She is the wealthy Utah mom accused of murdering her husband by lacing a Moscow Mule cocktail with fentanyl – and then infamously penning a children's book about coping with grief in the aftermath.
Now Kouri Richins is finally set to get her day in court and will face a jury in the swanky ski town of Park City starting Monday.
Richins, 35, has repeatedly claimed she is innocent of the charges against her which include aggravated murder, attempted criminal homicide, two counts of fraudulent insurance claims and forgery.
On Thursday, after jury selection wrapped up, her attorneys released a statement reiterating her innocence, adding: 'What the public has been told bears little resemblance to the truth.'
The missive went on: 'Kouri has waited nearly three years for this moment: the opportunity to have the facts of this case heard by a jury, free from the prosecution's narrative that has dominated headlines since her arrest.
'Now the state must prove the allegations beyond a reasonable doubt. What the public has been told bears little resemblance to the truth.
'We welcome the courtroom, where evidence is bound by rules, not sensational coverage. Kouri is a mother who wants to go home to her children. We are confident this jury will make that possible.'
But cops and Summit County prosecutors have a very different view of the mom-of-three's actions and say Richins killed her husband in 2022 after racking up debts of $250,000 so she could cash in on a $2million life insurance policy she placed on him months before his death.
Kouri Richins, 35, the Utah mother accused of fatally poisoning her husband with a fentanyl-laced Moscow Mule, is finally set to get her day in court as her trial kicks off Monday
The mom-of-three has vehemently denied the charges against her which include aggravated murder, attempted criminal homicide, two counts of fraudulent insurance claims and forgery
Once a mom-of-three living in the picturesque Utah town of Kamas, Richins now occupies cell four in the Summit County Jail's Behavioral Health Unit – a section of the lock-up dedicated to those with mental health and addiction problems.
Police say the roots of the murder drama date back to 2013 when Richins married businessman Eric – who was just 39 when he died – and signed a prenup.
The legal document said Richins could claim some of his assets such as his 50 percent stake in a masonry business if he died before her – but that in the event of a divorce, she would get nothing.
Nonetheless, the marriage began as a happy one with the couple swiftly having three sons together, and Richins continued in her high-powered career as a realtor.
But the relationship ran into trouble less than three years after the wedding, with Richins racking up debt as she flipped homes to sell – culminating, in March 2019, with her opening a bank account with a $250,000 line of credit without telling her husband.
Eric only realized what had happened a year later when he discovered the bank account, a $100,000 withdrawal from his own account and $30,000 in debt on his credit card.
According to his sister Katie, Richins ultimately racked up $494,000 worth of debt which she promised to pay back but never did.
Furious, Eric consulted divorce lawyers and placed all of his assets in a trust for his children that was controlled by his sister and made the trust the beneficiary of his $500,000 life insurance policy.
Richins is currently being held in the Summit County Jail's Behavioral Health Unit where inmates with mental health and addiction issues are locked up
Once a mom-of-three living a seemingly idyllic life in Kamas, Utah, Richins is now accused of plotting to kill her husband over mounting debts, allegedly planning to use his life insurance payout to fund her lifestyle and house-flipping business
Investigators say Richins used a secret home equity line valuing $250,000 to prop up her failing real estate dreams behind husband Eric’s back
According to a family spokesman who spoke to the Daily Mail in May 2023, Eric had always feared Richins would 'kill him for money' and suspected she had been cheating on him throughout the 10-year union.
After learning about her secret debt totaling $494,000, Eric secretly put his sister Katie in charge of a trust holding all his assets for his children and a $500,000 life insurance policy
Greg Skordas told the Daily Mail: There are three reasons Eric stayed: One is 10 years old; one is nine and the third is six.
'He lived for his three boys and unfortunately he died for them too.'
Despite that, the marriage staggered on but in January 2022, Richins was allegedly caught changing the beneficiary of Eric's life insurance payout to herself and upping the premium to $2million.
After her ruse was discovered and the beneficiary switched back to his business partner, the prosecution says the glamorous mom changed tack and purchased 15 to 20 fentanyl pills from a friend, having asked her for 'some of that Michael Jackson stuff'.
On Valentine's Day, the pair had dinner together with Eric becoming violently ill afterwards – even telling a friend he thought his wife had tried to poison him.
Skordas continued: 'Eric was considering divorce at the time he died. It was something he and Kouri had both discussed.
'They had argued over financial issues, and both appeared to be a little more realistic about that prospect.'
Shortly after her husband's death, the mother of three self-published a children's book titled 'Are You with Me?' about an angel wing-clad deceased father watching over his sons
Richins has made repeated pleas of her innocence and has been subjected to numerous claims of witness tampering, culminating in the 'Walk the Dog' letter that prosecutors claim was a bid to tell her family members what to say in court.
He added: 'The sad truth is Eric was worth more to Kouri dead than divorced.'
On March 3, 2022, Richins said she and her husband were celebrating the sale of a house when she made him a Moscow Mule – a cocktail of vodka, ginger beer and lime juice – and took it to him in bed where he drank it and also consumed a THC gummy.
In Richins's account, she then went to bed and woke up the following day to find him dead – immediately calling 911 after the discovery.
An autopsy found he had died of a massive fentanyl overdose and had five times the lethal dose in his system.
Richins, meanwhile, carried on with her life – taking trips to Spain and Mexico and releasing a children's book about grief called Are You With Me? In March 2023, that turned her into a local celebrity.
The following month, she penned a note to the Summit County Sheriff's Department complaining that the ongoing investigation was affecting her life.
Then, in May the same year, she was arrested and charged with Eric's murder, which she has continued to deny.
Eric's family, meanwhile, say they suspected she was to blame for his death from the start – pointing to a civil lawsuit she filed a month after her arrest arguing that the prenup she signed back in 2013 meant she should be handed a chunk of the assets in her late husband's estate.
Richins has been locked up ever since with the case wending torturously through the courts, with claims of witness tampering on her part and a farcical episode that concerned a 'Walk the Dog' letter allegedly telling family members what to say in court.
She has also made repeated failed bids for release and argued for months to get the trial moved from Summit County to Salt Lake City, as well as replacing her entire defense team.
Now, with a five-week trial gearing up to start Monday, a verdict and an end to the long-running saga is finally on the horizon.
