May 13, 2026
Kouri Richins Sentenced To Life Without Parole, Reads Emotional Letter To Her Sons
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RSS Feed A Utah judge gave 35-year-old Kouri Richins the harshest sentence possible following an emotional day of victim impact statements. In court, we heard directly from Richins’ sons who each wrote statements to the court, asking the judge to make sure their mom never gets out of prison. Eric Richins’ sisters and father also addressed the court, all before Kouri herself took more than 40 minutes offering life advice to her sons and proclaiming her innocence.
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00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey, folks, are just Wednesday, May thirteenth, and simply put, we have never seen or heard anything like the sentencing hearing we just witnessed for Corey Richards, the Utah mom who has been convicted of poisoning her husband. Welcome to this episode of Amy and CJ.
00:00:23
Speaker 2: Roape.
00:00:23
Speaker 1: We had to hit record quickly because you and I have been going back and forth and debating. This is a trial. We watched from start to finish sentencing hearing for Corey Richings and she knows now Robes, and we'll start with that. Her sentence. The judge essentially essentially on count one the murder, had two options twenty five to life or life in prison without parole.
00:00:45
Speaker 3: And he went with the latter of the two, and he went into great explanation as to why. But he just said this woman is too dangerous to ever see the light of day.
00:00:55
Speaker 2: Period.
00:00:56
Speaker 1: And he that's a direct quote, folks.
00:00:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's where Bati pointed to the fact that she wasn't just convicted of first degree murder for poisoning her husband to death seventeen days prior, she was convicted for attempting to poison her husband to death. She just didn't do it right or didn't do it well enough. So I think his point was, when you take those two convictions into consideration, she doubled down, she got the job done. It just went to show you her determination to kill her husband, despite the fact that he was the father of her three children, right, and she did it for money.
00:01:34
Speaker 2: And he said that this was.
00:01:36
Speaker 1: An unbelievable sentencing hearing after what was essentially an unbelievable trial and a pretty unbelievable crime. Corey Richins Robes And for mind folks, we did an episode on this earlier, just kind of setting up what this sentencing hearing was going to be. But she was convicted, Robes. And the reason this got so much attention, there were so many headlines, is because not only was she accused of poisoning and killing her husband, poisoning him with fentanyl in his Moscow mule, but Robes, it's what she did afterwards, becoming a children's book author based on the crime.
00:02:10
Speaker 3: Yes, I mean, I say, if it's all true, but she has been convicted, so let's just we have to say it is true.
00:02:16
Speaker 1: She is a murderer according to the justice correct.
00:02:18
Speaker 3: It's hard enough to imagine that you're willing to continue and to watch your husband suffer through a poisoning that you didn't get right, and then double down on Valentine's Day, by the way, and then yea three weeks later, basically two and a half weeks later, do it again, and do it while your children are sleeping in the room next to you, and knowing that that is a painful way to go, doing it after securing life insurance policies, making sure you're going to get paid handsomely seven figures for your husband's death, and then capitalizing on his murder by looking as though you are a mother trying to console her children because their father, as far as you have painted him, was so addicted to pain pills, because he was in so much pain that he accidentally died by an overdose, which is what she was suggesting. So she's now impugned her husband's reputation, the father of her children's reputation, and now she's going to write a book about how to help your children through the grief of losing a parent, because she knows what it's like because she lost her dad at an early age.
00:03:26
Speaker 2: So she's now trying to be.
00:03:28
Speaker 3: The martyr the savior and profit off of the entire scheme. It's disgusting, it's evil, it's sociopathic.
00:03:39
Speaker 1: Don't know what else to say there, And that was fast. You cannot understand. And I think ropes. A lot of people were trying or were fascinated to listen to this straw because we would like to have an explanation, because there's no way in hell anybody is capable of doing what the headlines say she did. So this was a fascination that brought us to today. And this was and we will let you know, didn't say right off the top. Richans spoke today in court. She got a chance to make a statement and robes. It was a long statement. We will get into what she did, but we do want you to know. We are going to let you know what she said in court today. But there was powerful presentation. Robes after powerful presentation in the court, the judge though, let's get into his decision first. Let's uh yeah, well we'll start their robes. He made clear I got two options, but he made clear robes as well, a dilemma that my heart went out to him. His dilemma was about those boys, right and and and he said it's impossible for any of us to predict what's going to happen in a few decades.
00:04:41
Speaker 3: You know what, he has been an incredible judge and such a thoughtful judge from the beginning. We have been blown away by how he handles his courtroom. And I was so impressed with how he handled this sentencing because he really did factor into account that unknown that it's not possible to know how these young boys are going to feel a decade from now, two decades from now, certainly three decades from now.
00:05:08
Speaker 2: And he was like, on one hand.
00:05:10
Speaker 3: I don't know that I feel comfortable denying them the opportunity even to maybe get to know their mom or to get to understand what happened. But on the other hand, I'm held responsible if these young men feel frightened or scared or still insecure in their own safety with their own families.
00:05:31
Speaker 2: At this point, she would be eligible parole in her sixties if he did the first option. Correct that first option, he said.
00:05:38
Speaker 3: Right, and so the boys would be in their thirties and they will likely have families of their own. He's like to subject them to their mom getting out could be incredibly traumatic. So he was just weighing what should I do?
00:05:50
Speaker 1: And Rome, this is where you and I were when we watched every just about every second of testimony in this case. And this is where as he was talking, we were looking at each other and say, Wow, he is going to for the possibility of parole. But then he's changed his tone a little bit, Robes, and I was trying to I didn't think about it the way he put it. In decades. In decades, I have to decide how those boys are going to be. It's impossible to know. And Robes was one of the most powerful things we saw in the presentation. Yes, Corey Richards had some people testify on her behalf. They testified just to speak on her behalf. One of them was a woman she did not know, but someone who had lost her dad, had killed her mom and dad went to prison. She hated him and whatnot, and she talked about how over time, as she got older and learned more, they got a relationship. She was able to hug him and just to have a sit down and talk and understanding Robes. I really thought, as we were listening to the judge, he didn't want to take that away from those boys, and that possibility from those boys. So yes, yes, I thought he was going in that direction.
00:07:01
Speaker 3: I thought he was going to give I thought he was going to be lenient. I thought he was going to give her twenty five to life. But and I do think he seriously considered it. But from what I gathered from his deliberations, internal deliberations, he just decided that the threat of danger that comes from her outweighed any other, any other possible opportunity for grace and forgiveness. It trumped that because yes, and he said, this is the bottom line. Corey Richins was convicted of attempting to murder Eric Richards and the father of their three children, and then, having failed in her first effort, not changing course, but doubling down and trying again by the administration of.
00:07:45
Speaker 2: Poison and for what the judge asked.
00:07:48
Speaker 3: Money And that's when he said, she is simply too dangerous to ever be free.
00:07:54
Speaker 1: That is he said it, and he put this was so beautiful done by this judge. But when he came to that conclusion, I'm like, well, wow, he's right. Because as we were listening and even the defense attorney made an argument and named all these other cases in the state of Utah right name say, anybody else who was facing and was convicted of this same thing is only serving this and only got this, And I say, wow, that's effective. But Robes she left out the other part. There's an attempted murder as a part of this as well.
00:08:26
Speaker 3: It actually made me think that if she hadn't been convicted of the attempted murder, yes, he would have considered being lenient and given her the twenty five to life sentence, which, yes, to your point, I thought that was compelling by her attorneys to talk about all the other cases in the state of Utah. I believe she said, of all the murder cases, only seventy two inmates in the state of Utah are actually in that same sentence where they are there for life without the possibility of parole. The majority of folks who have committed a murder and even murder of a spouse get fifteen to life.
00:09:02
Speaker 1: Oh right, ches you what she went through and told the people who got life without parole, this is what they were convicted of.
00:09:09
Speaker 2: Multiple murders people, yes, awful, awful crimes.
00:09:14
Speaker 3: And then she went to talk about the folks in the state of Utah who were sentenced to fifteen to life for a murder of a spouse, and it seemed to be more in line with what Corey Richins was convicted of, and so I thought, wow, that was powerful. The big exception, the asterisk was the attempted murder conviction.
00:09:31
Speaker 1: And when he laid it all out, you and I looked at each other. Oh, okay, that makes sense. That makes sense, it does, Robes. You had two weeks to go. Damn, I made a mistake. I shouldn't have tried to kill him. You had time to read. There is something about that act Robes that suggests a particular heinousness.
00:09:50
Speaker 3: Yes, it's a premeditation where you even had an opportunity to reflect when it didn't go the way you thought it was. You saw your husband. So she according, well, no, I shouldn'tay. According to Sher, she was convicted of giving him a sandwich laced with fentanyl on Valentine's Day and he got so sick he broke out in hives. He had to take an EpiPen, he had to take a bunch of benadryl, and he was able to sleep it off.
00:10:14
Speaker 2: But what did she do?
00:10:15
Speaker 3: She went back to her house cleaner and got more ventanyl, got stronger stuff to try and get it done, to try and do it better.
00:10:25
Speaker 2: That signifies premeditation on a whole other level.
00:10:31
Speaker 1: Okay, So the judge certainly made that and again when he said it, it kind of clicked for me. Okay, oh, this makes sense. So the sentencing hearing today there were a lot of powerful victim impact statements. The siblings spoke, the father of the victims spoke, several folks got up on Eric Richard's behalf romees. We haven't hit on this yet. Her demeanor in court today, First of Paul, let's just go with her appearance. She was not dressed as a librarian like she was during the trial. She had to wear the prison garbup. Today she was shackled, but a different look to her.
00:11:05
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, she so she was. She definitely had a librarian look during trial.
00:11:10
Speaker 2: Her hair was.
00:11:11
Speaker 3: Pinned back, just you know, very plain jane. This time she had her hair blown out like It's not like she had makeup or anything on it, but she definitely looked much more like a thirty five year old not a hottie, but I guess a hatty for someone who's in prison. Guarb with no makeup, but she definitely looked much different. She looked more like herself.
00:11:33
Speaker 1: I was a little throned by her parents. I hadn't seen that hair, didn't know she had that much. It was all. It took me a second to adjust. So that's what she showed up looking like in court today, now, Robes. We learned several things today that were a little jaw dropping, at least for me. There were a number of impact statements, victim impact statements, including we heard the suns their victim impact statements were red. We'll share a couple of excerpts. But the sisters got up and spoke. Apparently there's some rift with the family. So it seems like the sisters might be estrange and aren't in connection. That's unfortunate. We don't know how, but some of this kind of came out in court today, But the sisters A couple of things I want to ask you about. One. I didn't realize how long Corey Richins has been out of touch with those kids. And I didn't realize how long she prevented Eric's side of the family from seeing those kids. I learned those two things.
00:12:30
Speaker 2: Yes, and now we know that Eric's side of the family.
00:12:34
Speaker 3: Katie isn't allowing her own sister Amy to see the children, and certainly Corey's family isn't getting access to them either. So this is so sad because these kids have literally been ponds in the middle of this massive family between the Riches, between Corey's family and among the Riches family.
00:12:53
Speaker 2: I think that made me the saddest of it all. Look.
00:12:55
Speaker 3: I know these kinds of tragedies can can pull people apart, but it can also bring them together. And unfortunately, it looks like it ripped the entire Richds family apart for whatever reason. But Katie talked about how she was not able to see her nephews for fifteen months. I did not realize it, and it wasn't until Corey was arrested that she eventually she and her husband were eventually awarded temporary custody of the kids.
00:13:20
Speaker 2: They were in the hands of.
00:13:22
Speaker 3: The state initially, but apparently once Katie and her husband were able to be the custodians of the three rich And boys, she didn't allow her sister Amy and her husband to see that.
00:13:34
Speaker 1: She has not Corey Richards.
00:13:36
Speaker 3: Now.
00:13:38
Speaker 1: I don't know how to feel about it. You're all going to hear the suns, but wrote, I didn't realize she has not at all had contact with the boys in any way, shape or form, and even that letters are being returned unopened and things like that, I did not know that. It's just this is, yes, a human tragedy, a life is lost. But man, there are you could probably say, hey, one hundred plus folks will been directly in some way impact and lies will forever be changed by what happened those three boys, my god over the ages.
00:14:08
Speaker 3: At the time, the time of the murder, it was five to seven and seven, and to think so she was with the boys for fifteen months, so maybe they you know, but for the last several years she has not seen them, she has not heard their voices, she has not gotten any written word to them. So she spent her entire time just talking to them because she has been unable to communicate in any way with them for years.
00:14:35
Speaker 2: Plural.
00:14:36
Speaker 1: A few things of note here. Jeane Richards, the father of Eric Orichins. He was the first to get up there. He kept it together, was pretty stoic, pretty strong, and everything he said. The one thing that got me, wrote is that the team that was a football team that he coached. They still to this day and wrote the murder was twenty twenty two. To this day they still break the huddle with one, two three, Eric that Dad might have hit me more than any else. Hearing that today that was something to hear. But the sister Katie, which it was clear during the trial, she hates this woman and probably hated her before even all of this going down, but she certainly hates her now. And she got up there. We were really anticipating this statement.
00:15:15
Speaker 3: I hope for Katie that she can let go some of that hatred. I mean, it's just so raw and so real. But she talked about who she said, I got something with his sons that he never did time talking about her brother, she.
00:15:30
Speaker 1: Said she almost felt guilty for having that. And so this robes and this is the one I really want to ask you about during her impact statement, and the camera just happened to be angled in such a way that you can see a full view and clear view of Corey Richards the entire time that the sister was speaking Robes. This is where Corey Richards showed out.
00:15:51
Speaker 3: It was not a good look for Corey if we could see it. The judge could see it. And I can't believe her attorneys didn't warn her not to do this. I don't know that they recognized at the camera was like it was as if she was directly over yahring sister Katie's shoulder, and it was unbelievable her reaction, her physical facial expression to what Katie was saying. And look, Katie was saying that my brother literally did not divorce Corey because he was too afraid to let his son spend half of their time with her. That's how evil and dangerous he thought she was. And he only stayed in the marriage to protect his sons because he couldn't imagine them spending half of their time with her alone. And she said he was waiting until the five year old was eighteen because that was the only time in which he felt like he could safely leave his children with her.
00:16:42
Speaker 1: There's some of this stuff that wasn't allowed in doing trial, but now this painted a consistent picture of her in such a way ropes that they made her sound monstrous to me.
00:16:54
Speaker 3: Yes, and so Corey is like dropping her jaw, rolling her eyes, laughing in like incredulous laughter, whispering to her attorney, just being like completely disrespectful and rude and just making Really I've never seen a defendant make facial expressions the way she did.
00:17:14
Speaker 1: To the point I actually thought he might Is he going to say something to her about this? He never did, and it continued. The sister got up as well. I guess what we got out of this Robe the other sister. So Katie was one, Amy Richins was the other, but Robes. This was pretty powerful to say that during this whole process, one she lost her job, but Robe she spoke about miscarriage.
00:17:32
Speaker 3: She said she lost her twins from all the stress from this. So she said that basically this tragedy, Yes she lost her brother, Yes these boys lost their father, but she said she lost her future life with children, that she dreamed of her entire life, That she lost her job. I mean, she describes just an unbelievable tragic outcome that affected her. And it seems as though this sisters also had some massive falling out. It was interesting because she described grieving losing the friendship with Corey, and maybe that was part of the reason why Katy and Amy don't get along, because maybe initially Katie defended Amy, or maybe she thought that Amy maybe excuse me, maybe Amy thought that Corey didn't do it. But there was a friendship that it seemed existed between Amy and Corey that did not exist between Katie and Corey. So we don't know if that's part of the root cause of this fractured relationship, but it's oh my god, it was devastating to listen to Amy Richand's talk about the impact that her brother's death had on her.
00:18:35
Speaker 2: It was gut It was gut wrenching.
00:18:37
Speaker 1: You know, as gut rinching as all of that was, folks, it wasn't the most gut riching thing we heard in court. There were victim impact statements from the sons who were nine, seven and five at the time of the murders, who are now thirteen eleven and eight, about to be nine.
00:18:56
Speaker 2: Y right, believe that's yes, we.
00:18:59
Speaker 1: Heard from them. Their statements were read, do not go away, stay here, all right, we continue here on Amy and TJ. Now rope, let's get to the victim impact statements from the sons who are now again thirteen eleven and eight. He's about to be nine, so that's how But all sons, they're only referred to as wrar and cr and robes. You have to help me remind me the ages. But wr will start with that statement I can't remember which.
00:19:34
Speaker 3: They did it in a different order, to the point where actually the oldest was read last, and we said it sounded as if he was the youngest, just because of the way he was expressing himself. But look, I know the judge took this into consideration. They haven't had any conversations with their mom for years. They've only heard from Katie, who obviously cannot stand their mother and has a lot of anger.
00:19:54
Speaker 2: And so they were describing what life was like with the mom.
00:20:00
Speaker 3: And I don't know how much many of them could remember, but the oldest one certainly had to have a lot, a lot of grievances that he was airing out with his mom, Like basically, you let all my animals die, You wouldn't feed them.
00:20:12
Speaker 2: You made us eat uncooked spaghetti.
00:20:14
Speaker 3: Uh.
00:20:15
Speaker 1: I thought that was the ag.
00:20:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, like all the things kids would remember that felt traumatic at the time to them.
00:20:20
Speaker 2: You locked us in our room, you know.
00:20:22
Speaker 3: You the way he talked about being punished, She said you were drunk all the time. Yeah, I mean, there was some really damning, damning statements that these boys made.
00:20:31
Speaker 1: But Robes the most damning statements. And these are direct quotes. Can you imagine as a mother hearing your child say this quote, I feel a lot better about myself now than I did with Corey. I want her to go to prison. If she got out, I would be so scared and really mad. Once she is gone, I will feel happy and safer and relax and trust people more. End quote. That is a kid talking about his mom and calling her by her first name.
00:21:08
Speaker 2: They all called her by her first name. They all referred to her as.
00:21:11
Speaker 1: Cool, stating stuff to hear from the kids. Man.
00:21:14
Speaker 3: The other one said, you only cared about yourself and your stupid boyfriends plural.
00:21:19
Speaker 1: When I heard that, that's the kids aware of something. Robes that kid that and again. They all these the advocates, and they had separate ones, like different psychologists.
00:21:30
Speaker 2: They were social workers and licensed therapists.
00:21:32
Speaker 3: I think they were both the ar We only know their initials. But the laying in bed story, he said all he wanted to do was lay in bed where his dad was to be close to him. And he said, you told me that I should be careful, that I might die too. What they were describing was the most evil mom ever?
00:21:52
Speaker 1: It was jos The bead story was it was the bed story. I could not believe they painted. When you hear the kids, you have to give them credibility in their word robes and I understand that they have been in the custody of the family that hates her. Have they been poisoned to this point, I don't know how that works, but they are of an age they've seen enough and they're aware of enough robes, and they were aware of how the mom behaved or how they were treated or incident robes. That was very That was some specificity with that Lasagna story.
00:22:25
Speaker 3: Yes, but how about you mentioned poisoning and we're talking about poisoning of the mind.
00:22:28
Speaker 1: Oh, that's the biggest They are.
00:22:30
Speaker 3: Had this story about how he believes Corey his mom tried to poison him with the same ventanyl. He described getting sick and how she wouldn't take him to the hospital and that once he got to the hospital because someone else took him, she wouldn't let them take blood samples because he said, I'm pretty sure you gave me ventanyl.
00:22:50
Speaker 1: Now this is a When they were reading these, they started with saying We've been asked to read these verbatim exactly as they've been written, so they were not edited, and there were some gradical errors here and there and all kinds of stuff, but exactly so these kids, these words are coming from those kids.
00:23:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Corey was always drunk or gone.
00:23:11
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, So that's sorry, that's a compliment.
00:23:14
Speaker 2: Corey threatened she would kill my lizard. Yeah, all of my chickens died.
00:23:19
Speaker 3: My rabbit died. I'm angry she killed my dad. I do not miss Corey.
00:23:24
Speaker 2: I mean this. They were angry, these boys.
00:23:28
Speaker 1: But we have to mention that Corey, Corey Richand's got up and made a statement at the end. Now, the court took a break, said you wanted to make sure she had a bathroom break, got a bite to eat. So it took a half hour before they came back, and she gave her a statement. And this thing went what forty five minutes at least. Ropes and she's standing up there with all of her attorneys flanking her, and she reads a pretty long statement. But the statement Robes turns out to be not a statement of any kind. It's a letter to her sons.
00:23:52
Speaker 3: Yes, she said she was going to take the opportunity so that her sons could finally hear from her directly, even if it was ten years from now, twenty years from now. She wanted it to be on the court record. She wanted them to be able to at least at some point in their lives access what she had to say. And so she took the liberty of speaking. And basically it was a lifetime of parenting all the things that you'd want to tell you, and it was she was recognizing that she was almost certainly never going to get to ever speak to them again, or at least while before they were adults, and so she took the opportunity to say everything a mom would want to say to her kids, knowing that she was never going to be able to speak to them again.
00:24:34
Speaker 1: That that's a good way to put it. She put a lifetime Apparently she gave us the heads up, this is going to be long, and we thought, oh, what's happening. And she didn't take an opportunity right necessarily robes here to defend herself or even to lash out. She had a couple of lines here or there where she was trying to get a point across, but generally speaking, she was talking directly to those boys.
00:24:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, and the only time at the end she did say that what happened was completely wrong, that that is an absolute lie about killing your dad. She said, the justice, the justice system will get this right, though this courtroom can't seem to. Yeah, that was maybe not a good move when the person who's making the decision about your sentencing is hearing you.
00:25:13
Speaker 2: But look, she she did pretty much just keep it to.
00:25:16
Speaker 3: Her sons, telling them how to live, telling them what to do, what not to do, just basically trying to parent them and telling them that you're my reason for living.
00:25:27
Speaker 2: But she did defend herself, not as much as I thought she would.
00:25:31
Speaker 1: Have, though, I'm trying to find that line something she said to them about don't ever apologize for something you do.
00:25:36
Speaker 3: She said, never beg for mercy for something you didn't do.
00:25:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, factly, we'll see what happens at appeal. But this was again Rose, I said to you as we were discussing, I think might have said on the mic here. You and I watched almost every second of testimony in that trial, and we started to get they painted a picture, and you get an idea of her. But this today painted a much different picture even that we had of her before. When it was when everybody got to say their piece, it did paint a picture about her. A lot of that stuff wasn't allowed to get in, as evidenced during the trial. But when everybody got to speak, and you can say, yes, they were motivated because they didn't like her and they believe she killed their loved one. But Robe, they painted a pretty damning picture of her her behavior over time. Robes, I cannot believe boys that age could speak about their mom in such a way. You just they just don't get reprogrammed that quickly. Robes, I just all of my faith. I will listen to those kids. I just to speak about your mom that way.
00:26:53
Speaker 3: I mean, this was one of those moments where I started thinking to myself, it's in a perfect world or whatever anyone any one who is even considering and scarily enough, obviously somehow people it has to be for greed or maybe even just for access to your kids. Why anyone would consider murdering their spouse rather than just getting a divorce. Should just watch this trial from start to finish, and watch the sentencing hearing today and see the damage, the harm, everything that's caused by a selfish act of wanting to a have your kids to yourself, or b to keep all the money for yourself.
00:27:32
Speaker 2: Or see all of the above.
00:27:34
Speaker 3: It is disgusting what happens when people act for whatever reason, but specifically that's that's the motivation.
00:27:43
Speaker 1: Oftentimes you spoke of her selfish act, but Eric Richard's sisters today spoke of his selfless act that they believe got him killed, which was being committed to staying in this marriage in which he even thought that this woman was dangerous just for the sake of protecting the kids.
00:28:06
Speaker 2: What else.
00:28:07
Speaker 1: What a frickin' story, but it is at least over for now. We always appreciate you spending some time with us and you know, going along with us for this trial. But for my dear Ammy Robot, I am T J. Holmes. We'll talk to
Speaker 1: Hey, folks, are just Wednesday, May thirteenth, and simply put, we have never seen or heard anything like the sentencing hearing we just witnessed for Corey Richards, the Utah mom who has been convicted of poisoning her husband. Welcome to this episode of Amy and CJ.
00:00:23
Speaker 2: Roape.
00:00:23
Speaker 1: We had to hit record quickly because you and I have been going back and forth and debating. This is a trial. We watched from start to finish sentencing hearing for Corey Richings and she knows now Robes, and we'll start with that. Her sentence. The judge essentially essentially on count one the murder, had two options twenty five to life or life in prison without parole.
00:00:45
Speaker 3: And he went with the latter of the two, and he went into great explanation as to why. But he just said this woman is too dangerous to ever see the light of day.
00:00:55
Speaker 2: Period.
00:00:56
Speaker 1: And he that's a direct quote, folks.
00:00:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's where Bati pointed to the fact that she wasn't just convicted of first degree murder for poisoning her husband to death seventeen days prior, she was convicted for attempting to poison her husband to death. She just didn't do it right or didn't do it well enough. So I think his point was, when you take those two convictions into consideration, she doubled down, she got the job done. It just went to show you her determination to kill her husband, despite the fact that he was the father of her three children, right, and she did it for money.
00:01:34
Speaker 2: And he said that this was.
00:01:36
Speaker 1: An unbelievable sentencing hearing after what was essentially an unbelievable trial and a pretty unbelievable crime. Corey Richins Robes And for mind folks, we did an episode on this earlier, just kind of setting up what this sentencing hearing was going to be. But she was convicted, Robes. And the reason this got so much attention, there were so many headlines, is because not only was she accused of poisoning and killing her husband, poisoning him with fentanyl in his Moscow mule, but Robes, it's what she did afterwards, becoming a children's book author based on the crime.
00:02:10
Speaker 3: Yes, I mean, I say, if it's all true, but she has been convicted, so let's just we have to say it is true.
00:02:16
Speaker 1: She is a murderer according to the justice correct.
00:02:18
Speaker 3: It's hard enough to imagine that you're willing to continue and to watch your husband suffer through a poisoning that you didn't get right, and then double down on Valentine's Day, by the way, and then yea three weeks later, basically two and a half weeks later, do it again, and do it while your children are sleeping in the room next to you, and knowing that that is a painful way to go, doing it after securing life insurance policies, making sure you're going to get paid handsomely seven figures for your husband's death, and then capitalizing on his murder by looking as though you are a mother trying to console her children because their father, as far as you have painted him, was so addicted to pain pills, because he was in so much pain that he accidentally died by an overdose, which is what she was suggesting. So she's now impugned her husband's reputation, the father of her children's reputation, and now she's going to write a book about how to help your children through the grief of losing a parent, because she knows what it's like because she lost her dad at an early age.
00:03:26
Speaker 2: So she's now trying to be.
00:03:28
Speaker 3: The martyr the savior and profit off of the entire scheme. It's disgusting, it's evil, it's sociopathic.
00:03:39
Speaker 1: Don't know what else to say there, And that was fast. You cannot understand. And I think ropes. A lot of people were trying or were fascinated to listen to this straw because we would like to have an explanation, because there's no way in hell anybody is capable of doing what the headlines say she did. So this was a fascination that brought us to today. And this was and we will let you know, didn't say right off the top. Richans spoke today in court. She got a chance to make a statement and robes. It was a long statement. We will get into what she did, but we do want you to know. We are going to let you know what she said in court today. But there was powerful presentation. Robes after powerful presentation in the court, the judge though, let's get into his decision first. Let's uh yeah, well we'll start their robes. He made clear I got two options, but he made clear robes as well, a dilemma that my heart went out to him. His dilemma was about those boys, right and and and he said it's impossible for any of us to predict what's going to happen in a few decades.
00:04:41
Speaker 3: You know what, he has been an incredible judge and such a thoughtful judge from the beginning. We have been blown away by how he handles his courtroom. And I was so impressed with how he handled this sentencing because he really did factor into account that unknown that it's not possible to know how these young boys are going to feel a decade from now, two decades from now, certainly three decades from now.
00:05:08
Speaker 2: And he was like, on one hand.
00:05:10
Speaker 3: I don't know that I feel comfortable denying them the opportunity even to maybe get to know their mom or to get to understand what happened. But on the other hand, I'm held responsible if these young men feel frightened or scared or still insecure in their own safety with their own families.
00:05:31
Speaker 2: At this point, she would be eligible parole in her sixties if he did the first option. Correct that first option, he said.
00:05:38
Speaker 3: Right, and so the boys would be in their thirties and they will likely have families of their own. He's like to subject them to their mom getting out could be incredibly traumatic. So he was just weighing what should I do?
00:05:50
Speaker 1: And Rome, this is where you and I were when we watched every just about every second of testimony in this case. And this is where as he was talking, we were looking at each other and say, Wow, he is going to for the possibility of parole. But then he's changed his tone a little bit, Robes, and I was trying to I didn't think about it the way he put it. In decades. In decades, I have to decide how those boys are going to be. It's impossible to know. And Robes was one of the most powerful things we saw in the presentation. Yes, Corey Richards had some people testify on her behalf. They testified just to speak on her behalf. One of them was a woman she did not know, but someone who had lost her dad, had killed her mom and dad went to prison. She hated him and whatnot, and she talked about how over time, as she got older and learned more, they got a relationship. She was able to hug him and just to have a sit down and talk and understanding Robes. I really thought, as we were listening to the judge, he didn't want to take that away from those boys, and that possibility from those boys. So yes, yes, I thought he was going in that direction.
00:07:01
Speaker 3: I thought he was going to give I thought he was going to be lenient. I thought he was going to give her twenty five to life. But and I do think he seriously considered it. But from what I gathered from his deliberations, internal deliberations, he just decided that the threat of danger that comes from her outweighed any other, any other possible opportunity for grace and forgiveness. It trumped that because yes, and he said, this is the bottom line. Corey Richins was convicted of attempting to murder Eric Richards and the father of their three children, and then, having failed in her first effort, not changing course, but doubling down and trying again by the administration of.
00:07:45
Speaker 2: Poison and for what the judge asked.
00:07:48
Speaker 3: Money And that's when he said, she is simply too dangerous to ever be free.
00:07:54
Speaker 1: That is he said it, and he put this was so beautiful done by this judge. But when he came to that conclusion, I'm like, well, wow, he's right. Because as we were listening and even the defense attorney made an argument and named all these other cases in the state of Utah right name say, anybody else who was facing and was convicted of this same thing is only serving this and only got this, And I say, wow, that's effective. But Robes she left out the other part. There's an attempted murder as a part of this as well.
00:08:26
Speaker 3: It actually made me think that if she hadn't been convicted of the attempted murder, yes, he would have considered being lenient and given her the twenty five to life sentence, which, yes, to your point, I thought that was compelling by her attorneys to talk about all the other cases in the state of Utah. I believe she said, of all the murder cases, only seventy two inmates in the state of Utah are actually in that same sentence where they are there for life without the possibility of parole. The majority of folks who have committed a murder and even murder of a spouse get fifteen to life.
00:09:02
Speaker 1: Oh right, ches you what she went through and told the people who got life without parole, this is what they were convicted of.
00:09:09
Speaker 2: Multiple murders people, yes, awful, awful crimes.
00:09:14
Speaker 3: And then she went to talk about the folks in the state of Utah who were sentenced to fifteen to life for a murder of a spouse, and it seemed to be more in line with what Corey Richins was convicted of, and so I thought, wow, that was powerful. The big exception, the asterisk was the attempted murder conviction.
00:09:31
Speaker 1: And when he laid it all out, you and I looked at each other. Oh, okay, that makes sense. That makes sense, it does, Robes. You had two weeks to go. Damn, I made a mistake. I shouldn't have tried to kill him. You had time to read. There is something about that act Robes that suggests a particular heinousness.
00:09:50
Speaker 3: Yes, it's a premeditation where you even had an opportunity to reflect when it didn't go the way you thought it was. You saw your husband. So she according, well, no, I shouldn'tay. According to Sher, she was convicted of giving him a sandwich laced with fentanyl on Valentine's Day and he got so sick he broke out in hives. He had to take an EpiPen, he had to take a bunch of benadryl, and he was able to sleep it off.
00:10:14
Speaker 2: But what did she do?
00:10:15
Speaker 3: She went back to her house cleaner and got more ventanyl, got stronger stuff to try and get it done, to try and do it better.
00:10:25
Speaker 2: That signifies premeditation on a whole other level.
00:10:31
Speaker 1: Okay, So the judge certainly made that and again when he said it, it kind of clicked for me. Okay, oh, this makes sense. So the sentencing hearing today there were a lot of powerful victim impact statements. The siblings spoke, the father of the victims spoke, several folks got up on Eric Richard's behalf romees. We haven't hit on this yet. Her demeanor in court today, First of Paul, let's just go with her appearance. She was not dressed as a librarian like she was during the trial. She had to wear the prison garbup. Today she was shackled, but a different look to her.
00:11:05
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, she so she was. She definitely had a librarian look during trial.
00:11:10
Speaker 2: Her hair was.
00:11:11
Speaker 3: Pinned back, just you know, very plain jane. This time she had her hair blown out like It's not like she had makeup or anything on it, but she definitely looked much more like a thirty five year old not a hottie, but I guess a hatty for someone who's in prison. Guarb with no makeup, but she definitely looked much different. She looked more like herself.
00:11:33
Speaker 1: I was a little throned by her parents. I hadn't seen that hair, didn't know she had that much. It was all. It took me a second to adjust. So that's what she showed up looking like in court today, now, Robes. We learned several things today that were a little jaw dropping, at least for me. There were a number of impact statements, victim impact statements, including we heard the suns their victim impact statements were red. We'll share a couple of excerpts. But the sisters got up and spoke. Apparently there's some rift with the family. So it seems like the sisters might be estrange and aren't in connection. That's unfortunate. We don't know how, but some of this kind of came out in court today, But the sisters A couple of things I want to ask you about. One. I didn't realize how long Corey Richins has been out of touch with those kids. And I didn't realize how long she prevented Eric's side of the family from seeing those kids. I learned those two things.
00:12:30
Speaker 2: Yes, and now we know that Eric's side of the family.
00:12:34
Speaker 3: Katie isn't allowing her own sister Amy to see the children, and certainly Corey's family isn't getting access to them either. So this is so sad because these kids have literally been ponds in the middle of this massive family between the Riches, between Corey's family and among the Riches family.
00:12:53
Speaker 2: I think that made me the saddest of it all. Look.
00:12:55
Speaker 3: I know these kinds of tragedies can can pull people apart, but it can also bring them together. And unfortunately, it looks like it ripped the entire Richds family apart for whatever reason. But Katie talked about how she was not able to see her nephews for fifteen months. I did not realize it, and it wasn't until Corey was arrested that she eventually she and her husband were eventually awarded temporary custody of the kids.
00:13:20
Speaker 2: They were in the hands of.
00:13:22
Speaker 3: The state initially, but apparently once Katie and her husband were able to be the custodians of the three rich And boys, she didn't allow her sister Amy and her husband to see that.
00:13:34
Speaker 1: She has not Corey Richards.
00:13:36
Speaker 3: Now.
00:13:38
Speaker 1: I don't know how to feel about it. You're all going to hear the suns, but wrote, I didn't realize she has not at all had contact with the boys in any way, shape or form, and even that letters are being returned unopened and things like that, I did not know that. It's just this is, yes, a human tragedy, a life is lost. But man, there are you could probably say, hey, one hundred plus folks will been directly in some way impact and lies will forever be changed by what happened those three boys, my god over the ages.
00:14:08
Speaker 3: At the time, the time of the murder, it was five to seven and seven, and to think so she was with the boys for fifteen months, so maybe they you know, but for the last several years she has not seen them, she has not heard their voices, she has not gotten any written word to them. So she spent her entire time just talking to them because she has been unable to communicate in any way with them for years.
00:14:35
Speaker 2: Plural.
00:14:36
Speaker 1: A few things of note here. Jeane Richards, the father of Eric Orichins. He was the first to get up there. He kept it together, was pretty stoic, pretty strong, and everything he said. The one thing that got me, wrote is that the team that was a football team that he coached. They still to this day and wrote the murder was twenty twenty two. To this day they still break the huddle with one, two three, Eric that Dad might have hit me more than any else. Hearing that today that was something to hear. But the sister Katie, which it was clear during the trial, she hates this woman and probably hated her before even all of this going down, but she certainly hates her now. And she got up there. We were really anticipating this statement.
00:15:15
Speaker 3: I hope for Katie that she can let go some of that hatred. I mean, it's just so raw and so real. But she talked about who she said, I got something with his sons that he never did time talking about her brother, she.
00:15:30
Speaker 1: Said she almost felt guilty for having that. And so this robes and this is the one I really want to ask you about during her impact statement, and the camera just happened to be angled in such a way that you can see a full view and clear view of Corey Richards the entire time that the sister was speaking Robes. This is where Corey Richards showed out.
00:15:51
Speaker 3: It was not a good look for Corey if we could see it. The judge could see it. And I can't believe her attorneys didn't warn her not to do this. I don't know that they recognized at the camera was like it was as if she was directly over yahring sister Katie's shoulder, and it was unbelievable her reaction, her physical facial expression to what Katie was saying. And look, Katie was saying that my brother literally did not divorce Corey because he was too afraid to let his son spend half of their time with her. That's how evil and dangerous he thought she was. And he only stayed in the marriage to protect his sons because he couldn't imagine them spending half of their time with her alone. And she said he was waiting until the five year old was eighteen because that was the only time in which he felt like he could safely leave his children with her.
00:16:42
Speaker 1: There's some of this stuff that wasn't allowed in doing trial, but now this painted a consistent picture of her in such a way ropes that they made her sound monstrous to me.
00:16:54
Speaker 3: Yes, and so Corey is like dropping her jaw, rolling her eyes, laughing in like incredulous laughter, whispering to her attorney, just being like completely disrespectful and rude and just making Really I've never seen a defendant make facial expressions the way she did.
00:17:14
Speaker 1: To the point I actually thought he might Is he going to say something to her about this? He never did, and it continued. The sister got up as well. I guess what we got out of this Robe the other sister. So Katie was one, Amy Richins was the other, but Robes. This was pretty powerful to say that during this whole process, one she lost her job, but Robe she spoke about miscarriage.
00:17:32
Speaker 3: She said she lost her twins from all the stress from this. So she said that basically this tragedy, Yes she lost her brother, Yes these boys lost their father, but she said she lost her future life with children, that she dreamed of her entire life, That she lost her job. I mean, she describes just an unbelievable tragic outcome that affected her. And it seems as though this sisters also had some massive falling out. It was interesting because she described grieving losing the friendship with Corey, and maybe that was part of the reason why Katy and Amy don't get along, because maybe initially Katie defended Amy, or maybe she thought that Amy maybe excuse me, maybe Amy thought that Corey didn't do it. But there was a friendship that it seemed existed between Amy and Corey that did not exist between Katie and Corey. So we don't know if that's part of the root cause of this fractured relationship, but it's oh my god, it was devastating to listen to Amy Richand's talk about the impact that her brother's death had on her.
00:18:35
Speaker 2: It was gut It was gut wrenching.
00:18:37
Speaker 1: You know, as gut rinching as all of that was, folks, it wasn't the most gut riching thing we heard in court. There were victim impact statements from the sons who were nine, seven and five at the time of the murders, who are now thirteen eleven and eight, about to be nine.
00:18:56
Speaker 2: Y right, believe that's yes, we.
00:18:59
Speaker 1: Heard from them. Their statements were read, do not go away, stay here, all right, we continue here on Amy and TJ. Now rope, let's get to the victim impact statements from the sons who are now again thirteen eleven and eight. He's about to be nine, so that's how But all sons, they're only referred to as wrar and cr and robes. You have to help me remind me the ages. But wr will start with that statement I can't remember which.
00:19:34
Speaker 3: They did it in a different order, to the point where actually the oldest was read last, and we said it sounded as if he was the youngest, just because of the way he was expressing himself. But look, I know the judge took this into consideration. They haven't had any conversations with their mom for years. They've only heard from Katie, who obviously cannot stand their mother and has a lot of anger.
00:19:54
Speaker 2: And so they were describing what life was like with the mom.
00:20:00
Speaker 3: And I don't know how much many of them could remember, but the oldest one certainly had to have a lot, a lot of grievances that he was airing out with his mom, Like basically, you let all my animals die, You wouldn't feed them.
00:20:12
Speaker 2: You made us eat uncooked spaghetti.
00:20:14
Speaker 3: Uh.
00:20:15
Speaker 1: I thought that was the ag.
00:20:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, like all the things kids would remember that felt traumatic at the time to them.
00:20:20
Speaker 2: You locked us in our room, you know.
00:20:22
Speaker 3: You the way he talked about being punished, She said you were drunk all the time. Yeah, I mean, there was some really damning, damning statements that these boys made.
00:20:31
Speaker 1: But Robes the most damning statements. And these are direct quotes. Can you imagine as a mother hearing your child say this quote, I feel a lot better about myself now than I did with Corey. I want her to go to prison. If she got out, I would be so scared and really mad. Once she is gone, I will feel happy and safer and relax and trust people more. End quote. That is a kid talking about his mom and calling her by her first name.
00:21:08
Speaker 2: They all called her by her first name. They all referred to her as.
00:21:11
Speaker 1: Cool, stating stuff to hear from the kids. Man.
00:21:14
Speaker 3: The other one said, you only cared about yourself and your stupid boyfriends plural.
00:21:19
Speaker 1: When I heard that, that's the kids aware of something. Robes that kid that and again. They all these the advocates, and they had separate ones, like different psychologists.
00:21:30
Speaker 2: They were social workers and licensed therapists.
00:21:32
Speaker 3: I think they were both the ar We only know their initials. But the laying in bed story, he said all he wanted to do was lay in bed where his dad was to be close to him. And he said, you told me that I should be careful, that I might die too. What they were describing was the most evil mom ever?
00:21:52
Speaker 1: It was jos The bead story was it was the bed story. I could not believe they painted. When you hear the kids, you have to give them credibility in their word robes and I understand that they have been in the custody of the family that hates her. Have they been poisoned to this point, I don't know how that works, but they are of an age they've seen enough and they're aware of enough robes, and they were aware of how the mom behaved or how they were treated or incident robes. That was very That was some specificity with that Lasagna story.
00:22:25
Speaker 3: Yes, but how about you mentioned poisoning and we're talking about poisoning of the mind.
00:22:28
Speaker 1: Oh, that's the biggest They are.
00:22:30
Speaker 3: Had this story about how he believes Corey his mom tried to poison him with the same ventanyl. He described getting sick and how she wouldn't take him to the hospital and that once he got to the hospital because someone else took him, she wouldn't let them take blood samples because he said, I'm pretty sure you gave me ventanyl.
00:22:50
Speaker 1: Now this is a When they were reading these, they started with saying We've been asked to read these verbatim exactly as they've been written, so they were not edited, and there were some gradical errors here and there and all kinds of stuff, but exactly so these kids, these words are coming from those kids.
00:23:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Corey was always drunk or gone.
00:23:11
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, So that's sorry, that's a compliment.
00:23:14
Speaker 2: Corey threatened she would kill my lizard. Yeah, all of my chickens died.
00:23:19
Speaker 3: My rabbit died. I'm angry she killed my dad. I do not miss Corey.
00:23:24
Speaker 2: I mean this. They were angry, these boys.
00:23:28
Speaker 1: But we have to mention that Corey, Corey Richand's got up and made a statement at the end. Now, the court took a break, said you wanted to make sure she had a bathroom break, got a bite to eat. So it took a half hour before they came back, and she gave her a statement. And this thing went what forty five minutes at least. Ropes and she's standing up there with all of her attorneys flanking her, and she reads a pretty long statement. But the statement Robes turns out to be not a statement of any kind. It's a letter to her sons.
00:23:52
Speaker 3: Yes, she said she was going to take the opportunity so that her sons could finally hear from her directly, even if it was ten years from now, twenty years from now. She wanted it to be on the court record. She wanted them to be able to at least at some point in their lives access what she had to say. And so she took the liberty of speaking. And basically it was a lifetime of parenting all the things that you'd want to tell you, and it was she was recognizing that she was almost certainly never going to get to ever speak to them again, or at least while before they were adults, and so she took the opportunity to say everything a mom would want to say to her kids, knowing that she was never going to be able to speak to them again.
00:24:34
Speaker 1: That that's a good way to put it. She put a lifetime Apparently she gave us the heads up, this is going to be long, and we thought, oh, what's happening. And she didn't take an opportunity right necessarily robes here to defend herself or even to lash out. She had a couple of lines here or there where she was trying to get a point across, but generally speaking, she was talking directly to those boys.
00:24:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, and the only time at the end she did say that what happened was completely wrong, that that is an absolute lie about killing your dad. She said, the justice, the justice system will get this right, though this courtroom can't seem to. Yeah, that was maybe not a good move when the person who's making the decision about your sentencing is hearing you.
00:25:13
Speaker 2: But look, she she did pretty much just keep it to.
00:25:16
Speaker 3: Her sons, telling them how to live, telling them what to do, what not to do, just basically trying to parent them and telling them that you're my reason for living.
00:25:27
Speaker 2: But she did defend herself, not as much as I thought she would.
00:25:31
Speaker 1: Have, though, I'm trying to find that line something she said to them about don't ever apologize for something you do.
00:25:36
Speaker 3: She said, never beg for mercy for something you didn't do.
00:25:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, factly, we'll see what happens at appeal. But this was again Rose, I said to you as we were discussing, I think might have said on the mic here. You and I watched almost every second of testimony in that trial, and we started to get they painted a picture, and you get an idea of her. But this today painted a much different picture even that we had of her before. When it was when everybody got to say their piece, it did paint a picture about her. A lot of that stuff wasn't allowed to get in, as evidenced during the trial. But when everybody got to speak, and you can say, yes, they were motivated because they didn't like her and they believe she killed their loved one. But Robe, they painted a pretty damning picture of her her behavior over time. Robes, I cannot believe boys that age could speak about their mom in such a way. You just they just don't get reprogrammed that quickly. Robes, I just all of my faith. I will listen to those kids. I just to speak about your mom that way.
00:26:53
Speaker 3: I mean, this was one of those moments where I started thinking to myself, it's in a perfect world or whatever anyone any one who is even considering and scarily enough, obviously somehow people it has to be for greed or maybe even just for access to your kids. Why anyone would consider murdering their spouse rather than just getting a divorce. Should just watch this trial from start to finish, and watch the sentencing hearing today and see the damage, the harm, everything that's caused by a selfish act of wanting to a have your kids to yourself, or b to keep all the money for yourself.
00:27:32
Speaker 2: Or see all of the above.
00:27:34
Speaker 3: It is disgusting what happens when people act for whatever reason, but specifically that's that's the motivation.
00:27:43
Speaker 1: Oftentimes you spoke of her selfish act, but Eric Richard's sisters today spoke of his selfless act that they believe got him killed, which was being committed to staying in this marriage in which he even thought that this woman was dangerous just for the sake of protecting the kids.
00:28:06
Speaker 2: What else.
00:28:07
Speaker 1: What a frickin' story, but it is at least over for now. We always appreciate you spending some time with us and you know, going along with us for this trial. But for my dear Ammy Robot, I am T J. Holmes. We'll talk to