United States: Life imprisonment for the author of a book on grief who poisoned her husband with fentanyl

In the United States, Kouri Richins was sentenced on Wednesday to life imprisonment without parole for poisoning her husband with fentanyl.

Sentenced Wednesday to life imprisonment without parole in Utah, Kouri Richins was found guilty of murdering her husband, Eric Richins, who died in March 2022 after ingesting fentanyl. The case gained national attention in the United States after the defendant published a children's book about grief, written a few months after her husband's death. According to Judge Richard Mrazik, quoted by the Salt Lake Tribune, the mother of three is "too dangerous to be free."

The prosecution alleged that Kouri Richins served her husband a cocktail containing fentanyl, a particularly potent synthetic opioid. Prosecutors stated that the drink contained five times the lethal dose. They also alleged that she had previously attempted to poison him by putting fentanyl in a sandwich, which made him seriously ill.

Investigators believe it was a financial motive.

Investigators also highlighted a financial motive. According to the prosecution, Eric Richins' death allowed his wife to inherit $4 million and receive an additional $2 million through life insurance policies taken out without her knowledge. After the tragedy, Kouri Richins published *Are You With Me?*, a book intended to help her three sons cope with their grief.

Throughout her trial, the 36-year-old defendant continued to deny the charges. In court on Wednesday, she addressed her children, saying, "I am broken, broken without your father, broken without you, boys." She also asserted, "God did not put me in this world to take a life."

"I won't feel safe if you're outside."

Kouri Richins also spoke about the difficulties in her marriage and acknowledged mutual infidelity. "I fell in love with someone who wasn't your father. Your father fell in love with someone who wasn't me," she explained, before advising her sons to "never keep secrets" and to "always put your spouse first."

The couple's three children, aged 9, 7, and 5 at the time of their father's death, had prepared letters that were read aloud to the judge by their psychologists. One of them stated, "I won't feel safe if you're out," adding that their mother "never apologized" for her actions. Another child spoke of his "anger" and relief at no longer having to live with a mother who was "always drunk" after her husband's death. "I miss my dad, but I don't miss my old life," he wrote.