Kouri Richins ordered to pay over $1.3M in life insurance after murder conviction

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Kouri Richins must repay over $1.3M to life insurance companies after being convicted of insurance fraud.
She was convicted in March of murdering her husband, and is facing a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The judge ordered the repayment to Auto Owner's Insurance and TruStage in a hearing on Friday.

PARK CITY — The Kamas mom, who is spending life in prison without the possibility of parole after being found guilty of killing her husband and insurance fraud, was ordered Friday to repay two life insurance companies.

Kouri Richins' attorney, Wendy Lewis, said she didn't contest the amount prosecutors requested. Both attended the hearing remotely, with Kouri Richins at the prison.

Third District Judge Richard Mrazik ordered her to pay $1,017,018.49 to Auto Owner's Insurance and $352,562.61 to TruStage. Because she is in prison, he ordered the balance turned over to the Utah Office of Debt Collection.

Prosecutors asked the court to order Kouri Richins to repay the money the insurance companies paid to her as the beneficiary of her husband's life insurance policies. They said if she had not killed her husband, Eric Richins, the insurance companies would not have paid the money to her.

"Their payment was not only foreseeable but also (Kouri Richins') motive for murdering Eric Richins," the prosecutors claimed.

Kouri Richins, a former real estate agent, was convicted in March of poisoning her husband, 36-year-old Eric Richins, with fentanyl, causing his death on March 4, 2022. She was sentenced in May.

She was arrested over a year after her husband's death, and used that time to hire a ghostwriter to help publish a children's book about grief.

Lewis asked Mrazik to put the restitution amount on hold while Kouri Richins seeks to appeal her case; Mrazik, however, said he did not think he had the authority to do that, and Deputy Summit County attorney Brad Bloodworth agreed.

Kouri Richins' attorney said she would look into the matter and may file a request contesting that with the court handling her appeal.

She is still facing five counts of mortgage fraud, seven counts of money laundering, pattern of unlawful activity and communications fraud, second-degree felonies; five counts of forgery, a third-degree felony; and seven counts of issuing a bad check, three a second-degree felony and four a third-degree felony.

Her next hearing in that case, which Mrazik ordered would go to trial separately from the other charges, will be held on Oct. 9.

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