The Summit County Attorney’s Office has again amended its criminal charges against Kouri Richins. She is no longer facing drug distribution charges.
The 35-year-old Kamas mother and former real estate agent is still charged with aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder, first-degree felonies, on the accusation that she killed her husband, Eric Richins, in March 2022 and attempted to kill him in February 2022.
Now Richins is also charged with two counts of insurance fraud, a second-degree felony; and forgery, a third-degree felony, according to the fourth amended information filed Monday in 3rd District Court. Previously, Richins had been facing additional charges of two counts of drug distribution and two counts of mortgage fraud, a second-degree felony, as well as two additional counts of forgery, a third-degree felony.
Richins is accused of purchasing fentanyl and secretly putting it in her husband’s sandwich on Feb. 14, 2022, and then purchasing more fentanyl and again surreptitiously giving it to Eric Richins sometime between the night of March 3, 2022, and the next morning.
The updated charging documents come a week after Richins’ defense attorneys filed two motions asking the judge to require prosecutors to hand over exculpatory evidence and to ask that the judge reconsider a decision not to allow Richins the opportunity to post bail. In their motions, defense attorneys say Richins is accused of buying the fentanyl from her housekeeper, Carmen Lauber, who allegedly acquired it from a man named Robert Crozier. But Crozier now says in a sworn affidavit that he never sold fentanyl to Lauber, the motion states.
“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 the motion filed in 3rd District Court.
As of Wednesday, prosecutors had yet to file their response to that motion.
Richins is currently scheduled to go to trial on her murder charge on Feb. 23, 2026, with jury selection set to begin on Feb. 10.
Also on Monday, the state joined in the defense’s request to provide lawyers to five of the six people who are expected to be witnesses at trial “relating to their participation in the alleged, unlawful distribution of controlled substances.”
“To date, the defense is only aware of one of these witnesses being granted any sort of immunity. The remaining witnesses face potential state and/or federal criminal liability if they take the witness stand at trial and testify consistently with their statements produced during discovery. In order to protect their liberty interests, these witnesses should be appointed counsel to advise them of their Fifth Amendment rights,” the defense argued in its motion that prosecutors did not object to.