48 Hours · CBS News

Kouri Richins Found Guilty

March 18, 2026·29 min·2 clips

A Utah children's book author is found guilty of murdering her husband with fentanyl.

The verdict comes first. A jury unanimously finds Kouri Richins guilty of aggravated murder in the case tied to the death of her husband, Eric Richins. The reaction in the room is immediate. Eric's sisters and father are there as the decision lands, and the story moves from argument to consequence. Natalie Morales lays out what the state said happened: Richins served Eric a Moscow mule with a lethal dose of fentanyl in March 2022. Prosecutors also alleged an earlier poisoning attempt with a sandwich on Valentine's Day. The public details still have a hard edge. Before her 2023 arrest, Richins had published a children's book about grief for her kids after their father's death. Skye Lazaro joins Morales with the defense-side view. Lazaro represented Richins before trial and sat in the Summit County courtroom for closing arguments, so the conversation stays close to the evidence. They talk through testimony about fentanyl, memory, and whether answers changed in ways that helped the state. Then Morales turns to the searches: deleting phone information, police lie detectors, life insurance, luxury prisons for the rich in California, and a lethal fentanyl dose. Lazaro does not treat those as simple proof. Her point is timing. The searches came after a warrant identified Richins as under investigation for Eric's homicide, which gives the defense an explanation for at least some of them. If Richins was learning the allegation from investigators, a search about fentanyl may look different. The guilty verdict does not end the legal story. Lazaro expects an appeal because aggravated murder and the remaining convictions leave almost nowhere else to go. She says pretrial and trial rulings could give an appellate attorney issues to raise before the Utah Supreme Court.

As heard by us

A clean courtroom recap of a fast verdict, with the trial's pressure points still visible.

Centered on the guilty verdict in the trial of Utah children's book author Corey Richens, the piece stays close to how the jury reached its decision.

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Why you'd press play

You want the verdict, the courtroom reaction, and the defense's read on how fast the jury moved.

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