‘Financial Calamity’: Judge Says Records Are Relevant To Kouri Richins’ Alleged Murder Motive

Attorneys and the judge in Kouri Richins’ murder trial are dealing with legally thorny testimony today from a forensic accountant who analyzed Richins’ financial records, including for her debt-ridden house-flipping business.

Judge Richard Mrazik has instructed jurors to consider evidence of her debt and lies not as evidence of her bad character but as possible evidence of her motives for, as prosecutors argue, killing her husband by mixing a fatal dose of fentanyl into a Moscow Mule cocktail. The evidence rule prohibiting the consideration of bad character evidence is 404b.

He had another mid-testimony discussion this afternoon outside the jury’s presence.

Prosecutor Brad Bloodworth: “Ms. Karrington will testify that K. Richins Realties’ tax return were unhelpful for Ms. Karrington’s analysis, because Kouri Richins’ expense reporting to her accountant was inaccurate.”

00:47 “The implication of the inaccurate expense reporting was that her tax returns showed a profit.”

01:25 “Ms. Karrington will testify that … during these time frames, Ms. Richins was trying to attract funding, loans and a tax return that showed a profit would help her attract loans.”

02:04 Defense attorney Kathy Nester: “The loops you have to jump through to get that she’s over reporting her income to use it to get funding when there’s zero evidence in this case that I’ve seen that she’s ever produced,”

03:22 “If she’s filing false tax returns, that’s a crime, and that’s another crime, wrong or bad act under 404, B and again, has zero relevance to whether or not Ms. Richins’ killed her husband, and so I object on all those grounds.”

03:49 Judge: “Mr. Bloodworth asked the questions in a way that does not require or invite Ms. Karrington to speculate about what was going on in Ms. Richins’ head, but speaks more broadly or generally based upon her education, training experience about why real estate investors in Ms. Richins’ circumstances might benefit from making their tax returns look a certain way versus another.”

05:16 “Circumstantial or direct are probative of a non character purpose of showing motive, that is that she, put bluntly. needed money to maintain appearances and to prevent the financial calamity that would show that these appearances were not accurate, and the personal consequences that would flow from that.”

07:32 “I respect genuinely that Ms. Richins disagrees strongly with many of the court’s pretrial rulings.”

Background:

Kouri Richins, 35, is accused of fatally poisoning her husband, Eric Richins, with fentanyl at their home in Kamas, Utah, in March 2022. After he died, she self-published a children’s book she authored titled “Are You With Me?” about coping with grief.

Eric Richins, 39, was found dead in their home on March 4, 2022.

Prosecutors allege Kouri dropped a lethal dose of fentanyl in a Moscow Mule cocktail she prepared for him. They say she was motivated by money because she owed nearly $5 million to lenders and had changed her husband’s life insurance policies prior to his death while also taking out a home equity line of credit without his knowledge. She also was in a romantic relationship with another man.

You can watch the prosecution’s opening statement here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zp-6-DFKVdU and the defense opening statement here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jw6cnneVhW0

Prosecutors allege she previously tried to murder him by poisoning his sandwich on Valentine’s Day 2022, which her husband told a friend about.

Richins’ criminal charges in Summit County, Utah, include aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, forgery and insurance fraud.

Her trial is scheduled to last five weeks. Judge Richard Mrazik in Utah’s 3rd District Court is presiding at the Silver Summit Justice Center near Park City.

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