- Kouri Richins' attorneys filed a motion for financial documents from her husband Eric Richins' trust.
- The motion seeks to compel her sister-in-law to comply with a subpoena request.
- The documents are deemed crucial for assessing witness credibility in Richins' aggravated murder trial.
PARK CITY — Attorneys for Kouri Richins have filed a motion to get victim Eric Richins' sister to hand over documents showing the financial activities of the Eric Richins Living Trust.
The motion filed late Thursday is the latest in a recent flurry of activity in the murder case of the 35-year-old Kamas mother and former real estate agent who is scheduled to go to trial in February for allegedly killing her husband, Eric Richins, in March 2022 by giving him a fatal dose of fentanyl.
The latest motion by Kouri Richins' defense team seeks to have the court compel Katie Richins-Benson to comply with a previously served subpoena. While Richins-Benson has partially complied with the subpoena, her "retained counsel objected and refused to comply with the multiple requests contained within the subpoena," the motion states.
Richins-Benson represents the estate of Eric Richins, which has filed a multimillion-dollar civil lawsuit against Kouri Richins.
In the motion filed Thursday by Kouri Richins' criminal defense team, they are seeking bank statements and other financial records from the trust, and specifically a breakdown of individuals who have been paid by the trust.
"Both public testimony at the preliminary hearing of this matter and Ms. Richins-Benson's written objections to the subpoena confirm that at least two of the state's witnesses in this case have also been paid employees of the trust," the motion argues. "However, Ms. Richins-Benson is refusing to produce any documents showing exactly how much these two individuals have been paid and whether there are any other witnesses in this case who have been paid by the trust or by Ms. Richins-Benson personally."
Kouri Richins' attorneys say those records "are material to the defense of this case" and "go directly to the credibility and bias of state's witnesses."
The motion comes on the heels of prosecutors filing amended charges this week against Richins, and a week after her defense team filed motions seeking exculpatory evidence from the state.
