Kouri Richins, the Utah mom convicted of murdering her husband, spoke for nearly 40 minutes at her sentencing hearing on Wednesday. Richins apologized to her sons and told them to “take care of one another.” She was later sentenced to life without parole.

ouri Richins will spend the rest of her life behind bars—just as her sons hoped she would.

Kouri—who continues to maintain her innocence—was sentenced May 13 to life in prison without the possibility of parole after she was convicted in March of killing husband Eric Richins by lacing his cocktail with a fatal dose of fentanyl.

The sentence was handed down on what would have been Eric’s 44th birthday.

Prosecutors believe Kouri’s house-flipping business was in debt and that she was having an affair when she killed Eric, hoping to cash in on life insurance policies she’d opened in his name without his knowledge, according to The Associated Press.

According to prosecutors, Kouri also believed she’d have access to his $4 million estate, not realizing that he had appointed his sister to serve as executor of his trust before his death, KPCW reported.

“A person convicted of committing that sequence of acts, in that way and for that reason, and who causes the absolute tragedy that has befallen upon Eric Richins’ sons and family,” Judge Richard Mrazik told Richins before handed down the sentence. “A person convicted of those things is simply too dangerous to ever be free.”

Photo: Trent Nelson/Pool/Getty Images

Eric Richins’ Family Asks Judge to Impose Life Sentence

In court May 13, Eric’s family urged the judge to hand down the maximum sentence for the couple’s three children, who each wrote letters requesting their mother be sent to prison for life.

“This sentence is important,” Eric’s father Eugene Richins said, according to The Associated Press, “so Eric’s three sons never have to live with the fear that the person responsible for taking their father could ever harm them again.”

Not long after Eric’s death, Kouri used a ghostwriter to write a children’s book aimed at those struggling with grief, titled Are You with Me?, which chronicled a boy’s journey after his father’s death. Eric’s sister Katie Richins Benson—who is now caring for couple’s three sons—argued at the sentencing that Kori had been the person responsible for taking their father away from them.

“They are not props for some twisted children’s book about grief and loss,” she said, “and yet that is what they’ve been reduced to by Kouri.”

How Do Kouri Richins Sons Feel About Her Now?

During the sentencing, clinical social workers read letters from the boys which described their mother as abusive, alleging that she threatened to kill their animals and showed them videos of starving children if they refused to eat their meals, per The Associated Press.

One son described her as being “drunk almost daily” and alleged that she frequently locked him away in his room, The New York Post reported.

Prosecutors also referenced letters from the boys in a sentencing memo submitted before the hearing.

“I’m afraid if she gets out, she will come after me and my brothers, my whole family,” her oldest son, now 13, wrote, according to People. “I think she would come and take us and not do good things to us, like hurt us.”

Her 11-year-old son echoed a similar sentiment.

“I don’t want [my mother] out of jail because I will not feel safe if [she is] out,” he wrote, according to People. “With [her] in jail, I will be able to continue to feel safe and live a happy and successful life without fear of [her] hurting me or anyone I love.”

According to prosecutors, the boy—who described missing his father at sporting events and birthdays—was prepared to testify during trial that his mother had not slept in his room the night of the murder as she claimed, per the memo. Instead, he remembered being sent to bed early and hearing the television “playing loudly” in his parent’s bedroom. When he tried to sneak into the room, he told authorities that his mom yelled at him.

Kouri’s youngest son—who was in preschool when his father was killed—wrote in his own letter to the judge that he feels “hateful and ashamed” when anyone mentions his mother, according to The New York Post.

“If she got out I would be so scared,” he wrote. “I’m worried she would take me away… Once she is gone I will feel happy and I will feel safer and relaxed and trust people more.”

Kouri Richins Says She “Did Not Abandon Sons,” Family Proclaims Her Innocence

In her own comments during the hearing, Kouri delivered an emotional message to her sons, saying that she had been unable to communicate with them for years.

“The one thing I need you boys to know is that I did not abandon you,” Kouri said according to The Salt Lake Tribune. “Regardless of what anyone tells you, I would never ever leave you boys. And I am so sorry that even for one second you think that I did.”

She added that their feelings were “completely valid,” saying, “One day, when this is all over, we can sit down and talk about this.”

Kouri insisted that despite her marital problems the “love never failed” between the couple and urged her sons to never admit to something they didn’t do.

“Never apologize for something you didn’t do,” she said according to The Salt Lake Tribune. “And never beg for mercy for something you didn’t do.”

She added that she was “still in shock” that she’d been convicted of the murder.

Multiple members of Kouri’s family, including her brother Ronney Darden, also addressed the court proclaiming her innocence and asking the judge for leniency.

“Really bad things happen to really good people and you were too good of a person, I guess,” Ronney told his sister, according to the news outlet. “Your innocence will shine too brightly to be contained once you’ve actually had a shot to defend yourself.”

Kouri’s mother Lisa Darden also told the court in a written statement read by defense attorney Wendy Lewis that she knew her daughter “could not be capable” of killing Eric.

“I ask from a mother’s heart that Kouri be given a sentence that allows a possibility of a future,” Darden wrote, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. “I firmly believe the jury came to an incorrect conclusion.”

In addition to the aggravated murder charge, Kouri was also convicted of attempted aggravated murder for an earlier attempt on Eric’s life, two counts of insurance fraud and forgery.