'Killer' Utah grief author Kouri Richins tried to murder husband with poison-laced sandwich a month before she successfully offed him with fentanyl-spiked Moscow mule, new court documents claim

• Kouri Richins, 33, allegedly first tried to kill her late husband, Eric Richins, 39, with a poison-laced sandwich a month before he died 
• She has been accused of poisoning Eric by serving him a fentanyl-laced Moscow mule on March 3, 2022
• Kouri purchased the sandwich, and in the same week, witnesses said she bought several dozen fentanyl pills

The ‘killer’ Utah grief author who allegedly poisoned her husband with a fentanyl-laced cocktail first tried to kill him with a poison-laced sandwich a month before, court documents claim.

Kouri Richins, 33, from Kama in Utah, has been accused of poisoning her husband, Eric Richins, 39, by serving him a fentanyl-laced Moscow mule on March 3, 2022.

New documents filed on Monday claimed that it wasn’t Kouri’s first attempt at trying to kill her late husband.

Prosecutors have alleged that a sandwich that she got for him on Valentine’s Day was left with a note in the front seat of his truck.

She purchased the sandwich from a local diner in town, and in the same week, witnesses said she bought several dozen fentanyl pills.

Two of Eric’s friends said that they remembered that he called them that same day, after he ate the sandwich, and told them, ‘I think my wife tried to kill me,’ according to witness testimony.

Kouri Richins, 33, allegedly first tried to kill her late husband, Eric Richins,39, with a poison-laced sandwich a month before, court documents revealed

Kouri, from Kama in Utah, has been accused of poisoning Eric by serving him a fentanyl-laced Moscow mule on March 3, 2022

The legal documents said that prior to making that concerning phone call, Eric had rushed to inject himself with his son’s EpiPen and downed a bottle of Benadryl after he reacted to the drugs.

When he woke up from a deep sleep, he called his friends and told them he thought he was going to die and that it was his wife’s fault, documents said.

A housekeeper, who is also the state’s star witness, told police that she had sold drugs to Kouri just a couple days before the alleged first poisoning attempt.

According to the latest documents, Kouri allegedly told the housekeeper that she needed stronger drugs because the initial pills provided weren’t strong enough.

A month after that attempt, Kouri called 911 and reported that she found Eric ‘cold to the touch’ at the foot of their bed, according to the police report.

Medical examiners later found that her husband had five times the lethal dose of fentanyl in his system.

Summit County Chief Prosecutor, Patricia Cassell, has alleged that the Kouri slipped the obscene amount of drugs into Eric’s cocktail that night, even though the wife’s family said his death was accidental.

Kouri’s brother Erica said that ‘Eric loved to party, he loved to have a good time.’

‘The simplest answer is often the correct one, it was most likely an accidental overdose.’

‘One or two pills might be accidental. Twenty – or five times the lethal dose – is not accidental. That is someone who wants Eric dead,’ Cassell said.

One day after his death, affidavits for search warrants show that Kouri signed the closing papers on the couple’s $2 million property and invited friends for a party where she was drinking and celebrating.

Shortly after her husband’s death, the mother-of-three self-published a children’s book titled ‘Are You With Me?’ about an angel wing-clad deceased father watching over his sons.

Two of Eric’s friends said that they remembered that he called them that same day, after he ate the sandwich, and told them ‘I think my wife tried to kill me,’ according to witness testimony

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

Investigators have uncovered evidence suggesting that Richins’ mother Lisa Darden, 64, (pictured) may have played a role in Eric Richins’ death

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’.

Richins and her husband had previously 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.

Prosecutors alleged that Kouri purchased four different life insurance policies, which totaled over $1.9million between 2015 and 2017.

In the new legal fillings, it was revealed that Kouri had a negative bank account balance, owned lenders more than $1.8 million and was being sued by a creditor.

She was slapped with two new charges of mortgage fraud and insurance fraud  for allegedly forging loan applications and fraudulently claiming insurance benefits after Eric’s death.

On the same night Eric died, Kouri’s mother, Lisa Darden, and her were celebrating her recent closure on the mansion. Kouri owned a real estate company and her husband owned a successful masonry business.

Utah cops recently discovered that Darden might have been involved in orchestrating the death of her son-in-law with Kouri.

Investigators think that the wife, who has since been charged with aggravated murder and drug possession, got the idea to poison Eric from her mother.

In May 2023, a Summit County Sheriff’s Office detective submitted a search warrant affidavit based on a suspicion that Darden, 64, was ‘involved in planning and orchestrating Eric’s death,’ based on her previous involvement with a mysterious death in 2006.

‘In investigating Kouri Richins’ associates, it was discovered that in 2006, Richins’ mother, Lisa Darden was living with an adult female with whom she was having a romantic relationship,’ the detective wrote in the affidavit.’

Shortly after her husband’s death, the mother of three self-published a children’s book titled ‘Are You with Me?’ about an angel wing-clad deceased father watching over his sons

Kouri has been charged with aggravated murder and drug possession and after the new legal documents came out on Monday, she was slapped with two new charges of mortgage fraud and insurance fraud for allegedly forging loan applications and fraudulently claiming insurance benefits

‘In April of that year, her romantic partner died unexpectedly.’

The partner was Gertrude Lee Moore, who died at the age of 49 ‘suddenly’ on April 30, 2006. In Moore’s obituary, Darden was described as ‘her best friend.’

An autopsy revealed that Moore’s ‘immediate cause of death was a drug poisoning from an overdose of oxycodone,’ Fox News reported.

‘Further investigation showed that Lisa Darden had been named as the beneficiary of her partner’s estate a short time before her death,’ the detective continued.’

‘The female did have current prescriptions for oxycodone and reportedly struggled with abusing her meds. She, however, was not in a state of recovery from addiction at the time of her death.’

Skye Lazaro, the attorney representing Kouri, has denied the detective’s suggestion and said Darden’s partner was a victim of the national opioid crisis.

‘Summit County is well aware that opioid addiction and fentanyl overdose is a rampant problem throughout the country. According to the CDC, 150 people die every day from overdoses related to synthetic opioids like fentanyl,’ Lazaro said in a statement to Fox.

No charges have been filed against Darden.

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 that 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.

His family has insisted that Kouri is the one responsible for his sudden death.

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