robes he gave a heads up gonna have the defendant stand. He told her that before the jury came in. That was also I thought, also a good setup. He said, I'm just trying to set expectations for how this is going to go. Jury comes in, has her stand, and Robes. I guess leading up to the moment he was the one that read the verdict. But you talked about the heavy breathing in the chest when she stood up right before it was going to be announced. This was as panicked. Then you can understand why this was. She was in full on anxiety.
00:09:54
Speaker 3: You know, we watch a lot of these verdicts. The tension in the moments before the judge read the verdicts was one of the most palpable. I could feel like I can feel my chest tightening right now just reliving it, watching it, watching her, watching her emotions anticipate what he was going to read aloud.
00:10:12
Speaker 4: It was I know this sounds weird, but it was. It felt electric almost in this silence.
00:10:17
Speaker 2: She was terrified and you could see that that is that is that she was terrified in that moment understandably so in robes. He starts reading and the first guilty comes out of his mouth.
00:10:30
Speaker 1: Her head goes down. I don't think it ever came back up.
00:10:33
Speaker 4: It did not.
00:10:34
Speaker 3: Her head fell and you could just feel the life drain out of her. And she never looked up again. She never she never even looked at her attorneys. She never glanced at the judge, She never looked at the jury. She never looked up again. I also noticed her her legal team did not pat her on the back. They didn't comfort her like.
00:10:57
Speaker 4: We do see this sometimes.
00:10:59
Speaker 3: Everyone just stoically sat, stunned, or like they were standing. I'm sorry they weren't sitting, but they were just stoically quiet, silent, with almost no movements.
00:11:10
Speaker 2: I did not see a single person interact with her after guilty was said. Like there was not an acknowledgment, a whisper to her ear, a touching of her shoulder. There was nothing. And we say this, folks, if you did not see it. This was not a quick something. After the first guilty in her head goes down. We had to hear guilty four more times. The judge had to tell the jury thank you. They had to get the jury out of the room. He had to do some housekeeping with the attorneys. She never brought her head back up this entire time. In fact, robes he addressed her directly at one point and said, miss Richards something. She never picked her head up to look at anybody.
00:11:56
Speaker 4: She was done, she was done, she was defeated, and.
00:12:03
Speaker 3: There was almost a resignation in that and she just didn't want to look up. But she didn't show any emotion now one tier.
00:12:10
Speaker 1: She did not.
00:12:12
Speaker 2: We will see if there will be tears later, because in a couple of months she's going to be back in that courtroom for her sentencing, and from what we saw yesterday, you better believe Eric Richard's family is going to be at that sentencing. Stay here, We continue here on Amy and TJ. Guilty on all accounts for Corey Richards, the Utah Mom grief author murder trial, as it's called, accused of poisoning her husband with a fentanyl laced drink and then writing a children's book to help kids deal with the grief loss of a parent. Well, the jury yesterday came back guilty on all accounts, including aggravated murder. She's going to be back for sentencing and robes from But I I can tell here there's a good chance she might not get out of prison the rest of her life.
00:13:03
Speaker 3: That is almost certainly going to be the case by the fact that she was found guilty on all counts. Because the aggravated murder charge alone has a sentencing guideline of twenty five years to life. But you add that with attempted aggravated murder, the insurance fraud charges or now convictions, and the forgery conviction, almost certainly she will not ever get out of prison.
00:13:28
Speaker 4: She's thirty five years old.
00:13:29
Speaker 3: And look, when they were going over the housekeeping of when the sentencing date was going to be scheduled, I believe it was May thirteenth, but there was some time as they were going back and forth the prosecution actually stepped aside and went to go speak to Eric Richard's family to make sure that date was okay with them. And then it kind of hit me, Wow, these folks are I'm sure waiting for that day where they get to give their victim impact statements.
00:13:55
Speaker 1: They've been waiting to speak to her.
00:13:56
Speaker 3: That is going to be a powerful, powerful day in court. We know, we can feel we saw Eric Richard's sister testify. We saw her husband testify and Eric Richard's best friend and business partner, Cody Wright testify. But think about all the people who loved and knew Eric Richinds his father getting up on that stand and being able to speak directly to Corey Richins on the record and having an impact on what the judge decided.
00:14:24
Speaker 2: I thought it was weird and a little uncomfortable, but hey, she's convicted now, so who cares about her feelings? You could argue, But after she just heard that she's guilty and he's going to spend who knows how long positively in prison. They started doing housekeeping and the call that day doesn't.
00:14:41
Speaker 1: Work for me.
00:14:41
Speaker 3: How about a day in April? Ooh, April's booked up. It was like they were booking a vacation and she's sitting there with her head a hum like just you know, probably having an out of body experience, and they're like discussing just basic, you know, housekeeping things.
00:14:56
Speaker 4: How can we get this all worked out?
00:14:57
Speaker 2: The judge was looking at his calendar. You could literally you hear him clicking the mouse and going through his calendar.
00:15:03
Speaker 1: Ooh, that week is bad for me. It was just a bar comical thing.
00:15:07
Speaker 2: I give the prosecutor credit, and any prosecutor credit they do take into account the victim's families considerations. And to see him as the judge was saying, prosecutors this day, work this day. Say can I confer with the family for a minute and literally walk to the back of the courtroom and what I found and again I'm smiling about it. May They had how many people in there for that family? At least a dozen for the Eric Ritchard's family. It took two seconds he said, hey, everybody. You could just see him kind of talking. It took no time. He came back and said, Yep, whatever day in May is gonna be fine.
00:15:42
Speaker 4: Yeah, the entire month of May.
00:15:43
Speaker 1: Family said, we will be here no matter what.
00:15:47
Speaker 3: And I I was looking after the fact to see if any of the family members talked to the local media and so many members of the media that were there covering this trial, and you know, the main few did not, but some of the cousins there, There were a lot of family members in that courtroom and they all told reporters they were.
00:16:03
Speaker 4: Surprised that the jury came back so quickly.
00:16:05
Speaker 3: So it wasn't just us, They said they were actually shocked that there was a verdict already that quickly, and they just talked about how hard it was. And this is where I can't even imagine being a family member of Eric Richards in that court. So many of them were there every single day to relive what happened, to relive this woman who you considered family, This woman who you brought into your home, had around your children and went on vacations with and spent holidays with, was capable of doing what she's now been convicted of. That that's just I can't imagine the emotions behind all of that and the stress. But this will be a chapter they can close, at least in terms of feeling like justice prevailed. Yesterday was the day they were hoping for.
00:16:51
Speaker 2: One man is dead, a woman is going to prison, three boys got no parents, and those other real victims in this case no matter. You can have your opinion about Corey Richards, but my God, Robes, that's three boys who are going to be raised by those aunts and uncles probably that we saw in the courtroom. It's just that's devastating when you think of it. I don't know this one we don't know anything about her, but Rose, We've said plenty of times, how can you That's very difficult for a layperson to understand. It's one thing you mad at your husband, you're mad at your spouse, but you're now you're taking away a parent, right, even if she got away with it, And then you.
00:17:30
Speaker 3: Write a book helping other people's kids deal with grief of losing a parent. The hubris in that is exceptional and certainly obviously made this nationally recognize. It certainly is one of the reasons why this became a national headline grabbing case because who does that.
00:17:52
Speaker 2: Well, Corey Richards, according to this jury, did it, and we'll be going to prison Ford again, guilty on all five counts again, including aggravated murder. We always appreciate you spending some time with us as we've gone along this journey, on this particular trial. Thank you all so much for listening on DJ Holmes on behalf of my dear Amy Robot.
00:18:10
Speaker 1: We will be talking to you soon
Speaker 1: Hey, the folks.
00:00:10
Speaker 2: It is Tuesday, March seventeenth, and a verdict in the so called Grief author murder trial also known as the poisoned husband murder trial guilty on all counts. And it didn't even take the jury long to come to a decision. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ Robes. Even if you're not surprised by the verdict, it was a little surprising that we got one yesterday.
00:00:38
Speaker 3: That was what I was going to say. It was fairly shocking. This isn't fairly typical. The jury spent all day listening to jury instructions, closing arguments that went on for quite some time, and a rebuttal, so they didn't even get the case until after three pm Local time five pm East Coast time.
00:00:57
Speaker 4: A lot of.
00:00:57
Speaker 3: Juries might stay for an hour and then head home and start out fresh the next morning. This jury powered through. They must have known early on they were onto something. There was a consensus.
00:01:09
Speaker 2: He gave them the option, y'all go home if you want to, we'll check back in in a little bit. And we were watching the clock, we were wrapping up our night. We were like, yeah, we can go ahead and chill. We had gone on, we had dinner in a movie on, we had moved on, and then.
00:01:23
Speaker 4: I might have fallen asleep. Actually you did, and you were like, the jury has a verdict.
00:01:30
Speaker 1: Couldn't believe it.
00:01:30
Speaker 2: So we got the alert that yes, the verdict was going to be read around eight thirty Eastern time, and sure enough, Robes, what it ended up being two and a half three hours of jury deliberations and they came back five counts against her.
00:01:44
Speaker 1: Guilty.
00:01:44
Speaker 2: Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty on all counts, including aggravated murder for the poisoning death of her husband, Eric Richins. A reminder hear of this case. She's accused of giving her husband a fentanyl laced drink and then later right a children's book meant to help kids with the grief of losing a parent. It's that case, Robes. They had a long day yesterday. When the day started, I wouldn't have given any chance that there was going to be a verdict.
00:02:14
Speaker 3: Oh my goodness, no, I thought I thought we might get one today. But this was three weeks of testimony, forty two witnesses, and yes, the defense did not put any witnesses up but there was a lot to go through and a lot of questions, and they only had one question at the beginning, something that I didn't even really understand, some technicality, something that they wanted explained, and boom, they were off to the races and it was quick.
00:02:41
Speaker 4: It was surprising. And you know what, we thought.
00:02:43
Speaker 3: About this because in Utah you only have eight jurors, so there were twelve seated. The judge announced that four of them were alternates. He excused them, so eight men and women left. And they must have all been on the same page, and they must have realized it early on. That's why they decided, Hey, guys, let's just power through this and we'll be done.
00:03:04
Speaker 2: They told him, And we were watching the clock. Set we are I think he gave them the first hour set. We're going to check in on you in about an hour, just to see where you are and see if you want to stick around or if you want to go home.
00:03:15
Speaker 1: Robes. We were watching the clock.
00:03:16
Speaker 2: It got past that hour, then hour and a half, in two hours, and we thought, hmm, what's going on. But we still weren't necessarily thinking a verdi would come, and in fact it did. Those charges included we said aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder. Actually, Robes, that was the one that you thought she'd be guilty, but you said, if there's one that maybe they could come back not guilty on, it was the aggravated or attempted aggravated murder when they said she tried to kill them once.
00:03:41
Speaker 1: With a sandwich.
00:03:42
Speaker 3: Yeah, to me, that was a very We talk about how this case was circumstantial, and obviously we've seen time and time and time again that prosecutors can successfully prosecute a murder case without direct evidence, and that.
00:03:57
Speaker 4: Was this case specifically. But when it came to the tell aggravated murder, it seemed a little it seemed.
00:04:05
Speaker 3: Like that was the one that had the least amount of even circumstantial evidence. It was they thought that maybe he got a little sick, he had to take an EpiPen. He also had allergies, so it could have been. To me, there was a reasonable doubt that maybe he did have And look, I have allergies, so I understand having an allergic reaction, having some stomach pain, having to take an EpiPen, having to take some steroids.
00:04:29
Speaker 4: To me, that was that was a little bit more of a stretch of proof. Yeah, more of a stretch might be a better way to put it. But no, the jury came back guilty.
00:04:38
Speaker 2: They essentially said you did everything the prosecution said you did is what they came back with. Because insurance frau, she had two counts of that. They were there forgery. They found her guilty of that as well. Now, the courtroom yesterday, we did talk about beforehand robes. The judge gave the families and friends of the defense and the victim more space in the court room, so it was packed, and it was packed with mostly friends and family, not really the public. This has always just talked about. But let's go with Corey Richand's demeanor before the verdict came robes. You were actually pointing at the screen and watching her chest go up and down.
00:05:18
Speaker 3: Yes, so she has tried to remain stoic, I would say, which might not have been a good call on her part because it ended up looking She ended up looking annoyed and irritated for a lot of the trial and especially during closing. But you could see when you watched her closely, her chest was rising and falling pretty rapidly. She was trying to control her breathing. She was panicked or could tell. And that makes a ton of sense, but.
00:05:46
Speaker 2: It also flew in the face robes of what we've been seeing out of her the last several days of this trial. A different Corey Richins, who was more animated, involved, and quite frankly, looked a little more confident.
00:06:00
Speaker 4: I think that was something that people said.
00:06:02
Speaker 3: She was rolling her eyes, she had kind of a smug sneer on her face when she disagreed.
00:06:08
Speaker 4: With what was being said.
00:06:09
Speaker 3: And then there were even moments when she's when her attorney did score some points here and there in cross examination, or certainly when she would come back from her closing you saw Corey Richan's smile. There was some confidence. That was the first time we saw that. The last couple of days. She actually seemed like I might actually get away with this.
00:06:29
Speaker 2: Even during closing arguments. I would say she had some of that confidence. What did you make of And we only mention this because these things do matter, and they matter to all of these things. Right we hear the defense attorneys take into account, but her look yesterday, how she actually appeared when she was in the courtroom, including her attire.
00:06:53
Speaker 3: Yes she dressed like a conservative, a conservative kind of meek and humble librarian mom. That would be the best way I would describe her. Her look, with her hair, her very light makeup, her very conservative clothing, and look that flew in the face of what prosecutors were trying to describe her as this ambitious real estate vixen of a woman who had a lover on the side who thought her thought she was, you know, the shit, and so yes, this confident, sassy, sexy real estate agent who wanted to ditch her husband.
00:07:32
Speaker 4: She liked her luxurious lifestyle and she wanted it all.
00:07:36
Speaker 3: She did not look that part in court from start to finish, and especially yesterday.
00:07:40
Speaker 1: That was a good way to put it.
00:07:42
Speaker 2: Vixen of a woman is how they were trying to describe her, and the Rosica of the defense was trying to counter that sometimes with her appearance now robes the setup for this. We have always talked throughout this trial about how much we love this judge, and sure enough, before the jury came in, I thought this was it was direct kind, but he put everybody on notice about how to behave when the verdict was going to be read.
00:08:07
Speaker 3: I appreciated this judge from start to finish. His calm demeanor and his calm reactions even when the lawyers were not and when I say lawyers, I mean mostly the defense attorney was really impressive and remarkable. And it's true when you see a judge setting a tone, people follow and so yes, he got ahead of any potential emotion.
00:08:28
Speaker 4: Think about this.
00:08:29
Speaker 3: This was a courtroom, not just with bystanders or people in the community or in the public or the media, which is often what you see in courtrooms, maybe a sprinkling of family and friends who.
00:08:39
Speaker 4: Might be invested. This was a courtroom packed with one side against the other, with.
00:08:46
Speaker 3: Rose packed that were Eric Richards's family and friends, and then rose packed with Corey Richins family and friends. That was a potential powder keg of a courtroom.
00:08:58
Speaker 2: Everyone in there had an emotional in this outcome. Everybody in there, if they had reacted audibly, would have been understandable. He actually instructed them, if you need to sit on your hands, do what you need to do, if you need to put your hands over your face, put your head, whatever you gotta do. But I don't want to hear anything. They listened. I was shocked once it was the verdict was read that there wasn't reaction from the gallery, but Robes he gave a heads up gonna have the defendant stand. He told her that before the jury came in. That was also I thought, also a good setup. He said, I'm just trying to set expectations for how this is going to go. Jury comes in, has her stand, and Robes. I guess leading up to the moment he was the one that read the verdict. But you talked about the heavy breathing in the chest when she stood up right before it was going to be announced. This was as panicked. Then you can understand why this was. She was in full on anxiety.
00:09:54
Speaker 3: You know, we watch a lot of these verdicts. The tension in the moments before the judge read the verdicts was one of the most palpable. I could feel like I can feel my chest tightening right now just reliving it, watching it, watching her, watching her emotions anticipate what he was going to read aloud.
00:10:12
Speaker 4: It was I know this sounds weird, but it was. It felt electric almost in this silence.
00:10:17
Speaker 2: She was terrified and you could see that that is that is that she was terrified in that moment understandably so in robes. He starts reading and the first guilty comes out of his mouth.
00:10:30
Speaker 1: Her head goes down. I don't think it ever came back up.
00:10:33
Speaker 4: It did not.
00:10:34
Speaker 3: Her head fell and you could just feel the life drain out of her. And she never looked up again. She never she never even looked at her attorneys. She never glanced at the judge, She never looked at the jury. She never looked up again. I also noticed her her legal team did not pat her on the back. They didn't comfort her like.
00:10:57
Speaker 4: We do see this sometimes.
00:10:59
Speaker 3: Everyone just stoically sat, stunned, or like they were standing. I'm sorry they weren't sitting, but they were just stoically quiet, silent, with almost no movements.
00:11:10
Speaker 2: I did not see a single person interact with her after guilty was said. Like there was not an acknowledgment, a whisper to her ear, a touching of her shoulder. There was nothing. And we say this, folks, if you did not see it. This was not a quick something. After the first guilty in her head goes down. We had to hear guilty four more times. The judge had to tell the jury thank you. They had to get the jury out of the room. He had to do some housekeeping with the attorneys. She never brought her head back up this entire time. In fact, robes he addressed her directly at one point and said, miss Richards something. She never picked her head up to look at anybody.
00:11:56
Speaker 4: She was done, she was done, she was defeated, and.
00:12:03
Speaker 3: There was almost a resignation in that and she just didn't want to look up. But she didn't show any emotion now one tier.
00:12:10
Speaker 1: She did not.
00:12:12
Speaker 2: We will see if there will be tears later, because in a couple of months she's going to be back in that courtroom for her sentencing, and from what we saw yesterday, you better believe Eric Richard's family is going to be at that sentencing. Stay here, We continue here on Amy and TJ. Guilty on all accounts for Corey Richards, the Utah Mom grief author murder trial, as it's called, accused of poisoning her husband with a fentanyl laced drink and then writing a children's book to help kids deal with the grief loss of a parent. Well, the jury yesterday came back guilty on all accounts, including aggravated murder. She's going to be back for sentencing and robes from But I I can tell here there's a good chance she might not get out of prison the rest of her life.
00:13:03
Speaker 3: That is almost certainly going to be the case by the fact that she was found guilty on all counts. Because the aggravated murder charge alone has a sentencing guideline of twenty five years to life. But you add that with attempted aggravated murder, the insurance fraud charges or now convictions, and the forgery conviction, almost certainly she will not ever get out of prison.
00:13:28
Speaker 4: She's thirty five years old.
00:13:29
Speaker 3: And look, when they were going over the housekeeping of when the sentencing date was going to be scheduled, I believe it was May thirteenth, but there was some time as they were going back and forth the prosecution actually stepped aside and went to go speak to Eric Richard's family to make sure that date was okay with them. And then it kind of hit me, Wow, these folks are I'm sure waiting for that day where they get to give their victim impact statements.
00:13:55
Speaker 1: They've been waiting to speak to her.
00:13:56
Speaker 3: That is going to be a powerful, powerful day in court. We know, we can feel we saw Eric Richard's sister testify. We saw her husband testify and Eric Richard's best friend and business partner, Cody Wright testify. But think about all the people who loved and knew Eric Richinds his father getting up on that stand and being able to speak directly to Corey Richins on the record and having an impact on what the judge decided.
00:14:24
Speaker 2: I thought it was weird and a little uncomfortable, but hey, she's convicted now, so who cares about her feelings? You could argue, But after she just heard that she's guilty and he's going to spend who knows how long positively in prison. They started doing housekeeping and the call that day doesn't.
00:14:41
Speaker 1: Work for me.
00:14:41
Speaker 3: How about a day in April? Ooh, April's booked up. It was like they were booking a vacation and she's sitting there with her head a hum like just you know, probably having an out of body experience, and they're like discussing just basic, you know, housekeeping things.
00:14:56
Speaker 4: How can we get this all worked out?
00:14:57
Speaker 2: The judge was looking at his calendar. You could literally you hear him clicking the mouse and going through his calendar.
00:15:03
Speaker 1: Ooh, that week is bad for me. It was just a bar comical thing.
00:15:07
Speaker 2: I give the prosecutor credit, and any prosecutor credit they do take into account the victim's families considerations. And to see him as the judge was saying, prosecutors this day, work this day. Say can I confer with the family for a minute and literally walk to the back of the courtroom and what I found and again I'm smiling about it. May They had how many people in there for that family? At least a dozen for the Eric Ritchard's family. It took two seconds he said, hey, everybody. You could just see him kind of talking. It took no time. He came back and said, Yep, whatever day in May is gonna be fine.
00:15:42
Speaker 4: Yeah, the entire month of May.
00:15:43
Speaker 1: Family said, we will be here no matter what.
00:15:47
Speaker 3: And I I was looking after the fact to see if any of the family members talked to the local media and so many members of the media that were there covering this trial, and you know, the main few did not, but some of the cousins there, There were a lot of family members in that courtroom and they all told reporters they were.
00:16:03
Speaker 4: Surprised that the jury came back so quickly.
00:16:05
Speaker 3: So it wasn't just us, They said they were actually shocked that there was a verdict already that quickly, and they just talked about how hard it was. And this is where I can't even imagine being a family member of Eric Richards in that court. So many of them were there every single day to relive what happened, to relive this woman who you considered family, This woman who you brought into your home, had around your children and went on vacations with and spent holidays with, was capable of doing what she's now been convicted of. That that's just I can't imagine the emotions behind all of that and the stress. But this will be a chapter they can close, at least in terms of feeling like justice prevailed. Yesterday was the day they were hoping for.
00:16:51
Speaker 2: One man is dead, a woman is going to prison, three boys got no parents, and those other real victims in this case no matter. You can have your opinion about Corey Richards, but my God, Robes, that's three boys who are going to be raised by those aunts and uncles probably that we saw in the courtroom. It's just that's devastating when you think of it. I don't know this one we don't know anything about her, but Rose, We've said plenty of times, how can you That's very difficult for a layperson to understand. It's one thing you mad at your husband, you're mad at your spouse, but you're now you're taking away a parent, right, even if she got away with it, And then you.
00:17:30
Speaker 3: Write a book helping other people's kids deal with grief of losing a parent. The hubris in that is exceptional and certainly obviously made this nationally recognize. It certainly is one of the reasons why this became a national headline grabbing case because who does that.
00:17:52
Speaker 2: Well, Corey Richards, according to this jury, did it, and we'll be going to prison Ford again, guilty on all five counts again, including aggravated murder. We always appreciate you spending some time with us as we've gone along this journey, on this particular trial. Thank you all so much for listening on DJ Holmes on behalf of my dear Amy Robot.
00:18:10
Speaker 1: We will be talking to you soon