The lawyer for the Utah mother accused of poisoning her husband with fentanyl said in an emotional court hearing that it’s hard for her to be away from her kids.
Kouri Richins, 33, was arrested on May 8 and charged with aggravated murder, criminal homicide, and three counts of possessing a controlled substance with intent to distribute.
Richins allegedly laced a cocktail with a lethal dose of fentanyl in March of last year. She allegedly served her husband, Eric, the cocktail while he was in bed at their home in Park City, Utah.
Deputies with the Summit County Sheriff’s Administration found her husband, 39, dead in their bedroom. An autopsy revealed that he had five times the lethal amount of fentanyl in his system.
In court proceedings on Friday, Richins got visibly emotional, local CBS affiliate KUTV reported.
Her lawyer, Skye Lazaro, appeared to try to console her before the judge.
Lazaro told KUTV that Richins was upset because she hadn’t seen her kids in a while.
“This is hard. She’s been in custody. She’s lost her kids,” Lazaro said. “She’s going through a lot. All she wanted from the beginning was to grieve her husband.”
Richins wrote a children’s book on grief after Eric’s death and collected nearly $2 million from insurance policies.
In court on Friday, Lazaro asked the judge for more time to prepare for a preliminary hearing, which the judge granted.
“My hope is by November we’ll have a good idea as to where we’re at,” Lazaro said.
