Kouri Richins made the headlines for writing a children's book about grief after her husband suddenly passed. She has now been convicted for his murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Richins was found guilty in March, Judge Richard Mrazik said that the mother of three was "too dangerous to ever be free."
Prosecutors stated that Richins killed her husband, Eric Richins, by serving a a cocktail laced with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl in 2022. After his death she inherited $4 million (€3.4m) and get another $2 million (€1.7m) from life insurance policies she secretly took out on him.
Reports have stated that she had previously tried to lace his sandwich a few weeks before which led to him becoming seriously ill.
"I'm broken, broken without your dad, broken without you boys," she said in court yesterday according to the Tribune. "I fell in love with someone who wasn't your dad. Your dad fell in love with someone who wasn't me," Richins said.
Richins stated that she wrote her book "Are you with me?" to help her three sons cope. Ahead of the hearing yesterday, her sons said that they would feel unsafe if their mother was ever released from prison.
Statements from her sons who were aged nine, seven and five at the time came in a memo from prosecutors urging Judge Richard Mrazik to sentence Richins to life without parole.
The oldest of her sons who is now 13 years old said that he wanted the court to know that he did not miss his mother. “I’m afraid if she gets out, she will come after me and my brothers, my whole family. I think she would come and take us and not do good things to us, like hurt us," the oldest son said.
According to reports, Richons was also found guilty by jurors for insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for her previous attempt to murder her husband.
“With [her] in jail, I will be able to continue to feel safe and live a happy and successful life without fear of [her] hurting me or anyone I love,” the now 11 year olds statement read.
Richin's faces more than two dozen criminal charges in a separate case that has not yet gone to trial.
