Robert Josh Grossman, Kouri Richins’ boyfriend in the months before and after her husband’s death, testified about messages and conversations they shared during her jury trial on Wednesday.
Grossman read through many text messages verifying they were between him and Richins. At times he put his head down or wiped away tears as their private conversations were displayed for public audiences.
Less than a month before her husband’s death, according to the texts, Richins asked him, “If I was divorced right now and ask you to marry me tomorrow, you would?” Grossman responded “Yes. In Love with Y O U! Of course I would.”
A few days alter, she texted that she wants a future with him.
“If he could just go away and you could just be here! Life would be so perfect!!!” she told Grossman.
Hanging on
Grossman said he met Kouri Richins in South Carolina around 2017 and helped her flip homes. Their romantic relationship started around 2020 when he moved to Utah to help her flip homes. He said he would live in the homes she was flipping, and she would occasionally pay him.
He said he loved her, and he thinks she loved him as well. Many of the texts shown to jurors discussed challenges of their relationship; Kouri Richins apologized for not having time to spend with him.
“I really enjoy my relationship and love for you.. but (you’re) right.. we both know this love triangle can’t go on forever. You don’t deserve it, I don’t deserve you. I can’t expect you to sit around for the day the trigger gets pulled,” Richins said in a December 2021 message.
Richins talked to Grossman about purchasing homes in Park City and said it was a “HUGE deal,” and said she grew up scrubbing toilets for rich people in Park City and told herself she would own those homes one day.
On Jan. 9, 2022, Richins asked Grossman if he had done drugs besides marijuana, and how recently.
Kouri Richins is accused of fatally poisoning her husband on March 4, 2022. She is also accused of slipping drugs into his food, making him sick, on Feb. 14, 2022. On that Valentine’s Day, Grossman confirmed they had made plans to spend the day together.
Texts around Eric Richins’ death
Kouri Richins was texting Grossman the week her husband died, and he said they had plans to meet up that day, a Friday, for brunch to celebrate signing the closing documents on a mansion. She told him a few days earlier, “Can I try Friday? Give me a few days? Hang in there until then please?”
Grossman said he never got the impression that meant Eric Richins would be out of the picture by Friday.
At 5:51 p.m. the day before Eric Richins died, Grossman texted, “I will happily take any bit of time I get with you! But, if we’re going to celebrate, I want to celebrate! Blow up balloons, champagne, I wanna be there when the news comes in! Seeing and hearing your reaction! Waiting to pounce on you with the hugs and kisses, the confetti and the music!”
It took a while for Kouri Richins to respond, prompting Grossman to say “don’t be mad!”
Around 8:30 p.m., Kouri Richins texted, “I’m not mad at you, at all. Just haven’t had a second to text.. give me a few.. love you.” They didn’t text again until the following morning when he asked what was going on. She eventually texted, “Eric passed away.” and “talk later.” Later, she told him they thought he died from an aneurysm.
Grossman testified that about two weeks after Eric Richins’ death, they went into the Uinta Mountains and talked about his death for the first time. He said she did not seem happy he was gone but seemed like she was grieving.
“We sat there and talked for quite a while. … I had never seen her that way, obviously, and it was a heavy conversation, and I’m not used to that with her. She’s not used to being open like that,” he said. “She asked if I had ever killed anybody. … She asked me how it made me feel or something along those lines. And then I answered her.”
He said at the time, he did not for a minute think Eric Richins was killed, let alone that Kouri Richins was involved. Grossman said the question was not surprising. He explained she was “exhausted emotionally” and that it may have been a way to switch the conversation to him.
The two continued dating for a few more months, but Grossman said things weren’t the same after Eric Richins’ death. Grossman said he was overwhelmed with guilt and sorrow after hearing she had been arrested, and reached out to Eric Richins’ family, who connected him with their private investigator.
Other testimony
Before Grossman’s testimony, jurors heard from multiple people who helped set up or distribute Eric Richins’ life insurance policies.
Kristal Bowman-Carter, who helped Eric Richins set up a trust, said she received a call from an officer who passed the phone to Kouri Richins the day Eric Richins died. She said she explained that their home belonged to a trust and that it seemed Richins was unaware of the trust.
“She was livid, she was upset and she said ‘what is wrong with you people’ and handed the phone back to the officer, I believe,” she said.
A divorce attorney, Christina Miller, testified about meeting with Eric Richins in October 2020. She said they talked about changing his estate plan and power of attorney, something that was rare for her clients.
One of Kouri Richins’ attorneys, Wendy Lewis, asked for a mistrial, the second mistrial the defense has requested. She said they obtained information that Carmen Lauber, who testified about providing drugs to Kouri Richins, violated her drug court agreement, and texts between her and her supervisor were disclosed.
“What’s in these text messages should have been available; I could have used this on cross examination. It’s different than what she testified to,” Lewis said.
Third District Court Judge Richard Mrazik asked for a written motion on the issue.
The trial is available to watch here: