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SALT LAKE CITY — Attorneys for a Kamas mother accused of killing her husband by secretly giving him a fatal dose of fentanyl, and then writing a children's book about grieving the loss of a loved one, have asked the court to dismiss the case.
The attorneys argue that prosecutors violated the due process rights of Kouri Darden Richins, 34, when they filed a letter in court that was found in her jail cell in which prosecutors say she asked her mother and brother to give false testimony at her trial.
Richins is charged with aggravated murder, a first-degree felony, in the March 2022 death of her husband, 39-year-old Eric Richins.
In a motion for dismissal filed Wednesday, Richins' attorneys say the state participated in "prosecutorial misconduct" that will make it "no longer possible" for her to receive a fair trial.
The state motioned for a gag order in May, requesting relief from "overwhelming media interest" that could lead to "pre-trial tainting of the jury pool," Richins' attorneys note in the request for the case to be dismissed.
The attorneys allege the state publicly accused her "of witness tampering, while admitting it has no evidence that such a crime occurred" when prosecutors filed the so-called "Walk the dog!!" letter on Sept. 15.
The six-page handwritten letter to her mother was found inside a book during a search of Richins' cell in the Summit County Jail, a police report states. Prosecutors believe the letter instructs her mother and brother to provide false testimony in the case.
Scrawled across the top of the six-page letter are the words "Walk The Dog!! But take vague notes so you remember." The letter expresses a desire to link Eric Richins getting drugs from Mexico to the fentanyl that caused his death, according to prosecutors. In the letter, Kouri Richins allegedly wants her brother to say Eric Richins told him he got pain pills and fentanyl from Mexico through workers at a ranch.
In the letter, she said the testimony "can be short and to the point but has to be done." She asked her mother, Lisa Darden, to pass the information to her brother in person, saying her mother's home and phone could be bugged.
But Richins says the letter was just "an excerpt of a fictional book" she is writing about her stay in a Mexican prison. In a jail conversation with her mother, she explained to her mom that in her mystery book, she goes to Mexico to find drugs with her dad.
"Those papers were not a letter to you guys; they were part of my freaking book," Richins said on the call, according to court documents. "You can very much tell that the whole thing is very much a story."
In the motion for the case to be dismissed, Richins' attorneys allege the letter being made public was a violation of rules of civil and criminal procedure.
"The state has submitted documents on the court's public docket that has undermined the integrity of these proceedings. The resulting prejudice to Ms. Richins is irreversible," the attorneys said. They allege the state's actions undermine the defense's credibility and "flagrantly disregards the truth and its ethical duties, all to the detriment of Ms. Richins."
A police report was filed along with the "Walk the dog!!" letter, and the report says the letter was found folded and hidden in a book. Richins' attorneys say it was instead obtained through "a potentially illegal search of Ms. Richins' documents which were stored in an envelope titled 'Skye Lazaro (Attorney Privilege).'"
"By filing the police report on the public docket, the state ignores the longstanding concerns related to the reliability and admissibility of such reports. More important, the state ignores the glaring risk of prejudice to Ms. Richins," the attorneys said.
The state also requested a no-contact order and said the order was necessary "to prevent (Richins) from further engaging in witness tampering," attorneys note.
Richins has not been charged or convicted of witness tampering, her attorneys noted, alleging that her due process rights were violated when the state "falsely and publicly (declared) that she is guilty of 'witness tampering.'"
The attorneys argue that the media coverage of the "Walk the dog!!" letter has compromised her right to a fair trial. They said that "within minutes" of the letter and no-contact motion being filed, they began receiving requests for comment from reporters. Within a few days, "countless" media outlets had reported on the situation and "were parroting the state's claims of witness tampering and attempts to compel false testimony," the attorneys said.
Media attorneys in previous cases have argued that there has never been a criminal case in Utah that was successfully appealed because of pretrial publicity.
Should the charges not be dismissed, Richins' attorneys request that the Summit County Attorney's Office be disqualified from prosecuting the case and ask that the trial be moved to Salt Lake County. The attorneys also asked the judge to suppress all evidence related to the "Walk the dog!!" letter and ensure that jury instruction precludes "consideration of the state's false claim that Ms. Richins had engaged in witness tampering."
