Author who wrote kids' book about grief gets life without parole for killing husband with fentanyl spiked cocktail

A woman who wrote a children's book about coping with grief after her husband's death has been sentenced to life without parole for his murder.

Kouri Richins laced Eric Richins' cocktail with a lethal dose of fentanyl after a failed attempt in which she put the synthetic opioid in his sandwich.

Prosecutors said she was millions of dollars in debt and planning a new life with another man when she murdered him near Park City, Utah, in 2022.

The amount of fentanyl she used was five times the lethal dose.

Richins, 35, had taken out multiple life insurance policies without her husband's knowledge and wrongly believed she would inherit his $4m (nearly £3m) estate.

The killer, who had a house flipping business, was sentenced on the day Mr Richins would have turned 44.

She maintained her innocence throughout, calling the verdict "an absolute lie".

Shortly before her arrest in May 2023, Richins self-published a book about coping with the loss of a parent. The cover featured a man with angel wings on top of a cloud.

As the judge prepared to reveal her fate on Wednesday, she took the podium and pleaded with her sons: "Please just don't give up on me."

The boys - who were aged 9, 7 and 5 when their father died - were not in court and now live with her sister-in-law.

'You killed dad for greed'

Social workers read letters from the children, who said they would feel unsafe if she was ever released.

They said their mother had threatened to kill their animals and showed them videos of malnourished children in war zones when they refused to eat undercooked food.

The middle son, now 11, wrote: "You took away my dad for no reason other than greed, and you only cared about yourself and your stupid boyfriends."

He said his mother had made him paranoid about sitting on his dad's side of the bed, saying he might also die, and that he was forced to look after his younger brother because she failed to care for him.

The eldest son, 13, said his mother would lock him inside "pretty much daily" while she was drunk.

Mr Richins' father told the court his daughter-in-law should never be released. He got his wish as the sentence means she will die in jail.

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Richins was also convicted in March of attempted murder for her attempt to poison him with a fentanyl-laced sandwich on Valentine's Day.

The court was told her husband broke out in hives and passed out after injecting himself with his son's EpiPen and drinking a bottle of Benadryl.

Richins was also convicted of forgery and fraudulently claiming insurance benefits.

During the trial, prosecutor Brad Bloodworth played a clip of Richins's 911 call from the night of her husband's death.

He the told the jury, that's "not the sound of a wife becoming a widow...it's the sound of a wife becoming a black widow".

(c) Sky News 2026: Author who wrote kids' book about grief gets life without parole for ki