‘I’m afraid if she gets out’: US author’s sons say they want mother to stay in jail

The young sons of Kouri Richins, a Utah author, said ahead of her sentencing hearing Wednesday that they would feel unsafe if their mother was ever released from prison after she was found guilty in March of killing their father.

Richins, 35, faces several decades to life in prison on five felony convictions, including aggravated murder.

Prosecutors said Kouri laced her husband Eric Richins’ cocktail with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl in 2022 at their home near the ski town of Park City. She then published and promoted a children’s book about a boy coping with the death of his father shortly before her arrest in 2023.

Richins’ attorneys declined to comment Tuesday before her sentencing hearing, which falls on the day her husband would have turned 44.

The statements from their sons, who were ages nine, seven and five when their father died, came in a memo from prosecutors urging Judge Richard Mrazik to sentence Richins to life without parole.

The oldest child, now 13, said he wants the court to know that he does not miss his mom.

“I’m afraid if she gets out, she will come after me and my brothers, my whole family,” the oldest son said. “I think she would come and take us and not do good things to us, like hurt us.”

Prosecutors allege the boy suffered emotional and physical abuse from Richins after his father’s death, which they say is supported by findings from the Utah division of child and family services that are contained in a sealed court document.

Richins, a real estate agent with a house-flipping business, was millions in debt and was planning a future with another man, prosecutors said. She had opened numerous life insurance policies on her husband without his knowledge and falsely believed she would inherit his estate worth more than $4m after he died.

Her aggravated murder conviction alone is punishable either by a range of 25 years to life in prison, or a life sentence without parole. Prosecutors did not push for the death penalty.

Jurors also found Richins guilty of other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Valentine’s Day with a fentanyl-laced sandwich that made him black out.

The Richins’ middle child, now 11, refuted his mother’s claim that she slept in his bedroom with him on the night of his father’s death. He recalled unusual circumstances from that night, like being put to bed early without a bath, his parents’ bedroom being locked and the television blaring from inside. The boy said his mother yelled at him to go away after he used a broom to try to reach a key to their bedroom, where Richins later told a 911 operator she found her husband cold to the touch.

The 11-year-old told the judge he is sad that his dad can no longer coach him in sports, celebrate his birthdays, take him camping and fishing, teach him to drive or attend his graduation. Like his older brother, he said he would feel unsafe if his mom wasn’t behind bars.