What Did Kouri Richins' Sons Tell The Judge They Were Afraid Of?

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
This is Hidden Killers, Half Year in Review. A look back at some of the most compelling cases of 2026 so far. This is Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski. Here now, Tony Brueski.

**Tony Brueski** (0:14)
We're about to watch Kouri Richins, children's social workers, their therapists, read their statements. They're addressing their mother directly. We're hearing an insight into their psyche that we have not heard yet. I think a lot of us who are parents or not, anybody who gives a crap about victims, has been looking at this case and really wondering about those three kids, your three kids, because she never talked about them through any of this, never brought it up as a point of contention or concern or anything. I think, I mean, honestly, from a defense perspective, that's a missed opportunity. It did not, she could have used that to humanize her 500 ways to Tuesday and she didn't touch it. Why? Because she's not there. She's not, that's not a, that's not a, it's not a pain point for her. It's not, it doesn't seem to be much of anything for her.
Most people, maybe the first thing on their mind, their kids, getting back to your kids, being with your kids, what's going on with my kid? I mean, we didn't hear anything about it until now.
So how are they doing? What do they think of their mom? Are they, are they conflicted? Or do they understand what's happening if people told them? If you don't have kids and you hear the words, you know, they're in the age range of like nine to 13 If you don't have kids, you may be thinking, oh, they're tiny, they're naïve, they don't know anything. I have a child in that age range. I've been living through that range, nine to 13 for the last five years. They're smart, they're sharp, they know what's going on. They know when a parent has been narcissistically evil to them. They feel the pain. They feel the confusion. They feel the contempt. And it doesn't necessarily need any adult in the room saying, you should feel this way about this parent. You don't have to do any of it. You just let them feel. And then you're there for them. You support them. You help them work through that sort of trauma. But nobody needs to guide them to the trauma. They've already been dumped into it. And now they're trying to work their way through it. And the conclusions they have come to, holy shit, wow. This was some powerful stuff. And we're going to go through it here in just a second. This here, this segment, we actually, this is like a three-part segment that we've been doing. We started it yesterday. We have two today. We're going to be going through the kids' statements first. Then we're going to watch Kouri. So get your popcorn. We're going to watch all of that together as we continue our journey here of WTF Was That? The Sentencing of Kouri Richins.
And I think what makes this so crazy, it's not, their statements are not crazy. What makes the whole damn thing crazy was Kouri's reactions.
Her dismissive reactions, her eye rolling, all of that. These kids are burying their souls to the freaking world and more importantly to their mom. Here's what you did to us and there ain't no empathy. None. Zero from mom. It's scoffing, it's rolling eyes. They're in the wrong. They've been brainwashed. And if she tells herself that, well, it's not their fault. Somebody else did this, then she can't be mad at the kids publicly. She met everybody else around them while never feeling the pain. Their very real pain. It's what all these borderlines and narcissists do. And then when they feel they're being disrespected by the children that they've traumatized, oh, what's on the kids then? Disrespecting me. It's earned, bitch.
She had three boys as she walked into that courtroom, not through the doors, but through the voices of their therapists because they're too young, still too damaged to stand in front of the woman who prosecutors say destroyed their world and say the words themselves. So they wrote them down and damn, they did a good job. If you're watching this and you're one of those kids, god damn, wow, you are strong people. You are strong people and it is hellish as all of this is right now. These trials and tribulations, for lack of a better term, and I know it sounds big, it sounds biblical even. I'm not trying to make it sound like, but they're big. It's big, no one can take that from you. It's big, it's hellish, and you guys already know that. This experience in your life as unfortunate and horrendous as it is, and this doesn't mean jack to you right now, I'm sure, is going to serve you later in life. And the experiences that you have and the interactions you have with other people, your trauma, your pain, your hurt, your sorrow, everything that's been stolen from you, I do believe this. You will be a beacon of light to others and be able to give that back tenfold to others who are in those positions. Because you've been there, you can identify it, and you can help others work through it the same way right now that you are working through it. And it's going to take time. I mean, this is going to be a lifelong journey without a doubt, but you're going to get to places that others feel helpless to get to, right when they're first experiencing it, probably the same way you guys did.