Woman who allegedly killed husband, then wrote a kids’ book on grief is sued for $13 million
SALT LAKE CITY — A lawsuit against a Utah woman who wrote a children’s book about coping with grief after her husband’s death and now stands accused of murdering him was filed Tuesday, seeking more than $13 million in damages for alleged financial wrongdoing before and after the man died.
The lawsuit was filed against Kouri Richins in state court by Katie Richins, the sister of Eric Richins, Kouri’s late husband. It accuses Kouri Richins of taking money from her husband’s bank accounts, diverting money intended to pay his taxes and obtaining a fraudulent loan, among other things, before his death in March 2022.
Kouri Richins has been charged with murder in her husband’s death.
“Kouri committed the foregoing acts in calculated, systematic fashion and for no reason other than to actualize a horrific endgame — to conceal her ruinous debt, misappropriate assets for the benefit of her personal businesses, orchestrate Eric’s demise, and profit from his passing,” the lawsuit said.
An email message sent to Kouri Richins’ attorney, Skye Lazaro, was not immediately returned Wednesday.
Prosecutors say Kouri Richins, 33, poisoned Eric Richins, 39, by slipping five times the lethal dose of fentanyl into a cocktail she made for him.
A jury in Portland, Ore., has convicted a self-published romance novelist in the fatal shooting of her husband four years ago.
The mother of three later self-published a children’s book titled “Are You With Me?”, about a deceased father with angel wings watching over his sons. She promoted it on television and radio, describing the book as a way to help children grieve the loss of a loved one.
The lawsuit also seeks to bar Richins from selling the book and to turn over any money made from it, saying it makes references to events and details from Eric Richins’ life and his relationship with his children.
In the criminal case, the defense has argued that prosecutors “simply accepted” the narrative from Eric Richins’ family that his wife had poisoned him “and worked backward in an effort to support it,” spending about 14 months investigating and not finding sufficient evidence to support their theory.
Lazaro has said the prosecution’s case based on Richins’ financial motives proved she was “bad at math,” not that she was guilty of murder.
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