Kouri Richins ordered to pay $55.2M to her husband's estate after being convicted for his murder

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Kouri Richins was ordered to pay $55.2 million to her late husband's estate after being convicted of his murder.
The ruling resolved the 16th claim in a 21-claim lawsuit, addressing wrongful death and economic losses.
Richins is serving a life sentence without parole for the aggravated murder of her husband, Eric, who died from a fentanyl overdose in 2022.

PARK CITY — Kouri Richins was ordered to pay even more money to her late husband's family this week, resolving a claim in a wrongful death lawsuit and an estate claim filed by Eric Richins' sister, Katie Richins-Benson.

Kouri Richins is spending the rest of her life in prison, without the possibility of parole, after she was found guilty of the aggravated murder of her husband who died of a fentanyl overdose on March 4, 2022, at 39.

On Monday, 3rd District Judge Richard Mrazik ordered Richins to pay $55,120,516 in the wrongful death lawsuit to Richins-Benson as the representative and trustee of Eric Richins' trust.

The order said no one opposed the motion Richins-Benson filed to grant claim #16 of the lawsuit, which alleged that Kouri Richins wrongfully caused her husband's death. The ruling said that because Kouri Richins did not dispute any of the information in the motion, the judge considered each as a fact when he made his ruling.

Of the $55 million, $10 million is related to economic damages, $41 million is for punitive damages, and $1 million was awarded for each of the minor children who lost the "companionship, protection, guidance, and affection" from their father, the court document read.

"Eric shared deep, emotional connections with his three minor children, who are the estate's only heirs. His death has caused them severe trauma, and it will have permanent effects on each. In addition, by killing Eric, which resulted in her imprisonment, Kouri deprived the minor children of being with their father or their mother," the ruling said.

The judge's ruling said that because of the "level of reprehensibility" of Kouri Richins' actions, there is cause to multiply the economic and non-economic damages by three to calculate the punitive damages amount. The ruling cited that the number three is "particularly apt" because it includes a number for each of the surviving victims — the children.

Economic damages account for funeral expenses, which were $13,781, along with lost wages and benefits, consumption and household services.

This ruling resolves only the 16th claim listed in the lawsuit, which has 21 claims, but it may be the claim that will have the largest impact. Some of the other claims, which are currently on a stay in the court, involve Kouri Richins' real estate company or allege stolen retirement accounts or property.

One unresolved claim alleges that Kouri Richins misappropriated her husband's image when she published a children's book about grief without obtaining consent from his family members. The book was published after his death but before she was charged. The lawsuit claims she profited off Eric Richins' image but did not share proceeds from the book with his estate.

On Tuesday, Mrazik also signed an order in an estate case that awarded Eric Richins' sister, Katie Richins-Benson, $79,005 in attorneys' fees.

The judge dismissed the trust case, which was filed by Kouri Richins, in a ruling on Aug. 4. The ruling granted a motion from Richins-Benson, which said Kouri Richins would not have any right to the trust because she was found guilty of killing Eric Richins.

Kouri Richins was previously ordered to pay $1.3 million to life insurance companies as restitution in her criminal case after being found guilty of insurance fraud.

She was found guilty on March 16 of aggravated murder, a first-degree felony; attempted aggravated murder, a first-degree felony; two counts of insurance fraud, a second-degree felony; and forgery, a third-degree felony. A judge denied her request for a new trial, and she is currently appealing that decision.

Kouri Richins also has a hearing later this week in a case that Mrazik ruled should be heard in a separate trial from her murder charge. She is charged in that case with five counts of mortgage fraud, seven counts of money laundering, one count of communications fraud and one count of engaging in a pattern of unlawful activity, all second-degree felonies; plus five counts of forgery and seven counts of issuing a bad check, third-degree felonies.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.