Judge denies venue change in Kouri Richins murder trial

SUMMIT COUNTY, Utah — A Utah judge on Monday rejected a request to bring in jurors from outside Summit County for the upcoming murder trial of Kouri Richins, despite defense claims that local publicity would make it impossible to find unbiased jurors.

Judge Richard Mrazik denied the defense motion after a hearing where both sides presented arguments and reviewed results from surveys conducted in both Summit and Salt Lake counties to measure potential juror bias.

The defense team sought the venue change based on community attitude surveys that measured how many potential jurors had been exposed to pretrial publicity and whether they had already formed opinions about Richins’ guilt.

Defense attorney Wendy Lewis argued that the extensive media coverage had tainted the local jury pool. ABC4 News reported that Lewis told the court, “We’re not looking for a perfect jury pool. We’re looking for a jury pool where [Kouri Richins] has a chance of having a fair trial and in this county, there’s a reasonable chance that she’s not going to get that.”

Dr. Veronica Dahir, an expert witness for the defense, reviewed both sides’ survey methodologies and supported the defense position in her declaration.

“In my expert opinion, the defense’s community attitude survey has the least amount of total survey error and is therefore more scientifically reliable than the survey conducted by the prosecution and should be given more weight,” Dahir wrote in her declaration.

The prosecution, led by Brad Bloodworth, contested the defense’s survey findings with their own poll results. ABC4 News reported that Bloodworth acknowledged the imbalance in media coverage but maintained that through proper jury selection, the court could still find impartial jurors in Summit County despite its smaller population. Judge Mrazik recognized concerns about media coverage but concluded that Summit County’s population diversity would still allow for selection of impartial jurors.

Following the ruling, the defense requested a stay of proceedings to appeal the decision, which the court granted without opposition from prosecutors.

Richins, a mother and children’s book author from Kamas, Utah, is accused of poisoning her husband Eric with a lethal dose of fentanyl in March 2022. Prosecutors allege she purchased the drugs and administered them to her husband for financial gain.

After her husband’s death, Richins wrote a children’s book about grief titled “Are You With Me?” which she dedicated to Eric. She was arrested in May 2023 after promoting the book in various media appearances.

Richins has pleaded not guilty to charges including aggravated murder, attempted criminal homicide, mortgage fraud, insurance fraud, and forgery.

The trial had been tentatively scheduled to begin April 28 but has now been postponed pending the appeal of the venue decision.