Kouri Richins Breaks Silence from Jail, Criticizes Prosecutors and Proclaims Innocence

Kouri Richins, the Utah mother accused of spiking her husband’s cocktail with a fatal dose of fentanyl, has made her first public comments since her arrest last year. In a series of jailhouse statements provided exclusively to "Dateline" this week, Richins criticized prosecutors, asserted her innocence, and described recent upheaval in the case as “forced.”

Richins, 34, who has been held in the Summit County Jail since a judge denied her bail last year, expressed frustration over being separated from her family. “I’ve been silent for a year, locked away from my kids, my family, my life, living with the media telling the world who they think I am, what they think I’ve done or how they think I’ve lived,” she said. “And it’s time to start speaking up. You took an innocent mom away from her babies. And this means war.”

The comments come after a judge granted her lawyers' request to withdraw from her defense against charges of aggravated murder and other crimes in the death of her husband, Eric Richins, 39, on March 4, 2022. Richins’ lead attorney, Skye Lazaro, cited an “irreconcilable and nonwaivable situation” as the reason for the withdrawal.

In one statement, Richins said she was filled with “great devastation” over her defense team's withdrawal. “My defense team has been forced to withdraw from my case. Represented or not, we all know and should understand there’s only so much I can say. But what I will say is this withdrawal was not my choice. And it was not a personal choice of any counsel on my defense team.”

The withdrawal request was filed the same day Richins’ lawyers asked a judge to disqualify prosecutors due to “severe violations” that compromised their defense and violated Richins’ constitutional right to effective counsel. The filing alleges that from May to December last year, authorities recorded jail calls between Richins and her lawyers without their consent, some of which were listened to by prosecutors.

When defense lawyers discovered the practice and questioned prosecutors, Summit County's top elected prosecutor, Margaret Olson, initially denied awareness. However, lead prosecutor Brad Bloodworth later claimed that one of the defense lawyers had refused to use a phone app that shields attorney-client calls, resulting in the recordings. Bloodworth asserted that prosecutors had not listened to the calls and suggested that by not using the app, the lawyer had seemingly consented to the practice.

Richins accused prosecutors of doing "anything they can to prolong this process and hide their corruption. I will not play into the prosecution’s unconstitutional behavior anymore." She expressed a strong desire to clear her name, stating, “Although I am extremely disappointed where we’re at right now with this case, I’m anxious. I’m anxious to prove my innocence. I’m anxious to get to trial.”

Olson's office responded to the allegations, labeling the defense lawyer's motion to disqualify prosecutors as "materially inaccurate" and "filed in bad faith." The county attorney's office plans to address the motion formally by May 31.

Prosecutors allege that Richins, deeply in debt, fraudulently obtained a nearly $2 million life insurance policy on her husband before giving him a Moscow mule spiked with a lethal dose of fentanyl. They also charged Richins with attempted murder, forgery, and mortgage and insurance fraud.

One year after Eric Richins died, Kouri Richins published “Are You With Me?” a children’s book about grief, dedicated to her “amazing” husband. Despite the charges, Richins and her family have maintained her innocence.

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