Kouri Richins Filed WHAT While Sheriffs Faced Scrutiny?!

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

This is The Big Breakdown, a long look back at some of the biggest stories we're covering for you at the Hidden Killers Podcast and True Crime Today. This is Hidden Killers with Tony Brueski.

Tony Brueski (0:20)

After the jury convicted Kouri Richins unanimously on every single count, aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, insurance fraud, forgery, and just being a shitty person. They invented a charge. It was just being a shitty person. It was really like, wow, I've never seen that one before. They got her on that. Okay, that wasn't true. But you know, could have. Prosecutors revealed a message she'd seen from jail, or she'd sent from jail rather to a man they described as an admirer. She would expose the judge, the prosecutors, the investigators, the Richins family. Do you remember this letter? She got some admirers saying, you're great, Kouri, you're wonderful. And then she, of course, wrote back to a complete stranger. And she would expose the judge, the prosecutors, the investigation. And the Richins family, because they picked the wrong one. Wink emoji.

They haven't seen anything yet. I'm sorry.

I don't know. I don't know why I get so much enjoyment out of watching a narcissist flail. It's just, get the popcorn, gather the family around. That's some fucking entertainment right there. The sentencing memo documented what that promise looked like in practice. According to prosecutors, Kouri's campaign from the insider jail cell included a fake dating profile created for the lead detective and posted online. False reports filed against the family raising her children. Federal firearms charges pursued against Eric Richins' father for removing his dead son's guns to keep them safe. Bar complaints against the prosecutors that went nowhere per the memo. Not one of those actions had substance. Every one though had a target. That was the pattern. That's what she did.

Well, do you think she's going to stop after all of that? Do you think she's going to stop flailing and just causing chaos as she seems to have most of her existence on this planet? Do you think she knows any other modality? Of course not. That was her pattern. Patterns are patterns for reasons because they keep happening.

Especially when you take no accountability for anything that you've done like Kouri Richins.

Here's the latest version of it. Because from behind bars, she's still stirring up stuff. Prosecutors are now formally accusing Kouri Richins of misleading the court. This is new. Her defense filed a sealed motion hidden from the public, asking a judge to pause her entire case. Prosecutors' public response calls her stated reason for the pause a misleading pretext. That's a prosecutor telling a court on the record that a convicted killer is lying. But why is she filed a motion?

There's a recorded jail call that connects the pieces. A man prosecutors described as Kouri's admire and media advisor explains on the call exactly why he helped a particular political campaign. The reason goes straight back to the detective who investigated Eric Richins' death, and we're going to get to it. What Kouri put inside that sealed motion, why prosecutors say it's a fabrication, and where the ammunition she's trying to use actually came from, the answer traces back to her own people. Kouri Richins, as you know, was convicted on March 16th, 2026 of poisoning her husband, Eric Richins, with five times a lethal dose of fentanyl in a cocktail at their home near Park City, Utah. She had tried it before, allegedly, a fentanyl-laced sandwich on Valentine's Day, two weeks before she died or he died. He blacked out that night. She tried again March 4th, and this time he didn't wake up. The jury deliberated in under three hours. Judge Richard Mrazik sentenced her to life without parole on what would have been Eric's 44th birthday. She's been fighting the verdict since the gavel came down. On June 30th, her defense filed a motion for a new trial. The argument, Judge Mrazik was hostile to the defense, impatient, condescending, and friendly to the prosecution. They said he repeatedly interrupted defense counsel in ways that made it look like her attorneys were mishandling witnesses. They claimed the combined effect of multiple errors denied Kouri a fair trial. Oh, the humanity! They also moved to disqualify Mrazik from the case entirely. Mrazik stepped aside and let a colleague decide whether he should be removed. Judge Kara Pettit issued her ruling on July 29th. The disqualification motion was ultimately, or untimely filed, I should say, more than 21 days after the trial ended, past the court's deadline. There was no certification of good faith, no supporting affidavit, and even setting the procedural failures aside.

Pettit wrote that the video clips and transcript excerpts the defense submitted did not demonstrate the level of extreme behavior or deep-seated antagonism required for disqualification.