Opioids and Fentanyl

In Summit County, Utah, Kouri Richins, 35, went before a jury Monday as prosecutors opened their case alleging she fatally poisoned her husband, 39‑year‑old Eric Richins, with a massive fentanyl dose in March 2022 to solve mounting financial troubles and collect on multiple life‑insurance policies. Summit County Deputy Attorney Brad Bloodworth told jurors toxicology showed more than five times a lethal amount of fentanyl in Eric’s system and said a former housekeeper will testify she supplied fentanyl pills to Kouri days before his death. Prosecutors are also tying the alleged murder to millions of dollars in real‑estate debts and insurance on Eric’s life, and plan to introduce phone records, texts and internet searches about deleting data. Defense attorney Kathryn Nester countered by playing the 911 call Kouri made the night of Eric’s death and argued the state cannot prove how the fentanyl entered his body or that her client knowingly administered it, stressing no fentanyl was found in the home and attacking the credibility of cooperating witnesses. The first witnesses included Eric’s father and sister, who described him as a devoted father and walked jurors through trust and estate documents that put his sister in charge of his assets after his death.