Judge to decide if children’s book author on grief will face trial in husband’s death

Описание: (26 Aug 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

POOL
Park City, Utah - 26 August 2024
1. Kouri Richins talking to her attorneys in court
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Detective Jeff O’Driscoll, Summit County Sheriff’s Office:
(Wendy Lewis, Kouri Richins' attorney: “So as you’re sitting here today, detective, can you say with certainty that the pills that Ms. Lauber allegedly gave to Ms. Richins were the pills that were taken by Eric Richins? Or were pills that were taken, if any pills were taken, by Eric Richins?"
Detective Jeff O’Driscoll, Summit County Sheriff’s Office: “No.”
(Wendy Lewis, Kouri Richins’ attorney: “And as you sit here right now, do you have any idea, like actual knowledge? Not an idea. Let me rephrase that. Do you have any knowledge of how fentanyl got into Mr. Richardson's system? Mr. Richins' system? I'm sorry. Say."
Detective Jeff O’Driscoll, Summit County Sheriff’s Office: “No.”
3. Kouri Richins listening to the testimony and taking notes
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Detective Jeff O’Driscoll, Summit County Sheriff’s Office:
(Brad Bloodworth, prosecutor: “Did detectives from Summit County talk with the intermediary between Carmen Lauber and the ultimate fentanyl dealer to Ms. Lauber?”
Detective Jeff O’Driscoll, Summit County Sheriff’s Office: “Yes.”
(Brad Bloodworth, prosecutor: “And did that intermediary say that Ms. Lauber requested fentanyl?”)
Detective Jeff O’Driscoll, Summit County Sheriff’s Office: “Yes.”
(Brad Bloodworth, prosecutor: “Did Summit County detectives talk with the man who distributed the fentanyl to Ms. Lauber?”)
Detective Jeff O’Driscoll, Summit County Sheriff’s Office: “Yes.”
(Brad Bloodworth, prosecutor: “And did he say that she requested fentanyl?")
Detective Jeff O’Driscoll, Summit County Sheriff’s Office: “Yes.”
(Brad Bloodworth, prosecutor: “And that he ultimately provided fentanyl?”)
Detective Jeff O’Driscoll, Summit County Sheriff’s Office: “Yes.”
5. Kouri Richins looking through paperwork with her attorney
STORYLINE:
Detectives described Monday in court how they zeroed in on a Utah mother known for penning a children’s book about grief as the main suspect in her husband’s fatal poisoning. The multi-day hearing will determine whether prosecutors have enough evidence against her to proceed with a trial.

Kouri Richins, 34, faces several felony charges for allegedly killing her husband with a lethal dose of fentanyl in March 2022 at their home in a small mountain town near Park City. Prosecutors say she slipped five times the lethal dose of the synthetic opioid into a Moscow mule cocktail that Eric Richins, 39, drank.

Additional charges filed in March accuse her of an earlier attempt to kill her husband with a spiked sandwich on Valentine’s Day. She has been adamant in maintaining she is innocent.

Detective Jeff O’Driscoll with the Summit County Sheriff’s Office was called to the stand Monday to describe his interactions with the state’s key witness, a housekeeper who claims to have sold fentanyl to Kouri Richins on three occasions. He said police first linked housekeeper Carmen Lauber to Kouri Richins through a series of text messages and later arrested Lauber, saying drugs and other illegal items were found at her home.

Lauber, 52, originally denied having knowledge of how Eric Richins died, but she later opened up in an interview with O’Driscoll after he told her the drug charges against her might be reduced or eliminated in exchange for helpful information, the detective said.







===========================================================


Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter:   / ap_archive  
Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​
Instagram:   / apnews  


You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...