Domestic Crime

Defense attorneys for Utah children’s author Kouri Richins, who is awaiting trial on aggravated murder and related charges in the 2022 fentanyl poisoning death of her husband Eric Richins, filed a Jan. 25 motion accusing the prosecution team of intimidating key witnesses. The filing alleges a lead detective told one witness she could be arrested and jailed if she refused to do a prep session and insisted on written questions, while a county investigator allegedly warned another witness that previously granted immunity could be withdrawn if they did not meet again, despite earlier assurances they had done nothing wrong. The defense argues this conduct may violate Utah’s witness‑intimidation statute and Victim and Witness Rights Act, and asks the court to compel prosecutors to turn over all communications with trial witnesses under rules requiring disclosure of material affecting credibility. Prosecutors declined public comment, saying they will answer through the court ahead of jury selection, which is set to begin in the coming weeks in the highly publicized Park City case that drew attention after Richins published a children’s grief book about her husband’s death. The motion adds a new legal fight over alleged coercive tactics on top of forensic evidence that prosecutors say shows Eric Richins had more than five times a lethal dose of illicit fentanyl, along with high levels of the antipsychotic quetiapine, in his system.