Kouri Richins: Behind the Facade

0:07This case is about a wife and a mother who found herself in perhaps a failing marriage, a business in trouble. What's your first name? And took, some could argue, an easy way out. I think she really wanted to improve her life and be free and be rich and have this facade of being the successful person that she wanted to be. My name is Eric. My name is Laura and we served as jurors in the Corey Richens trial. Please have a seat. Corey Richens didn't seem to me like someone with a very strong moral compass.

0:50Eric Richens was found dead in his home on March 4, 2022. Eric was married to Corey Richens, and they had three children.

1:17I don't know.

1:29The family had been alerted by Eric that if something happened to him, to look at Corey, it was almost like they knew something like this could happen someday. This was in the months leading up to his death. Right. He felt that his life could be at risk. Right. They suspected Corey would take part in his death before it happened. The state alleged that Corey Richens killed her husband, Eric, by giving him a lethal dose of fentanyl. A Summit County woman who wrote a children's book about coping with grief following her husband's death, now accused of being the one that actually killed him. The book was to honor him, to express to these boys to remember their father.

2:10She's accused, essentially murdering the person who is the topic of the book. Words of wisdom, do not write books while you're being investigated. Corey was 100 % pure goodness and kindness. She's a good, good human being. She might have had these good sides to her where she was giving, but she was willing to give that part up. Did Corey Ritchens ever ask you to purchase for her illicit drugs? Yes. Based upon the testimony and the evidence we saw against Corey, I came to see her as pretty cold and pretty calculating. You have to understand that the jurors did not know her. They didn't know her.

2:58There was no smoking gun in this case. There was never one thing in this case that was absolutely, Corey did it, and there's no question. She basically sacrificed her husband to get what she wanted.

3:15My sweet baby boys. And as much as you've been influenced into thinking that dad was murdered, that I took your dad from you. That is completely wrong. It's an absolute lie. Cory did not just kill Eric. She attempted to kill the spirit of everyone who loved him. She lied to his children. She lied to the world and has shown no remorse while dancing on his grave for profit.

3:57The evidence will prove that Corey Richens murdered Eric for his money and to get a fresh start at life. In February of 2026, in a packed courtroom in Summit County, Utah, Chief Prosecutor Brad Bloodworth laid out the state's case against Corey Richens for the murder of Eric Richens, her husband and father of their three sons. It had been nearly four years since Eric died on March 4, 2022, of a lethal dose of fentanyl. served to him by Corey in a cocktail, say prosecutors. She had spent almost three years in jail awaiting trial. More than anything, she wanted his money to perpetuate her facade of privilege, affluence, and success.

5:00Eric Richens owned a lucrative contracting business, and Corey worked as a real estate agent, buying and flipping houses. She was facing not just murder charges, but also insurance fraud and forgery counts. She was absolutely convinced that she would be found not guilty. Greg Hall is a friend and former colleague of Corey's. What made her so convinced of that outcome? Because she knows that she didn't do it. initially authorities thought eric may have died from an accidental drug overdose but as investigators dug deeper they concluded that cory poisoned eric for financial gain watch out for cory watch out if something happens to me according to greg skordis a spokesperson for eric's family eric had raised concerns about cory to his family the night eric died Were they immediately suspecting that Corey took part in his death?

6:01They suspected Corey would take part in his death before it happened. And so when it did happen, it was everyone's worst nightmare come true. My husband's not breathing. He's cold. As the state built its case against Corey Richens, her 911 call saying she found Eric unresponsive in bed was an integral piece of evidence. If you need to put me on speaker, put me on speaker. I'm going to guide you through CPR, OK? The prosecution used the recording throughout the trial to call into question whether Corey was even trying to resuscitate Eric. Start counting out loud so I can count with you, OK? The operator repeatedly asks the phone to be put on speaker so Corey can listen while performing CPR.

6:50One, two, three, four. Am I on speaker? Yes. But a prosecution digital forensic analyst testified that phone receiver sensor activity showed Corey was actually holding the phone to her ear during the call. There's a proximity sensor inside the device that activates the receiver. The digital download expert could actually see that Corey did not put the phone on speakerphone. She was still holding it up to her ear. That means she wasn't doing compressions, or if she was, she was doing it with one hand. The 911 call was impactful for jurors Laura and Eric, who requested we not use their last names.

7:37Listening to the call, it didn't seem like there was much effort in the compressions themselves. The impression these jurors had of her resuscitation attempts didn't match Corey's description of events, which she texted to her friend Chelsea Barney. Prosecutor Bloodworth read the messages to the jury. His lifeless body on my bedroom floor. I pumped so damn hard, so hard, screaming at him to come back to life, that I needed him. Some of her text messages to a friend, she said she was screaming and beating on his chest. And the evidence did not show that. Some of Corey's other actions the day Eric died puzzled the jurors we interviewed.

8:18like her behavior on this deputy's body cam footage shown in court. It was strange right after Eric died. Corey was holding her face with her hands. It certainly looks like she was trying to hide her face and her emotion. Where are your children now? They're asleep in that room. They were awake with their ear to the door. And when the jurors compared Corey's behavior in the footage to Eric's sister's, they found the contrast startling. Eric's sister, Katie Richards came in, she was hysterical. Take a deep breath. Take a deep breath. Near hyperventilating. And her first thought was, where are the kids?

9:02Are the kids okay? And through that whole video, Corey said, my kids are in that room and one of them's listening, but never did she move to go comfort those kids. Eric's sister, Katie, testified about arriving at the house. On the morning that Eric died, did Corey Witchens say anything about the house that they were living in? Yes, she told me she was going to sell it. According to Katie, just hours after Eric's death, Corey was talking real estate. How she planned to sell their home and how she needed to close on a house she had just purchased, known as the Midway Mansion. I had just lost one of the most important people in my whole entire life.

9:48And she was planning on selling the house that he had just been wheeled out of, closing on a multi-million dollar mansion. I could not wrap my head around it. Prosecutors also presented evidence of something accessed on Corey's cell phone that morning. These gifts seemingly celebrating coming into money. I thought the gifts were really odd. If she was the one that pulled them up, which it certainly seems like that is the case, that's just more evidence of her state of mind at the time. It was not clear to the jurors whether the gifts were celebrating Eric's death or celebrating the Midway Mansion purchase.

10:34Either way, they found the timing curious. It was still inappropriate the day after her husband passed away that she's accessing these. So it was strange. Strange behavior aside, the state's case hinged on proving Corey intentionally poisoned Eric, that he did not die of an accidental overdose. The prosecution contends it was Corey who administered the fentanyl, either in a cocktail called a Moscow mule or in a lemon drop shot that she prepared for Eric. Investigators found this note in a kitchen cabinet, which the prosecution says chronicles how Corey killed Eric. Notice that here she writes drink in bed.

11:21And the prosecutor told the jury about something else authorities found unusual. In this incident report, describing what happened that night, Corey immediately writes about having a drink around 9.15 p.m. to celebrate work. Her story that night that she wrote started with Eric drinking a drink that she made. Why would her story start then? Why wouldn't it start when she walked in the door and found that he wasn't moving? That was just one of these really subtle things that I thought was really important. Also important for jurors was knowing how Corey obtained the fentanyl. For that, prosecutors turned to a witness who became a controversial figure in the case, Corey's housekeeper.

12:10Did you ask Corey Richens about Eric's death? Yes, I did. What did you ask? I said, please tell me these pills were not for him.

12:28What man is your name? Carmen Lauber. Carmen Lauber was Corey and Eric's housekeeper, and she cleaned homes for Corey's real estate flipping business. Prosecutors say Carmen also did something else. She supplied Corey with the drugs used to kill Eric. Did Corey Richens ever ask you to purchase for her illicit drugs? Yes. How many times? Four. In a lot of ways, she is the key witness. Sky Lazaro had been Corey Richens' attorney before resigning from the case due to a conflict of interest. Carmen really was the only person who could tie Corey to obtaining fentanyl. Carmen testified that in the months preceding Eric's death, Corey asked her to get pain medication for a client, which Carmen did.

13:23Then about two weeks before Eric died, Corey made another request for something stronger. Carmen says she reached out to a drug dealer friend and told Corey she could get her fentanyl. I had texted Corey back and told her that I had a friend that could get them, but they were fentanyl pills. How did Corey Richards respond? She said, OK, go ahead and get them. The state contends Corey mixed that fentanyl into the Moscow mule or lemon drop shot she served Eric. Carmen, though, has an arrest record from drug charges and is not an ideal witness. She had a history of drug abuse. And although I think she's overcome that, those are who you deal with in criminal cases.

14:12They're not always the shiniest people in the world. The jurors we spoke with were able to look past Carmen's history and found her credible. I put a lot of weight on Carmen Lauber's testimony. I found it very impactful, very important to the prosecution's case. And her testimony was corroborated with the digital evidence. The state's digital forensic expert testified about hundreds of text messages between Corey and Carmen that matched Carmen's timeline of when Corey contacted her for drugs. Because the messages had been deleted, investigators could only retrieve dates and time. but not the message's content.

14:52Between the two of them, about 800 text messages. The prosecution argued throughout the trial that this was not the first time Corey used drugs to try to kill Eric. Investigators learned that two weeks before his death on Valentine's Day, Eric became ill after Corey served him what they say was a drug-laced breakfast sandwich. On Valentine's Day, it was a sandwich. When she murdered him, it was a drink. As for a motive, prosecutors say Corey needed money. A forensic accountant testified about her money problems. What was the amount of Corey Richen's liabilities? Right about$8 million. She said Corey was in debt for nearly$8 million from her house flipping business, Some of it from the recent purchase of that Midway Mansion.

15:46And Eric, between the contracting business, property, and life insurance, was worth a lot. On the day that Eric died, his estate was worth over$4 million. There was also evidence that Corey took out an additional$100 ,000 life insurance policy on Eric about a month before he died, and that Eric's signature was forged. signatures were not authored by the same person. A forgery, prosecutors say, committed by Corey. She used her business address for this policy and made herself the beneficiary. And frankly, even as a layperson, looking at the signatures, Eric did not sign that document. And there may have been another motive for murder.

16:37According to the state, Corey wanted a new life with this man, Josh Grossman, a handyman she met through her house flipping business. They had an affair for about two years. I don't know how much the family knew about the fact that she had a paramour. I don't even know how much Eric knew about it. That turned out to be a helpful piece of evidence that was discovered during the investigation. Josh Grossman testified that after he heard Corey had been arrested for Eric's murder, by which time they had broken up, he reached out to Eric's family. I was overwhelmed with guilt, sorrow over my wrongdoings, you know, infidelity.

17:18Okay. With respect to Josh Grossman, he seemed like a believable witness. I think we all felt really sorry for him at times that he was crying. Josh told investigators about a conversation he had with Corey that now, under the lens of murder, took on new meaning. Josh, who had served with the Army in Iraq, was asked about that conversation. She asked if I had ever killed anybody. Did she ask a follow-up question? Yes. She asked me how it made me feel or something along those lines. The jury was also shown text messages between Corey and Josh. I mean, you see those text messages back and forth, very lovey.

18:07Life is going to be different, I promise. If I was divorced right now and asked you to marry me, you would. I just want to lay on the couch and cuddle you, watch a murder documentary and snuggle. I mean, you know, I don't know that that gets any closer to the reality of what actually happened in this case. Yeah, in hindsight, I don't think those were probably well thought out. These coming in the way they did and the timing of them, I think certainly did not help Corey. Can I get Exhibit 3-1, please? Something else that did not help Corey was this reservation she booked for a romantic getaway with Josh.

18:46And did you know about a trip planned to the secret St. Martin's Resort? Yes. Corrie sent Josh the reservation she made before Eric died, with the trip planned for April, a month after Eric's death. The reservation for that trip was damaging to Corrie. To me, that made it look like she had been planning something for a while. And at some point soon, Eric would be out of the picture. As the investigation proceeded, Corrie said the prosecution was worried about being caught. It showed web searches Corey made after Eric's death, including luxury prisons for the rich in America. How long does life insurance companies take to pay?

19:32If someone is poisoned, what does it go down on the death certificate as? Corey's internet searches, questions that were being searched, led me to believe she had a guilty mind. These searches were done after she was handed a search warrant when they searched the home. It kind of takes the sting out of them. I think it's somewhat understandable. This is after the fact. This is after and well after, in fact. She was looking for information based on what she found out after her death. It was one of the points that Corey's own defense team made as it tried to poke holes in the entire prosecution's case.

20:13You know what you're never going to hear is how that fentanyl got inside of him, because there is zero evidence of that.

20:34Just outside of Salt Lake City, home to famed ski resorts including Park City, is the nearly 10-acre estate that Corey Richens was planning on flipping. It looks ginormous. It's massive. Sky Lazaro told us Corey hoped to walk away with nearly$10 million in profit. I think this was kind of her dream when she got into this idea of flipping houses, was to be able to do properties like this. And it was that estate, said Corey Richens' defense attorney, Catherine Nestor, in her opening statement, the couple were toasting the night Eric died. Eric and Corey Richens were celebrating. They were celebrating because Corey was about to close on the biggest real estate deal that her company had ever done.

21:27They had a lot to celebrate. They also had a wonderful family. Nestor showed jurors a family photo of Eric and Corey with their three sons seemingly happy and spoke about the love they shared for their boys. And what's more important is that the boys adored their father. And Corey knew that about her sons and about her family. Nestor asked jurors to consider why Corey would poison Eric, knowing the impact it would have on their three sons. Now, after you've listened to all the evidence in this case, you're going to have to decide if Corey Richens intentionally and knowingly poisoned the father of her kids, knowing that she was going to cause those little boys to feel pain every day for the rest of their life, for the loss of their father.

22:18Corey's friend Greg Hall says Corey would never do that. She was loving, she was kind, she was giving, a wonderful mother. Eric suffered from pain a lot. Nestor told jurors Eric Richens lived with chronic pain. He suffered from knee and back pain related to his work. He did hard work. And used drugs recreationally, often taking marijuana gummies. These are all gummies that the police found in Eric's things. Nestor said Eric also used pain medication. You're also going to hear that there was an empty pill bottle right next to him. The label on that pill bottle was for the painkiller hydrocodone, and it had expired in 2020.

23:04Nestor suggested it was Eric who may have come into contact with fentanyl. You're going to hear that just a few weeks before Eric died, guess where he was? Mexico. Guess where the fentanyl comes into this country from? Mexico. One by one. We'll proceed with cross-examination of Ms. Rich and Spenson. The defense challenged the state's witnesses, beginning with Eric's sister, Katie, and her account of Corey's behavior the night Eric died. And you also said that she just stood there and did not comfort you in any way? Not that I recall. Okay, Your Honor, we'd like to play a clip. This is State's Exhibit 1-4.

23:50Okay, so that's Corey. Freeze it right there. And that's her squatting down to comfort you while you're on the ground, and that's y 'all hugging, right? Correct. So your memory about that was clearly wrong. To be fair, it was four years ago. Okay. When it came to the state's key witness, Carmen Lauber. Good afternoon, Ms. Lauber. Good afternoon. The defense pointed out that she made a deal with police in order to stay out of prison. Defense attorney Wendy Lewis played a portion of one of Carmen's interviews with investigators. They're looking to pull your drug court deal and ask for seven years on your two-firsts.

24:30The only exception to that and the only thing that they're willing to kind of help you out with is if you can help us out with this. And by so, he means like, give us the details that will ensure Corey gets convicted of murder. So that's what they said to you? Yes. You may be getting seven years in prison on your state case. Correct. But if you help him out, that's not going to happen. Correct. The investigators keep pushing on her. We need more. That's not enough. And finally, in the last interview, they basically just spell it out. I love Eric. It was done intentionally. He did not deserve it.

25:12We believe you, and that's why we're here working on what your get-out-of-jail-free card looks like. You know, it's, this is your one get-out-of-jail-free card. You have to basically say it's fentanyl. And you are willing to do whatever it takes to save yourself from getting kicked out of drug court and going to prison, correct? I'm going to go forward with the truth, yes. I think the defense was really hammering her, and I don't think it went over that well. She said, okay, go ahead and get the fentanyl. That's your testimony today? When I told her what I had, that's what she said, yes. Even if Carmen bought fentanyl for Corey, the defense said there was no proof that Corey used the drug to poison her husband.

25:57Catherine Nestor told the jury the cups Corey served the drinks in were never tested that night. Nanny ended up putting them in the dishwasher the next morning. I think the most powerful point the defense made is that we don't know exactly how the fentanyl got into Eric Richen's stomach. When you have to prove murder, you have to prove that she's the one that administered the fentanyl to him. The defense pushed back on the state's claim that Corey had tried to poison Eric weeks earlier with that Valentine's Day sandwich. Corey's friend Allie Staking said the couple downplayed that episode as Eric having an allergic reaction.

26:40He took a bite of the sandwich and got an allergic reaction and had to shoot himself with an epipen. Was everyone laughing? Yes, we were all laughing and we jokingly said, don't eat what Corey feeds you. Okay. And did Eric appear upset about what had happened prior with the sandwich? No. And as for the financial motive that Corey was broke, Sky Lazaro says Corey Richen's multi-million dollar debt was typical in the house flipping business. That's what they do for a living is they invest in homes to flip. So you're saying it's part of the business. Right. You get in debt and then you flip the house, you sell it, and then you make your money back.

27:17Absolutely. And that$100 ,000 life insurance policy the state claimed wasn't signed by Eric? Nestor said there is an innocent explanation. I'm telling you right now, wives everywhere sign their husband's names on a lot of things. You've got to find that she did it without his knowledge, and I don't know how they're going to prove that. The defense also downplayed Corey's affair with Josh Grossman, who testified they never went on that romantic getaway Corey had booked for them. Then Corey ended the relationship, correct? Right. It was a little bit difficult to understand what the situation was with Josh Grossman, because she did seem to drop him pretty quickly.

28:01Do you think that Josh Grossman's relationship with Corey had anything to do with Eric's death? No. If that were the case, after Eric passed away, that relationship would have continued, not been tapered off. It doesn't make any logical sense. On March 12, 2026, after three weeks and 40 witnesses from the state... Your Honor, the state rests its case. The jurors say they were expecting to see defense evidence and hear from their witnesses. Okay, now we can hear the rest of the story. But what happened next... Who's Defense Counsel's first witness? ...caught everyone off guard. My mouth just dropped open.