Lawyers for Kouri Richins, the Kamas woman accused of killing her husband with a lethal dose of fentanyl, say a key witness has changed his story and allege prosecutors “did not inform the defense.”
Lawyers for Kouri Richins, the Kamas woman accused of killing her husband with a lethal dose of fentanyl, say a key witness has changed his story and allege prosecutors “did not inform the defense.”
Lawyers for Kouri Richins, the Kamas woman accused of killing her husband with a lethal dose of fentanyl, say a key witness has changed his story and allege prosecutors “did not inform the defense.”
Richins’ lawyers, in documents filed Thursday, asked 3rd District Judge Richard Mrazik to order Summit County prosecutors to hand over that evidence, which they argue would support Richins’ defense. They also asked Mrazik for a new bail hearing.
Margaret Olson, the Summit County Attorney, said Thursday she could not comment on pending litigation. Olson’s office has 14 days to respond in court to any motion filed by Richins’ attorneys.
Richins, 35, was charged in May 2023 with aggravated murder in the 2022 death of her husband, Eric, who was later discovered to have died from an overdose of fentanyl.
Prosecutors wrote in charging documents that an acquaintance of Richins had bought fentanyl from a dealer in Ogden — and that the acquaintance then delivered the fentanyl to Kouri Richins before Eric’s death.
The new filings include a pair of affidavits from the alleged dealer, Robert Crozier. In the affidavits, from an interview defense attorneys conducted on Sept. 10, Crozier made statements that he had not sold fentanyl to Richins’ acquaintance, but did sell OxyContin — a milder opioid.
In the affidavits, Crozier said that when Summit County police officers first interviewed him in May 2023, he said that he had sold fentanyl to the acquaintance. However, when two people from the Summit County attorney’s office interviewed him this April, Crozier told them he sold the acquaintance OxyContin.
When asked why he changed his story, Crozier said that he didn’t remember saying he had sold fentanyl — and that he “had been detoxing during that [first] interview and was ‘out of it,’” according to the affidavit. During the second interview in April, Crozier said he had been sober for three months.
This apparent change of Crozier’s story, Richins’ attorneys wrote in their motion for a new bail hearing, “goes to the heart of the state’s allegations.”
Crozier’s statement, the defense attorneys wrote, “doesn’t just poke holes in their case, it throws a grenade into the middle of it leaving them nothing but speculation and conjecture, getting them nowhere near the realm of beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Richins’ attorneys wrote in their motion for the release of evidence that “the prosecution has been aware of this exculpatory evidence since April of this year.”
“The prosecution did not inform the defense of this information,” the motion continues. “No press release was issued. No reports. Nothing. The prosecution just kept quiet.”
Richins’ attorneys said they only learned that Crozier changed his story during the defense’s September interview.
In addition to the aggravated murder charge, Richins faces 10 other felony charges: one count of attempted criminal homicide; two counts of distributing or arranging distribution of a controlled substance; two counts of mortgage fraud; two counts of filing a false insurance claim; and three counts of forgery. Richins has pleaded not guilty to all of them.
Richins has been held in the Summit County jail since her 2023 arrest. Her attorneys’ pleas for bail have been denied twice before. The Utah Supreme Court has also denied requests to move the trial out of Summit County.
The trial is currently scheduled to begin Feb. 11.
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