A Utah mom accused of killing her husband with a fentanyl-laced Moscow Mule has had a seizure in jail after being given medication which led to a letter being found that could see her face witness tampering charges, a source tells DailyMail.com exclusively.
Kouri Richins is accused of poisoning husband Eric, 39, by slipping him five times the lethal dose of fentanyl into the drink in March 2022.
On Friday, Richins ‘had an incident’ when given the wrong medication and was taken to the hospital after seizing up at Utah’s Summit County Jail. The source said it was the sixth time she’s been given the wrong medicine.
While she was recovering, her cell was searched and a six-page letter addressed to Richins’ mother, Lisa Darden. In the letter, Richins’ asks her mom to tell Richins’ brother, Ronney, to repeat a narrative prosecutors say is a lie.
In the letter – included in a no contact order filed by the state – Richins says she wants her brother to repeat the link between Eric ‘getting pills and drugs in Mexico’ to the fentanyl that killed him.
Kouri Richins, a Utah mom accused of killing her husband with a fentanyl-laced Moscow Mule has had a seizure in jail after being given medication which led to a letter being found that could see her face witness tampering charges
In the letter – included in a no contact order filed by the state – Richins says she wants her brother to repeat the link between Eric ‘getting pills and drugs in Mexico’ to the fentanyl that killed him
She adds Ronny can ‘reword’ this story however he’d like, but ‘to make the point just include it all.’
‘Tell Ronald I need him to do this,’ she writes, warning mother Lisa to only speak to him about this in person because she believes Lisa’s home and phone have been bugged.
The state claims no such link for this story exists, therefore, Richins is attempting to get her brother to lie on the stand, prosecutors say.
They’re asking the court to refuse Richins any interaction with her mother or brother, who are both slated to be witnesses at trial.
Elsewhere in the letter, Richins orders Darden to get someone named ‘Lotto’ to contact her.
‘Tell him do not text me anything about us doing things together ever! Like church, skiing, trips! Nothing that puts us together, it doesn’t look good.’
‘We’re so close to the end, let’s push through. Have the conversation with Ronney before he meets with Skye,’ she says, referencing attorney Skye Lozaro.
‘Then tell him to tell Skye at the meeting about the conversation. Hang in there, we’re almost there. Love you to the moon.’
Richins is accused of poisoning husband Eric (pictured), 39, by slipping him five times the lethal dose of fentanyl into the drink in March 2022
On Friday, Richins ‘had an incident’ when given the wrong medication and was taken to the hospital after seizing up at Utah’s Summit County Jail
Richins was most recently seen earlier in September, looking disheveled as she wept in court.
Wearing a blue prison uniform, Richins appeared disheveled as Lazaro comforted her following the hearing.
Lazaro later told KUTV 2News: ‘This is hard. ‘She’s been in custody. She’s lost her kids. She’s going through a lot. All she wanted from the beginning was to grieve her husband.’
During Friday’s hearing, Judge Richard Mrazik was told by Lazaro that she had a lot of documents to go through and needed more time.
Mrazik agreed with her and set another status updated for November 3 when the case will call again.
Richins made another court appearance in September in Summit County alongside her attorney Skye Lazaro
Richins looked disheveled wearing her prison uniform alongside her attorney, who briefly comforted the mother of three
Richins and her husband had been arguing about her plans to purchase and flip a 10-acre $2 million home in the days before he was found dead at their Utah home last March, according to court documents.
Prosecutors say Eric found out that his wife had taken out a $250,000 home equity line of credit and spent it, withdrawn $100,000 from his bank accounts, and spent more than $30,000 on his credit cards.
Kouri Richins also stole about $134,000 from her husband’s business meant for tax payments, the documents state.
The documents state that she agreed to repay her husband back when he confronted her about the missing money.
One day after his death, affidavits for search warrants show that Kouri signed the closing papers on the property and invited friends for a party where she was drinking and celebrating.
The mother of three later self-published a children’s book titled “Are You with Me?” about an angel wing-clad deceased father watching over his sons.
Richins had written a book following her husbands passing, pictured here, and appeared on TV promoting it
Richins and her husband had been arguing about her plans to purchase and flip a 10-acre $2 million home, pictured here, in the days before he was found dead
She promoted it on television and radio, describing the book as a way to help children grieve the loss of a loved one.
She said in an interview that she was motivated to write the book after searching Amazon and Barnes and Noble and finding ‘nothing’ to help them ‘cope’.
‘I went on Amazon and Barnes and Noble to try to find something to help us cope at night, nights are the hardest. I just wanted some story to read to my kids at night and I couldn’t find anything that suited them, so I was like “let’s just write one.”‘
She went on to describe her husband’s death as a ‘shock.’
‘My husband passed away unexpectedly last year. March 4 was a one year anniversary for us. He was 39.
‘It completely took us all by shock,’ she claimed.
Prosecutors say that Kouri poisoned Eric with a lethal amount of the drug to get money from his life insurance.
Richins was arrested in May on charges of first-degree aggravated murder and multiple counts of second degree possession of a control substance with intent to distribute.
After publishing her kids picture book about grief, Richins appeared on TV shows promoting it and sharing her story
Prosecutors say that Kouri poisoned Eric with a lethal amount of the drug to get money from his life insurance
Prior to his death in March of 2022, Eric had changed his will to make his sister the sole beneficiary of his life insurance policy and was even thinking of getting a divorce from Kouri, according to his family.
Family attorney and spokesperson Greg Skordas previously told DailyMail.com Eric was afraid Kouri was trying to kill him after two separate instances in which he became violently ill after drinking or eating with his wife.
Authorities say, Kouri changed Eric’s joint life insurance policy, which he shared with his business partner Cody Wright, so that she was the only beneficiary.
But when the insurance company told the partners, who own the business C&E Stone Masonry, of the change, they were able to change it back.
An undated family photo taken during the holidays and the pet dog
After finding out that Richins had tried to change his life insurance policy, Eric changed the beneficiary of his will and his power of attorney to his sister.
A warrant states that he did this without telling his wife because he was scared she might ‘kill him for the money’.
In the aftermath of his death, an unnamed acquaintance came forward to reveal he sold Kouri the fentanyl.
After he died, Kouri claimed he had an addiction to pain medicine in high school but there were no substance abuse issues since.
Friends and family told police said they hadn’t any idea of Eric being addicted to any form of medicine, and officers did not find any pain killers in the family home.
She has not yet entered a plea on charges of criminal homicide, aggravated murder and three counts of possession of a controlled substance
Pictured: Kouri and Eric Richins were married in June 2013
If the case goes to trial, it could hinge largely on an unidentified informant who prosecutors say sold Richins the drugs that medical examiners later found in her husband’s system.
Charging documents and warrants detail interviews in which the informant said she sold Richins hydrocodone and fentanyl in the weeks and months before her husband’s death.
Prosecutors say the drug purchase timeline corresponds with Eric’s death and their allegation that his wife laced a Valentine’s Day sandwich with hydrocodone weeks prior.
After her husband survived the first alleged poisoning, Kouri Richins asked for stronger drugs, ‘some of the Michael Jackson stuff,’ the dealer told investigators, according to prosecutors.
When the pop star died of cardiac arrest in 2009, medical examiners found prescription drugs and powerful anesthetics in his system, not fentanyl.
Richins repeatedly denied her involvement on the day of his death in March 2022, even telling police, ‘My husband is active. He doesn’t just die in his sleep. This is insane.’
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