US ‘grief author’ convicted of murdering husband with lethal fentanyl dose

A Utah woman was convicted on Monday of aggravated murder after poisoning her husband with fentanyl and self-publishing a children’s book about coping with grief.Prosecutors said Kouri Richins slipped five times the lethal dose of the synthetic opioid into a cocktail that her husband Eric Richins drank in March 2022 at their home outside the affluent ski town of Park City. They said she was US$4.5 million in debt and falsely believed that when her husband died, she would inherit his estate worth more than US$4 million.“She wanted to leave Eric Richins but did not want to leave his money,” Summit County prosecutor Brad Bloodworth said.Richins, 35, was also convicted of other felonies, including attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Valentine’s Day with a fentanyl-laced sandwich that made him black out. Jurors also found Richins guilty of forgery and fraudulently claiming insurance benefits after his death.Kathy Nester, the defence lawyer for Kouri Richins, shows the jury an image of a pill bottle. Photo: APThe jury deliberated for just under three hours. Afterward, family members on both sides of the case left the courtroom hugging and crying.Sentencing was scheduled for May 13, the day her husband would have turned 44. The aggravated murder charge alone carries a sentence of 25 years to life in prison.