New court filings from Kouri Richins’ attorneys claim Richins couldn’t have purchased the fentanyl that she allegedly used to kill her husband from her cleaning lady, because that woman didn’t have any fentanyl to give her.
“If the state cannot place fentanyl in the hands of (Richins), the state has no case. Mr. Crozier’s statement doesn’t just poke holes in their case, it throws a grenade into the middle of it leaving them nothing but speculation and conjecture, getting them nowhere near the realm of (proving their case) beyond a reasonable doubt,” according to a motion filed Thursday in 3rd District Court.
Richins, 35, a Kamas mother and former real estate agent, is charged with aggravated murder and attempted murder, first-degree felonies, in addition to other crimes for allegedly killing her husband, Eric Richins. Charges say that on Feb. 14, 2022, she slipped fentanyl in his food, making him sick, and then successfully gave him a fatal dose of fentanyl on March 4, 2022.
Richins is accused of buying the fentanyl from her housekeeper, Carmen Lauber, who allegedly acquired it from a man named Robert Crozier.
But according to a sworn affidavit filed Thursday, Crozier states that when he was first interviewed by Summit County sheriff’s detectives in 2023, he had been in jail for “a short time and was detoxing from drug use” and doesn’t remember the details of that interview. He says he was reinterviewed by prosecutors from the Summit County Attorney’s Office in April and again asked if he had sold fentanyl to the housekeeper.
“I told them ‘No,’ I sold oxycontin to Carmen Lauber on two occasions in early 2022,” according to Crozier’s affidavit. “They asked why I had previously told officers that I had sold her fentanyl. I told them I did not remember saying that and that I had been detoxing during that interview and was ‘out of it.’ I told them that I was certain that I had sold Carmen Lauber oxycontin.”
In their filings on Thursday, Richins’ attorneys state that none of the fentanyl pills allegedly used to kill Eric Richins were found or tested, and that Lauber only told investigators that’s what she supplied Richins with because that’s what she believed Crozier had given her.
“In this matter, the state’s entire theory of criminal liability is that Kouri Richins procured fentanyl from her housekeeper, Carmen Lauber, which she caused to be unwillingly ingested by her husband in some unknown way, directly causing his death. There is no physical evidence of this, but only the statements of Carmen Lauber. And these statements are wholly dependent on whether or not Lauber procured fentanyl from Robert Crozier,” the motion states.
“If Robert Crozier did not in fact sell fentanyl to Lauber, there can be no credible argument that substantial evidence of guilt exists.”
Based on Crozier’s sworn statement, Richins’ attorneys on Thursday filed a motion for the judge to reconsider bail for their client and conditions for her release, and a second motion requesting disclosure from the Summit County Attorney’s Office regarding exculpatory evidence — which it is required to share — noting that prosecutors have been aware of Crozier’s claims for a few months.
“The prosecution has been aware of this exculpatory evidence since April of this year. The prosecution did not inform the defense of this information. No press release was issued. No reports. Nothing. The prosecution just kept quiet,” the motion states. “Here, the prosecution failed to disclose evidence that not only negates Ms. Richins’ guilt but completely eviscerates the prosecution’s own theory that Ms. Richins procured the fentanyl that ultimately killed her husband.”
Her attorneys claim the failure to disclose the exculpatory evidence is more than an oversight. “It is not a blemish on the fruit — it is rot at the core, poisoning the whole harvest of justice,” they argue in their motion.
The motion asks the judge to require prosecutors to hand over evidence within three days.
Richins is currently scheduled to go to trial on her murder charge on Feb. 23, 2026, and jury selection to begin on Feb. 10.