Prosecutors will focus on the reasons Kouri Richins had for killing her husband, her defense attorney told jurors Monday, and here’s why: “They can’t show you that she did kill her husband.”

Richins told police she found Eric Richins, 39, cold to the touch in their bed around 3 a.m. on March 4, 2022, in the Kamas home they shared with their three sons.

“What you will never hear, after four years of investigation, where as recently as two weeks ago they were back searching that house … is how that fentanyl got inside of him, because there’s zero evidence of that,” Kathy Nester, Richins’ attorney, said Monday in the opening arguments of her aggravated murder trial in Park City.

“His death certificate reads that the manner of his death is still unknown,” Nester said, “to this day.”

The estimated five-week trial, scheduled to run through March 26, has captured national attention and is being livestreamed by multiple news outlets.

Summit County prosecutors contend that Richins, who was “chronically unhappy in her marriage,” poisoned her husband, laying out a timeline that includes her making and serving him a drink before he went to bed that night.

She had attempted to kill him two weeks earlier, they allege, on Valentine’s Day, when she bought him a sandwich at a diner before meeting her boyfriend. Eric Richins fell ill that day but recovered, charging documents said.

“Evidence will prove,” Summit County prosecutor Brad Bloodworth told jurors, “that Kouri Richins murdered Eric for his money, and for a fresh start at life.”

Richins, a real estate agent, owed over $4.5 million to 20 different lenders, Bloodworth said. Two weeks before her attempt on Eric Richins’ life, he said, she took out an insurance policy on him “by fraud and forgery.” And she believed she would inherit his $2 million interest in his stonemasonry company, which was prohibited if they divorced but permitted if he died while they were married, the prosecutor said.

He urged jurors to consider Richins’ behavior after Eric Richins’ death and leading up to it. Five months earlier, in one example he offered, she had booked a resort vacation in St. Vincent for her and her boyfriend — scheduling it in advance for the month after Eric Richins died.

‘Not accidental’

Now 35, Richins faces a slate of felony charges, including aggravated murder, insurance fraud and forgery. She has been held in jail since her arrest in May 2023.

The prosecution and defense will offer opposing theories about the source of the fentanyl. Prosecutors have alleged Richins bought drugs from a housekeeper; her legal team has pointed to evidence that Eric Richins had access to drugs, such as a 2016 prescription for hydrocodone, marijuana gummies found in the Richins’ home, and a trip to Mexico that he took just weeks before his death.

Eric Richins had “several times” a lethal amount of fentanyl in his blood and stomach, Bloodworth said. He argued that showed the dose was “intentional, not accidental.”

The case has attracted sweeping attention from local and national media, along with a devoted true-crime following, said Tania Mashburn, spokesperson for Utah State Courts.

Several podcasters, more than 20 news outlets and at least one documentary production company are covering the trial, she said. Spectators had arrived by 4:30 a.m. Monday, sitting in lawn chairs outside the 3rd District Courthouse, a Summit County Sheriff’s deputy said.

In part to help protect the privacy of witnesses and family members, 3rd District Judge Richard E. Mrazik had put an unusual ban on the media, prohibiting them from taking photos or filming video in areas outside the courthouse that are normally considered public.

The Salt Lake Tribune sent a letter to the judge Friday, noting the “unprecedented” restriction conflicts with general state guidance about such court orders.

After a discussion early Monday, the judge agreed to amend the order to allow recording and photography from the courthouse parking lot before 7 a.m. and after 6 p.m., Tribune attorney Mike Judd said.

“The court did suggest that its restriction was specific to this case,” Judd said, “and therefore, we’re encouraged by the recognition that it likely wouldn’t apply in other contexts and other situations.”

The evidence begins

Prosecutors called four witnesses on Monday: Eric Richins’ father, Eugene Richins; his sister, Katie Richins-Benson; his brother-in-law and Katie’s husband, Clint Benson; and finally Summit County Sheriff’s Office patrol deputy Vincent Nguyen, who was at the home on the morning Eric Richins was found dead.

Richins-Benson broke down repeatedly on the witness stand, and said that March 4 was “the worst day of her life.” She was surprised, she said, to see that Richins looked more put together that morning than she usually did when her family stayed at the home overnight.

While Richins consoled one of her sons, her half-brother’s fiancee walked into the room to talk about a real estate deal, Richins-Benson said. Richins’ business was scheduled to close on that day on a multimillion-dollar home in Midway.

Richins’ demeanor was “very business-like,” Richins-Benson added, and she told the woman exactly what to do about the property.

“I was dumbfounded, and I looked at Kouri and said, ‘You can’t tell me that you’re going to close on that Midway mansion after my brother just died,’” Richins-Benson said.

Richins replied that she was, Richins-Benson recalled, and she also said that morning that she planned to sell their family home.

“I honestly could not function,” Richins-Benson said. “I couldn’t even figure out what was for dinner that night. I had just lost one of the most important people in my whole entire life — and she was talking about selling the house he had just been wheeled out of …”

During opening arguments, the prosecution said Eric Richins’ body was taken from the home by emergency services personnel at about 8:30 a.m. — which was around the same time Richins’ phone accessed three gifs.

Jurors were shown an exhibit with the files. The first showed actor Jeff Daniels wiping his face with money in the movie “Dumb and Dumber.”

Another showed actor Kevin Spacey in “House of Cards,” side-eyeing the camera with the caption, “Idiots. Idiots everywhere.” The last gif was a clip of President Donald Trump saying, “I’m really rich.”

Nester did not address the gifs during her opening argument.

As Nguyen testified, prosecutors played footage from his body-worn camera. It showed he spoke with Richins while emergency services worked on her husband.

Richins told him that the couple had celebratory Moscow Mules at about 9 p.m. in honor of her deal on the Midway property. However, Nguyen didn’t tell any other investigators to go in the kitchen to look for the drinks — and he didn’t search the kitchen himself, he confirmed to Richins’ legal team.

The copper mugs the couple drank out of were never tested, Nester said during her opening statement, and Richins’ nanny put them in the dishwasher the next day.

The possibility that there could have been something in the drink was important, Nguyen confirmed when questioned by Richins’ legal team. He acknowledged that he had prevented people from entering the master bedroom on the morning Eric Richins died, to preserve the scene and all of the items that could have been involved in his death.

In her opening statement, Nester had played a recording of the 911 call Richins made, in tears, early that morning. “Those were the sounds of a wife becoming a widow,” Nestor said.

She also showed the jury an illustration of a woman in a fur coat, which when seen from another angle, looked like a witch.

“In some cases, the prosecution will show a witch,” Nester said. “I will take those same facts and same witnesses and I’ll show you a widow. If you can still see both at the end of the trial, that’s reasonable doubt.”