Defense claims prosecutors withheld evidence in Kouri Richins murder case

Kouri Richins, center, mother of three who wrote a children's book about coping with grief after her husband's death and was later accused of fatally poisoning him, looks on during a court hearing Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024, in Park City, Utah. Photo: AP Photo // Rick Bowmer, Pool

KAMAS, Utah — Attorneys for Kouri Richins, the Summit County woman accused of killing her husband with a fatal dose of fentanyl, say prosecutors failed to disclose new evidence that could undercut the state’s case.

In two motions filed Thursday, defense attorneys alleged that prosecutors failed to disclose an April 2025 meeting in which a key witness, drug dealer Robert Crozier, recanted earlier statements tying Richins to fentanyl. The defense argues that without that evidence, the state cannot show probable cause that Richins obtained the drugs blamed in her husband’s death.

Richins, 35, was charged in May 2023 with aggravated murder in connection with the March 2022 death of her husband, Eric Richins, who authorities say overdosed on fentanyl at the couple’s home in Kamas. She has also been charged with attempted homicide, drug distribution, mortgage fraud, insurance fraud and forgery, and has pleaded not guilty.

According to the filings, prosecutors allege Richins obtained fentanyl through her housekeeper, Carmen Lauber, who told investigators she had purchased pills from Crozier and resold them to Richins. Crozier initially confirmed that account in May 2023, but later told prosecutors he had been detoxing at the time and “was out of it.”

In an April 2025 interview with members of the Summit County Attorney’s Office, Crozier said he never sold fentanyl to Lauber, only OxyContin pills, according to the defense motions. He described two transactions in early 2022, both in Draper parking lots, involving 30-milligram OxyContin tablets.

The defense contends prosecutors never disclosed Crozier’s revised statement and that they only learned of it during a September interview with him. Attorneys wrote that the new account “doesn’t just poke holes in their case, it throws a grenade into the middle of it,” and called the nondisclosure “rot at the core, poisoning the whole harvest of justice.”

Richins’ attorneys argue that without proof she obtained fentanyl, the state lacks “substantial evidence” to support the murder charge. They are asking 3rd District Judge Richard Mrazik to order prosecutors to turn over all correspondence with Crozier and to grant a new bail hearing.

Richins has been held in the Summit County jail for 28 months. Her previous bail requests have been denied, with the court citing danger to the community and flight risk. The Utah Supreme Court has also rejected her appeal to move the trial out of Summit County.

Summit County Attorney Margaret Olson, the elected prosecutor overseeing the case, has not yet responded to the motions. Her office has 14 days to do so.