Kouri Richins murder trial starts, putting Utah in the true-crime spotlight

Prosecutors will focus on the reasons Kouri Richins had for killing her husband, her defense attorney told jurors Monday, and here’s why: “They can’t show you that she did kill her husband.” Richins told police she found Eric Richins, 39, cold to the touch in their bed around 3 a.m. on March 4, 2022, in the Kamas home they shared with their three sons. “What you will never hear, after four years of investigation, where as recently as two weeks ago they were back searching that house … is how that fentanyl got inside of him, because there’s zero evidence of that,” Kathy Nester, Richins’ attorney, said Monday in the opening arguments of her aggravated murder trial in Park City. “His death certificate reads that the manner of his death is still unknown,” Nester said, “to this day.” The estimated five-week trial, scheduled to run through March 26, has captured national attention and is being livestreamed by multiple news outlets. Summit County prosecutors contend that Richins, who was “chronically unhappy in her marriage,” poisoned her husband, laying out a timeline that includes her making and serving him a drink before he went to bed that night. Reporting: Jordan Miller Video: Trevor Christensen The Salt Lake Tribune