Verdict at Kouri Richins' trial. Nurse accused of poisoning friend. Plus, AI at the police station.

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1:19It's March 19th, and we're on the road, bringing you the podcast from Utah, where I'm covering the Corey Richens trial. More on that in a little bit. First, here's what's on our docket this week. In Provo, Utah, a nurse is on trial for allegedly poisoning her best friend with insulin. Her defense team says the case is based on lies. Like Casey telling people she was afraid of Megan. Was Casey just lying about that? Can you believe anything of what she says? In Dateline Roundup, the latest on an Illinois killer fighting to clear his name. And the names of his parents, too. and the newly released police interview with the ex-lover of former Major League Baseball pitcher and convicted killer Dan Serafini.

2:02We always joke around that we're like a frepl because he always complains that he has two wives. Plus, AI at the police station and the courthouse. How is artificial intelligence changing crime fighting? There's a lot of controversy around this. The whole idea is trying to intervene before the crime occurs. All right, let's get to our first story. We are here not too far from the Summit County Courthouse, and we've got a huge update for you in the trial of Corey Richens, the mother of three who authored a children's book about grief only to be accused of murdering her husband. There's a verdict.

2:42Over the past three weeks, prosecutors painstakingly built their case against Corey Richens by calling over 40 witnesses, presenting dozens of exhibits, phone records, toxicology reports, financial documents, all pointing, they say, towards Corey's involvement in her husband's sudden death. The prosecution alleged that the Utah mom had slipped her husband Eric a fatal dose of fentanyl in a cocktail so she could cash in on his life insurance and start her life over with a new man. Then it came time for the defense to present their case, and they took a very different approach. They announced they would not be calling a single witness.

3:18No, actually, this time the defense intends to arrest me. A decision so surprising, the judge made sure Corey Richens was okay with it. I just want to make sure you've consulted with your client about this. Absolutely. Ms. Richens, may I ask you two direct questions? Yes. Do you understand that you have the right to testify at trial? Yes, I do. Are you following your attorney's advice and waiving your right to testify at trial? Yes, I am. Closing arguments got underway on Monday, and then the jury was sent off to deliberate. Dateline producer Karen Israel is here with me in the same room in Utah, and she is joining us now to talk about the final chapter in the Corey Richens case.

4:01Karen, thanks so much for being here in Utah with me. Thanks for having me. Before we get to the verdict, let's just spend a little bit longer talking about the closing arguments. The prosecution went first. Prosecutor Brad Bloodworth spent a lot of time describing Corey's character. The prosecutor, you know, went after her psychological makeup and said that she was intensely ambitious. Corey Richards is intensely ambitious. She wanted the perfect life or at least the appearance of the perfect life. Yeah, he used that phrase intensely ambitious five times in his closing. It's the phrase that he seemed to want the jury to hold on to, to understand just how driven Corey was to get what she wanted.

4:43And he said she'd do whatever it took to get it. And at first, her husband Eric seemed to provide exactly what she was looking for. But then the prosecutor said Corey got unhappy in the marriage and she couldn't just walk away. She had too much to lose. So, Karen, also in that motive bucket is this prenup that Corey and Eric had. And the prosecutor went into details about that. Their prenuptial agreement meant that if she left him, she would also leave most of his money. That's right. Bloodworth said Corrie did everything she could to make enough money on her own to be able to leave Eric Ritchens and took incredible risks trying to do so in her house flipping business.

5:23And that's when she crossed paths with her handyman turned lover, Josh Grossman. She seemed to want a life with this man. The prosecutor told the jury that she really only saw one path forward. Corrie Ritchens is an intensely ambitious person. She is a risk taker. There was a way forward. Eric had to die. How did the prosecutor sum up how Corey killed Eric? So the prosecutor said Corey bought illicit street drugs to kill Eric and that Corey gave Eric the drugs she got her hands on in a cocktail, possibly a Moscow mule or a shot or both. We heard early on that 911 call that Corey made the day Eric Richens died.

6:10the prosecutor chose to replay that 911 call in closings. Yes, so on the call, you hear Corey giving excuses about why she can't give Eric CPR.

6:29If he has sheets under, pull them to the floor. Don't worry about hurting him.

6:43The prosecutor actually put up a time clock while playing the 911 call and estimated there was a six-minute delay before Corey actually started doing CPR. And so we go back to character here. The prosecutor wanted the jury to listen to Corey's demeanor and, you know, decide for themselves who this woman really is. The first minute is not the sound of a wife becoming a widow. The first minute is the sound of a wife becoming a Black widow. OK, then it was the defense's turn to present their closing arguments. Defense attorney Wendy Lewis poked holes in the prosecution's theory that Corey killed her husband to be with Josh Grossman, saying that even Grossman himself admitted on the stand that their future together was a mere fantasy.

7:34And Corey never promised she would leave Eric for him. If Corey was as motivated by money as they would have you think, would she really have killed her wealthy husband to run off with the handyman who lived for free in one of her houses? As to Corey's behavior on the 911 call and after Eric's death, the defense said that people all grieve differently and she shouldn't be judged based on the worst moment of her life. The defense attacked the credibility of the state's star witness, Carmen Lauber. She's really key in this whole trial. She's Corey's former housekeeper who testified that she got the fentanyl for Corey, which the prosecution says was the deadly fentanyl.

8:11Yeah, Carmen is so important in this case, and the defense really zeroed in on the point that Carmen's testimony could not be trusted. They said that not only did she give her story in exchange for a get-out-of-jail-free card as she was facing serious drug charges, they said her testimony was full of inconsistencies. existencies. She couldn't remember anything. Not from 2022, not from 2023. She couldn't remember on Friday what she testified to on Thursday. Jury deliberations got underway Monday afternoon and the mood was tense. Yeah, the judge checked in with the jury. They wanted to keep going into the evening.

8:51They actually locked up the courthouse and everyone had to stay inside. Then after three hours of deliberating, we learned the jury had reached a verdict. Okay, let's take a listen. Count one, aggravated murder. We, the jury, unanimously find that the defendant, Corey Richens, is guilty of aggravated murder. Richens also faced charges of attempted aggravated murder, fraud, and forgery. She was found guilty of all of those charges. And Karen, I personally felt like as the verdict was being read, you got a sense of how Corey was feeling. To me, it was written all over her face. After hearing guilty for the aggravated murder charge, she tipped her head down and you could see her trying to regulate her breathing.

9:35When will Corey Richens be sentenced? The judge scheduled sentencing for May 13th. Richens Incredibly also faces 26 other felony charges in a separate case, charges all pertaining to alleged financial crimes. And we'll have to wait and see whether prosecutors will pursue that in light of this verdict because she is looking at some very, very serious time behind bars. Karen, thank you for being here with me in Utah. It's great to be here with you. Coming up down the road from the Corey Richens Courthouse, we've got another Utah story for you. And another alleged poisoning. This one involves a nurse and her best friend.

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12:32For our next story, we're heading to Provo, Utah, where it's week two in the trial of nurse Megan Sundwall for the murder of her best friend, Casey Terry. At the time of 38-year-old Casey's death in August of 2024, her friends and family believed she was terminally ill with cancer. But an autopsy revealed something astonishing. Casey didn't even have cancer. She died from an insulin overdose. After a seven-month investigation, police arrested Casey's friend, Megan, for her murder. Tonight, a Utah nurse is behind bars accused of carrying out a years-long murder plot. Driven by greed for life insurance money, the woman allegedly killed her old roommate.

13:15Megan Sundwall says she's innocent and has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and obstruction of justice. And as her trial gets underway, her defense team is urging the jury not to jump to conclusions. They say Casey was lying to everyone about having cancer, and that wasn't the only thing she lied about. As a warning for our listeners, this segment includes discussion of suicide. Dateline producer Marissa Meyer, who has been covering the case, is here to get us up to speed. Thanks for joining us, Marissa. Thank you for having me, Andrea. So before we get into the details of the alleged crime, Marissa, tell us about Megan and Casey.

13:51Who were they? How did they know each other? And you say they were best friends, right? Or it appeared to be. Yeah, very, very close. Prosecutors say Casey and Megan met working at a center for adults with intellectual disabilities, and they became close friends really quickly. And at one point, Casey even lived with Megan and her husband. So they were very, very close. At some point in their friendship, Casey started telling people she had cancer. How did Megan react? So prosecutors said the friends spoke often about Casey's cancer and how she was in pain and she was worried about dying. The state showed the jury text messages in which Casey expressed suicidal ideations to Megan, saying that she wanted to end her own pain.

14:42And they alleged that Megan seemed to be encouraging Casey to follow through with those ideations. Megan told Casey, there is nothing left for you here. And then another woman where she told her, the cops, you have to let go. It is past time. Prosecutors say that the way Megan was talking to her was scaring Casey. And they called Casey's sister, Kylie, to the stand. She told the jury that Casey got so scared of Megan that she moved out of her house. I, me and my husband moved her out around 2020. Why did you and your husband move her out? Because Casey no longer felt safe living there. How did she express that to you?

15:32My multiple phone calls that she felt like Megan was trying to poison her. She just didn't feel comfortable being in that house anymore. And Kylie testified that as far as she knew, Casey wasn't suicidal at all. What did you perceive Casey's attitude about life to be? Happy. She was a lot more upbeat than I had seen her in a long time. So you feel she would have confided in you if suicide intention was an issue? Yes. Kylie said she believed right from the start that Megan was involved in Casey's death. Tell us how life insurance fits into all of this. Yeah. So this is a central part of the case and what prosecutors say is the motive in the case.

16:21The jury learned that Casey told Megan that she had named Megan as the beneficiary of her life insurance policy. She showed her documents that indicated there was up to a million and a half dollars that Megan was going to be a beneficiary of. And prosecutors noted that Megan was in financial trouble at that point. She'd lost her job, she'd totaled her car, and her husband's child support payments from her previous marriage had gone way up. So, Marissa, with all of what we've just talked about, what do prosecutors say happened on August 12th, 2024? So they say that Megan entered Casey's home that day with a plan.

17:11Her plan was that she would go to her friend's and Carrie's house. She would inject her with insulin and monitor her blood glucose until Casey died. And prosecutors say Megan did not call 911 to get her help. Casey's uncle eventually did. And then Casey died three days later in the hospital. And there's a big twist in all this. We said in the intro, Casey didn't even have cancer. Yeah. So had she been lying to everyone then, including Megan? Yes. So Casey's lies have formed the basis of the defense's argument. The defense is saying that Casey lied a lot. They say that she was lying about cancer.

17:59She was lying about a ton of other things. And they say that, you know, maybe she was doing all this to try to get attention from people. Wow. Yeah. So the defense is basically attacking the credibility of the victim, which is always dicey. Yes, it's always a gamble. But I think for the defense, they feel it's really important here because it raises doubts for the jury about things the prosecutors said, which could be very damning about Megan's character. Like Casey telling people she was afraid of Megan or being worried that Megan might kill her. Was Casey just lying about that? Can you believe anything of what she says?

18:40When it came down to those text messages about Casey's desire for a quote-unquote release from her illness, wanting to die by suicide, what did the defense have to say about that? Well, they're saying that maybe Megan believed Casey and was trying to support her friend. So does the defense dispute that Megan was with Casey on the night of August 12th? So they do not. And it's one of those things where they can't really dispute it because there are witnesses who place Megan there. But they say Megan was aware of Casey's alleged plan to die that night by suicide via this insulin overdose, and that she went to Casey's house to support her emotionally, just emotionally, not to administer any doses of insulin.

19:24So are they saying then that Casey injected the insulin into herself? Exactly. That's what this whole case boils down to. The question of who gave Casey that fatal dose of insulin? Was it Casey herself or was it Megan? Okay, so there's yet another twist in this story, Marissa, that has to do with this insurance policy. I know, I know. This is twist number four, five, or six. I think there's more at this point, yeah. Yeah. Both sides also agree that this$1.5 million life insurance policy Casey told Megan was in her name, it never existed. So Megan didn't actually stand to receive any money after Casey's death.

20:10What can we expect next in the courtroom? So the prosecution is still calling witnesses, and we'll continue to watch the testimony before the defense begins their case. Before we go, we'd like to share some information. If you or someone you know is in crisis, call the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988 or visit 988lifeline.org for more resources. Thank you for bringing us this very complicated story, Marissa, and breaking it down. Thank you, Andrea. Up next, it's time for Dateline Roundup. Dramatic updates from an Illinois courtroom in a 30-year-old murder case. And the sentencing of Samantha Scott, the ex-lover of former baseball pitcher and convicted killer Dan Serafini.

20:57Plus, more police departments are using AI to fight crime. Even crimes that haven't happened yet.

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23:37Welcome back. Joining me for this week's roundup is Dateline producer Veronica Mazzica. Hey, Veronica. Hey, Andrea. Okay, so Veronica, for our first story, we're heading to a California courtroom and the sentencing of a key player in a case we have been following very closely. This is the 2021 shooting of Gary Spohr and his wife, Wendy Wood, by their son-in-law, former Major League Baseball pitcher Dan Serafini. He was married to the couple's daughter, Erin. Gary was killed at the scene. Wendy survived the shooting, but died by suicide the next year. My mom's blood is on Samantha Scott's hands.

24:13That is the voice of Gary and Wendy's other daughter, Adrienne, talking about Samantha Scott, Serafini's nanny and lover. Veronica, remind us how Samantha Scott fits into this case. Yes. So a jury convicted Dan Serafini of first-degree murder and attempted murder in July. and he is now serving life without parole. Samantha Scott testified against Serafini at his trial. She admitted that they were lovers and that she dropped him off in Tahoe the day of the shooting. So Veronica, interesting timing here. Samantha Scott's initial interview with detectives was just released so we can hear for ourselves what she told them in those early days.

24:53Samantha says she thought Serafini was going to Tahoe to buy drugs not to kill his in-laws. That's correct. And you hear the detectives getting frustrated with her. They say that they don't believe her, but she sticks to her guns. And that's actually consistent with what she said ever since. She says she had no idea what Serafini was planning. In that same interview, Samantha Scott also downplayed her relationship with Serafini at the beginning of all of this, saying it was more of a flirtatious friendship than an affair. Are you and Danny together or is it a sexual thing or just friends? So we're friends.

25:32I mean, they're family. I'm very close with Aaron and I'm very close with Dan. There's a recent flirtation going on, which I'm sure you will see on my phone. With Dan? Okay, not Aaron? No, not with Aaron. And we always joke around that we're like a threeple because he always complains that he has two wives. Eventually, Samantha agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and told them she'd been hiding something, that Serafini had actually confessed to her after the shootings. She pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact, which brings us back to her sentencing this week. What, Veronica, did the judge ultimately decide?

26:13Samantha Scott was sentenced to two years of probation with no additional jail time. And Samantha addressed the court as well? Yes. She apologized and took full responsibility for lying to investigators. My heart goes out to the victims and their family. I cannot undo what happened, but I truly wish that I had acted differently when I had the chance. The judge said he was troubled by her conduct but found her testimony credible. She is also prohibited from having any contact with Serafini. And he is filing an appeal, so we will see where that goes. For our next story, we're heading to Illinois where there's been a development in a case that's nearly 30 years old.