Kouri Richins had fallen more than $3 million in debt by the time of her husband’s death

Kouri Richins, a Utah mother of three who authorities say fatally poisoned her husband then wrote a children's book about grieving, looks on during a bail hearing Monday, June 12, 2023
Kouri Richins at her bail hearing, June 12, 2023 in court in Park City, Utah.Credit : AP Photo/Rick Bowmer

Wrapping Christmas presents with a friend months before her husband’s sudden death, Kouri Richins allegedly said she “felt trapped” in her marriage “and didn’t see a way out.”

Months later, prosecutors allege she poisoned Eric Richins’s evening cocktail with five times the amount of lethal fentanyl in a murder she had attempted before.

In a new court filing obtained by PEOPLE, prosecutors allege the Utah soccer mom who went on to write a children’s book about her husband’s death was desperate to keep her husband’s money as well as custody of their children, while committing romantically to a man they alleged was her “paramour.”

Kouri Richins book
Kouri Richins self-published this children’s book (above) about her husband’s sudden death shortly before she was arrested in 2023 for his murder a year earlier.Amazon

On December 17, 2021, Kouri allegedly told her friend – “Witness 8” in court documents – that “she was frustrated because she didn’t feel that she had an easy path forward in divorcing Eric Richins,” the documents state.

She worried her husband “would turn” her three boys “against her” and that Eric’s affluent ranching family “would use their finances to take the children from her,” state the documents.

Prosecutors allege in the documents Kouri said that “in many waysit would be better if Eric Richins was dead.”

Kouri Richins, a Utah mother of three who authorities say fatally poisoned her husband then wrote a children's book about grieving, speaks with her attorney Skye Lazaro during a bail hearing Monday, June 12, 2023
Kouri Richins (left) with her lawyer, Skye Lazaro (right) at her bail hearing June 12, 2023, in Park City, Utah.Rick Bowmer/AP

The bombshell is part of a 42-page filing by prosecutors outlining evidence to proceed to trial in connection with Eric’s March 4, 2022 death.

On Wednesday, May 15, that scheduled preliminary hearing was delayed until June, KJZZ14 reports.

Kouri is charged with aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder, the latter for an earlier alleged attempt on Eric’s life with a poisoned Valentine’s Day sandwich. She also faces charges of distributing a controlled substance and mortgage and insurance fraud.

Kouri Richins cover

But prosecutors now say that the day after Kouri’s conversation with her friend, she allegedly texted her own “paramour.”

“I’m in love with a man that’s not my husband,” she allegedly texted him, adding: “I can’t break up my family. It’s having your cake and eating it too.”

“I thought you were getting a divorce,” he replied.

Prosecutors claim Kouri also “booked a five-night all inclusive, romantic accommodation” at Secrets St. Martin Resort & Spa in the Caribbean for the couple, scheduled for a month after Eric’s death.

When Eric died, she allegedly owed over $3.1 million on investments she had made for her real estate business flipping houses, according to prosecutors, who say Kouri thought she could make up the difference through life insurance claims she had allegedly made on Eric’s estate, then estimated to be worth $5 million.

“Her bank accounts were exhausted, and she was spiraling toward total financial collapse,” prosecutors claim in the filing. Even still, she was allegedly “two or three days away from closing on an additional $3,259,850 in debt” to buy an unfinished mansion in Midway “that would require millions of dollars to complete,” according to the filing.

Kouri Richins, a Utah mother of three who authorities say fatally poisoned her husband, Eric Richins, then wrote a children's book about grieving, looks on during a status hearing Friday, Sept. 1, 2023, in Park City, Utah.
Kouri Richins at a status hearing for the murder of her husband, in court Sept. 1, 2023, in Park City, Utah.

That Midway mansion was purchased in the real estate deal Kouri later told police the couple had been celebrating with a Moscow Mule just hours before Eric’s death.

She also allegedly discussed the mansion with her paramour nine days earlier, say prosecutors.

“Uhhh.. I have a crazy dream! You quit your job.. I divorce and come up with millions and millions.. We buy midway and live in the guest house,” she allegedly wrote, adding: “Raise some kid.. Have a little farm? Deal?”

Then, two days before Eric’s death, she allegedly texted: “Life is going to be different I promise. Your (sic) one hell of a patient person.”

Kouri is set to return to court for the three-day preliminary hearing beginning June 18.