Children's author Kouri Richins murdered husband in their own family home

Kouri Richins, who wrote a children's book about coping with grief, has been convicted of the aggravated murder of her husband Eric Richins who died in Park City, Utah

A mum who wrote a children's book about coping with grief after her husband’s death has been convicted of his murder.

Kouri Richins, 35, poisoned Eric Richins with fentanyl in their family home and, as she was heavily in debt at the time, falsely believed that when her husband died, she would inherit his estate worth more than $4 million (£3 million). However, the mum of three has also been convicted of fraudulently claiming insurance benefits following her partner's death.

A court heard shameless Richins self-published a children’s book about grief to help her sons and other kids cope with the loss of a parent after the killing. She promoted Are You with Me? on TV and radio stations, which prosecutors said showed Richins planned the killing and tried to cover it up.

And the jurors, who were told Richins slipped five times the lethal dose of the synthetic opioid into a cocktail her husband drank, found the writer guilty today after less than three hours of deliberations in the court in Park City, Utah.

Prosecutors also argued the defendant had planned a future with another man she was seeing on the side when she killed Mr Richins in March 2022. Brad Bloodworth, prosecuting, said: "She wanted to leave Eric Richins but did not want to leave his money."

Richins was also convicted of other felony charges, including an attempted murder charge in what authorities alleged was another effort to poison her husband weeks earlier on Valentine’s Day with a fentanyl-laced sandwich which made him break out in hives and black out.

But the woman's defence argued Mr Richins was addicted to painkillers and had asked his wife to procure opioids for him. Mr Richins, however, told police earlier in a video that her husband had no history of illicit drug use.

Richins, from Park City, had denied all charges. She was supposed to stand trial for five weeks but this was cut short when she waived her right to testify, and her legal team abruptly rested its case without calling any witnesses. Richins’ attorneys said they were confident that prosecutors did not produce enough evidence over the past three weeks to convict her of murder.

Yet the jurors reached unanimous verdicts on all charges today after hearing Richins had opened numerous life insurance policies on her husband without his knowledge, with benefits totaling about $2 million (£1.5 million). Richins, an estate agent as well as a children's author, faces sentencing at the same court in Utah on May 13.