Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Mormon Mom CHARGED W/POISONING HUBBY 'DEAD BY COCKTAIL' CLAIMS RIGHTS VIOLATED

Episode Date: March 16, 2025

Kouri Richins' defense alleges that the Summit County Sheriff’s Office illegally obtained evidence while investigating the death of Eric Richins. Defense attorneys Kathy Nester and Wendy Lewis say detectives violated Richins' constitutional rights and argue that the evidence should be ruled inadmissible during her murder trial.   At the center of the motion are the "Walk the Dog" letter and data from her phone and Apple accounts. Defense attorneys argue that investigators took Kouri’s phone without a proper warrant and failed to inform her of her right to remain silent, her right to request a lawyer, and her right to refuse questioning.   The case began when Eric Richins became violently ill on multiple occasions after having dinner with his wife, Kouri.   The couple, who owned a successful real estate business, was celebrating a big sale when Kouri Richins prepared a drink for her husband. She then went to care for their children. Hours later, when she went to bed, Eric Richins was dead.   Investigators believe his wife killed him by putting a fatal dose of fentanyl in his drink. Police also discovered that Kouri Richins attempted to change the beneficiary of her husband's life insurance policy. Joining Nancy Grace Today: Jeffrey Wolf - Criminal Defense Attorney; Twitter: @JeffWolf5280 and @WolfLawLLC  Dr. Angela Arnold - Psychiatrist, Atlanta GA.- Expert in the Treatment of Pregnant/Postpartum Women; Former Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Obstetrics and Gynecology: Emory University; Former Medical Director of The Psychiatric Ob-Gyn Clinic at Grady Memorial Hospital Bobby Chacon- Former Special Agent FBI, Screenwriter for “Criminal Minds;” Instagram/Twitter: @BobbyChaconFBI Dr. Paul Christo - Opioid Expert, Associate Professor for The John Hopkins School of Medicine, Division of Pain Medicine; Author and Host of "Aches & Gains: A Comprehensive Guide To Overcoming Your Pain" Dr. Kendall Crowns- Chief Medical Examiner Tarrant County (Ft Worth), Lecturer: University of Texas Austin and Texas Christian University Medical School Jen Smith- Chief Reporter for DailyMail.com, Twitter: @jen_e_smith See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Why won't she just go away? So-called Moscow mule mom, Corey Richens' defense is arguing that vital evidence be suppressed for a jury never to hear about it. Corrie Richens charged in the poisoning death of her husband, the father of their children. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. In the last days, Moscow mule mom Corrie Richens' lawyers insist Summit County Sheriff's Office illegally obtain evidence investigating her in connection to the death of her husband, Eric Richens. They want data from her phone and Apple accounts.

The controversial letter recovered from her jail cell, commonly referred to as the dog letter, where she's trying to scrape up an alibi and convince people to lie for her, and statements made by Corey Richens before her arrest, all three of those bodies of evidence are subject to being suppressed. Repeat, three motions to suppress made by Moscow Mule mom, Cori Richens. One, statements made by Richens before her arrest. Two, data from her phone and Apple accounts. And three, the controversial walk the dog letter. What happened to Cori Richens' husband, Eric? First of all, take a listen to our friends at KUTV.

This is the home where police found Eric Richens dead on his bedroom floor in March. Richens and his wife, Corey, were celebrating a business accomplishment the night he died. Corey made Eric a Moscow Mule, which he drank in the bedroom. They say Corey told authorities that she left to help one of their children and returned to the bed several hours later. It was then they say she noticed Eric was cold to the touch and called 911. What a horrible event to leave your husband, go fall asleep in the bedroom with one of your sons. she wanders back in there to sleep in their bed around 3 a.m. and her husband is cold to the touch.

With me, an all-star panel to make sense of what we know right now. But first, I want to go to Chief Medical Examiner out of Tarrant County, that's Fort Worth, Lecture University, Texas, Austin, and Texas Christian University Medical School, Dr. Kendall Crowns. Dr. Crowns, it's such an honor to have you and Dr. Paul Cristo with us. Dr. Crowns, my first question to you is, how long has a body, how long has a person been dead before their body is cold to the touch? Usually once your heart stops beating and your body starts taking on the temperature of the the touch. Okay, you know, Dr. Kendall-Crowns, I know you're the MD and I'm the JD, but I believe I'm going to seek a second opinion. I'm going to go to Dr. Paul Christo, professor at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, author

of Aches and Gains, A Comprehensive Guide to Overcoming Your Pain. Dr. Paul Christo, I thought it would take so much longer for a body to get completely cold to the touch. And I do agree with Dr. Kendall Crowns regarding the ambient air in the room and what difference that would make. But in this case, they were at home with their three little boys. So I'm assuming, I think it's safe to assume the temperature would have been between 69 and let's just say 71. Right. I mean, I would probably say somewhere around, similar to Dr. Crown, probably, you know, 40 minutes to an hour. Dr. Paul Christo, how often do people just die in their sleep? I mean, this is a young man. He was 39 years old at the time of his death. Not very

often, suffice it to say. I mean, this is a rare event. It doesn't happen unless you have, you know, maybe some underlying cardiac problems, for example, maybe pulmonary problems. It's very rare just to drop dead in your sleep. You know, Dr. Angela Arnold, joining me, psychiatrist, renowned psychiatrist in the Atlanta jurisdiction at AngelaArnoldMD.com. Dr. Angie, maybe it's just my line of business, but whenever I hear died in your sleep, there's always something bad attached to that. But I guess people really do die in their sleep. Well, they do, Nancy, and it's usually older people who die in their sleep. They can suffer an arrhythmia of their heart. And those are the people that can die in their sleep.

But like you said, Nancy, whenever we hear of a younger person dying in their sleep, there's some curiosity about that. I mean, young people don't have heart issues, typically. So young people don't typically die in their sleep and that's typically what you die from in the at night i disagree with you too all three of you doctors uh i and my vast knowledge of medicine disagree with all of you because my dad had his first coronary thrombosis at age 39 that's pretty young young. And this guy is 39. Well, it is Nancy, but that's still unusual. It's not, it's not, that's not the norm. That's all I would say. Okay. All right. Well, let me get us back on track. This guy is actually celebrating. Let me let Jen Smith tell

you. Jen Smith is joining us, chief investigative reporter for dailymail.com on this from the very beginning. The unusual death of Eric Richens, just 39 years old, father of three little boys. Jen, thank you for being with us. Explain to me how this whole thing went down because they were having a celebration that evening. From what I understand, the wife, Corey Richens, flips houses. She'll buy. She's got a business partner. They buy houses.

They improve them. And then they flip them like on HGTV, the flip your house. That's what she does. And that evening they were having some kind of a celebration because she had closed on a home. You tell me, Jen. Yeah, that's exactly right, Nancy. But they actually, our understanding of it is that they worked pretty closely together, her career and her husband, Eric.

Like you say, exactly the type of business that you just described. They flipped houses. So when Eric came home that evening and his wife is at the house with the kids. They're celebrating because he has just closed a deal on a sale of a home, so bringing more money in to the family. And listen, this is a picture perfect family. They live in a really nice area, not too far outside of Park City in Utah. The town is called Kamath.

Really beautiful, rural, in the mountains. And they had this great life. They themselves lived in a $1.1 million home. And as you rightly pointed out, Eric had just closed another deal. So it was a happy occasion for the Richens family this evening. Now, let me understand. They're Mormons, correct? They are, yeah. So Eric Richens actually comes from a pretty prominent Mormon family. The Richens family is a large family in at least Summit County. This is the area of Utah that we're talking about. Many, many relatives and very well known in the community.

He and Curie had been married for nine years and they had three beautiful boys together when he died. Here's my question. I have several friends that are devout Mormons. They don't even drink chocolate milk, Jen, because chocolate is a stimulant. So these two are having Moscow mules? Yeah. So what we know now is that after he returns home from closing this deal as a celebration curry his wife makes him a moscow mule the vodka but his cocktail um and that is where they kind of leave things for the night like you say she goes off to get with the son who was having a nightmare sleeps in the room with the son having a nightmare yeah and she leaves him sitting up in bed,

having his drink, TV going, everything's fine. So this mom devastated finding her husband cold in the bed and having all sorts of survivor guilt. Why did I leave him? I'm alive. He's dead. That she and her children get together and they actually write a book called Are You With Me? Because it's not like, are you with me? Like, do you understand? It's literally, are you with me, dad? Are you still with me? Because her three little boys were having such a horrible time dealing with their father's sudden death. She writes the book, and she's on local TV promoting it, and I want you to hear her words, devastated after her husband's death. Take a listen to our Cut 8. My husband passed away unexpectedly last year, so March 4th was a one-year anniversary for us, and he was 39.

It completely took us all by shock. And we have three little boys, 10, 9, and 6. And, you know, we kind of, my kids and I kind of wrote this book on the different emotions and grieving processes that we've experienced last year. And, you know, hoping that it can kind of help other kids deal with this and kind of find happiness some way or another. And let's hear a little bit more of Corey Richens on Good Things Utah. That's on KTVX, describing what she and her children had endured our cut nine. I'm new to all of this, so kind of doing research and reading books and things to try and understand,

you know, not only how to grieve as a widow, as a wife, but also, you know, with my kids, how to help them, how to help them understand what just happened. And what I have kind of found is, as I mentioned, it's kind of the three C's is how I visualize it. And it's, you know, connection, continuity and care. And it's, you know, making sure connection is the one major one and making sure that their spirit is always alive in your home. You know, and memories are always brought up and doing things that your loved ones love to do whether it's riding bikes or their favorite dinner and just constantly you know talking about them i'm just thinking about how children cope with the death of a dad and doing things that

remind you of your loved one to dr angie arnold i know every year on my dad's birthday, every night after dinner, because my dad and mom had largely moved in with us, spending a lot of times with us because, you know, the children were so little just as he passed away. And every night after supper, I would make him a cup of decaf so every year on his birthday or really throughout the year I will send my sister a picture you know I kind of text of a cup of cotton decaf just steaming because we both know what that means and I'm just wondering what you as a parent can do to help your children and how

excruciating. I mean, I was an adult when my father passed away, but these are little, little boys. Well, and Nancy, it's important for all of us to remember that each child will remember this differently according to how old they are. Each child is going to have a different experience of this grief. So it's very important to work with each child where they are when this happens and not gloss it over as if everyone's experiencing the same kind of grief. Depending how young some of the children are, they may not have the words to express how they feel about the fact that their father is gone. The older ones have had more time with their dad, and they're going to have different memories with their dad.

So it's very important to help the children remember the things that they remember according to what their ages were when the parent passed away. And this is how they came up with the name of the book, Are You With Me? in Hour Cut 11. The first day of school, and, you know, all the nerves that kids face on the first day of school, you know, and just hoping, you know, Dad, like, walk with me, like, help me get through today,

like, give me the strength to do that. And it has found, you know, it's been a lot of peace for my kids to, you know, to really remember that in the back of their head, that they're never alone. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. If this defense motion is granted by the judge. The state's case is torpedoed. At this hour, Moscow Mule Mom Cori Richens' defense trying to suppress vital evidence in the case against her.

Eric Richens dying an excruciatingly painful death. What happened to Eric Richens? Dr. Crowns, I'm just thinking about these three little boys in that home when mom is doing CPR on Eric Richens who is dead in the bedroom already cold to the touch. And I guess once you're cold to the touch there's no bringing you back. Would you agree with that Dr. Crowns? Yes, I would agree with that. Once you've gotten cold, you're probably past the time period where you can be saved. So Dr. Kendall Crowns, it is unusual for a 39-year-old man to just die in his sleep. So what would the medical examiner do in order to determine cause of death? Well, what you do is a complete autopsy. 39-year-old usually don't die suddenly like that. There's usually

something else going on. So by doing a complete autopsy, you would check all the organs for any disease processes, coronary thrombosis, coronary artery disease, different heart abnormalities, et cetera. And then what you'd also do is draw toxicology to run toxicology screens to see if there were any drugs on board and also do electrolytes or fluids from the eyeball where you could look at his dehydration status, his glucose to see if he had diabetes or anything like that. To Jen Smith joining us from DailyMail.com, I've taken a long look at what we have of the medical examiner's report. What exactly is the cause of death for Eric Richens? Well, we believe that according to this report, it's a fatal dose of fentanyl, which is a synthetic opioid.

Now, you need maybe two milligrams of this stuff to kill you. He had five times that amount in his body five times the amount of a lethal dose of fentanyl you know i introduced to you dr paul cristo earlier in addition to being an associate prophet john hopkins school of medicine that's not shabby. He's also an opioid expert. Dr. Christo, as I said earlier, this is a devout Mormon family. Again, they don't even drink chocolate milk because they think it's a stimulant. So I've got them drinking Moscow Mules plus fentanyl. What exactly is fentanyl? I know there's an opioid crisis. I know there's a fentanyl crisis. I know people are dying every day of fentanyl overdoses, but could you give

us some street names? What is fentanyl and what does it do to you? Well, fentanyl is an opioid first and foremost, and opioids are used as pain relievers. They enter the bloodstream. They bind to various different what are called opioid receptors in the brain and spinal cord to reduce pain. First and foremost, we use them for many, many years as pain specialists and also in the operating room as anesthesiologists. But fentanyl is synthetic, so non-synthetic opioids would be like codeine, for example, or morphine. Synthetic means it's just made in the laboratory of a pharmaceutical company, typically. It can be very useful as a pain reliever. You mean like Walter White, Breaking Bad?

Yes. You make it in a lab? Well, they make it in an RV sometimes, but you just make it, you cook it up. Yes, that's right. You can make it in an RV, you can make it illegally, certainly, up. Yes, that's right. You can make it an RV. You can make it illegally, certainly. Yes. And then pharmaceutically, it's legal. Ah, I'm so glad you said that, Dr. Christo, because a further analysis reveals that the fentanyl in Eric's blood was not legal. So apparently you can tell whether fentanyl is illegal, such as prescribed by a

doctor and you go get it at the pharmacy, or illegal. And I guess that goes straight back to how it's made. That's right. We have more sophisticated methods now of determining whether medications or drugs are legal or illegal. And in this case, it sounds like it was illegal. So bottom line, he's not getting it from the Walgreens or the CVS or the Duane Reade. He's getting it somewhere else. Okay, you know, who would know this on this panel? Let's just go with Dr. Angie Arnold. Do you know what's in a Moscow Mule?

No, I'm sorry, I don't. Oh, man, I got to surprise you. You just surprised me because I could just see you kicked back with some of those copper. I bet Bobby Chacon does. Bobby Chacon, former special agent with the FBI and screenwriter for Criminal Minds. You can find him at BobbyChacon.com. Bobby, there is no way you don't know what a Moscow mule is. No.

Yeah. The basic ingredients are ginger beer and vodka or some kind of harder liquor. It's usually served in like a copper cup. It's a very specific drink. Ginger beer, obviously ginger people are familiar with ginger. It has a very strong kind of taste, a very unique kind of taste, almost overpowering if you use too much of it. So, yeah, it's a very specific drink. It's become very trendy in recent years.

And ginger beer is kind of the overwhelming taste that you get that ginger from the ginger beer, which is the main ingredient. To Dr. Paul Christo, joining us, opioid expert, what does fentanyl taste like? Fentanyl is usually tasteless. It's usually tasteless. So if I chewed up an Oxy, it would taste like nothing? Well, Oxy now is different from fentanyl. Okay, that shows how much I know. But yes, probably would taste a bit different. What's the street name for fentanyl?

There really is no street. I mean, it typically goes by fentanyl. Can it be in a tablet? Absolutely. And so if I chew up a fentanyl tablet, I taste nothing? Typically, you're not going to taste anything unless something's been added to the tablet. Interesting. Interesting. Dr. Paul Christo, according to my crack legal analyst, Jackie, there are some street names.

Crazy, what did you say? Crazy One. Crazy One. Dance Fever. Dragon's Breath. Dragon's Breath. I've never heard any of that, so I don't know how reliable that is. Can I make a statement?

Yes, jump in. So when it first came out, it was called drop dead because a lot of the people who were injecting fentanyl died so quickly they left the needle in their arm. So the street name was originally drop dead because when you took it, you dropped it instantly. I think that's kind of fallen out of favor because every area has regional names for it. Well, I guess that's a little bad for business for dopers. Well, that is bad for business. That's why we started it all the way. Only you, Kendall Crowns. Only you. Well, you can imagine the shock that reverberates through the community when this goes down.

Take a listen to our cut 14 KTVX. We have breaking news at this hour. Local children's book author charged with murder, 33-year-old Corey Richens of Camas, is being held in the Summit County Jail with no bail. Now, she promoted her book on the grief on Good Things Utah. That's the video you're seeing here. This is about a month ago. Court documents today showing the murder happened in March of 2022. An online obituary showing her husband, 39-year-old Eric Richens, died that same month. As it turns out, according

to investigators, there had been other previous instances where the wife, in this case, had tried to murder her husband. And I find it extremely interesting. And I want to go to Jeffrey Wolf on this criminal defense attorney, high profile criminal defense attorney joining us out of Colorado. You can find him at Wolf Law Colorado dot com. Jeffrey, you know what I love? I love what we call in my jurisdiction, similar transactions. Typically, as we saw in the Alex Murdoch case, for instance, a person's history of bad acts cannot come in at trial unless and until it is proven that those bad acts are, let's just say, a fingerprint of the case in chief to show motive, course of conduct, scheme, frame of mind. Would you agree with that, Jeffrey Wolf? Yeah, 100%. The rule you're talking about is Rule 404B, which is a federal rule of evidence that is mirrored in almost all 50 states that's going to talk about whether somebody's prior bad it can come in for all these other reasons that you're talking about.

Plan, motive, scheme, modus operandi to show who this person is, how they operate, and how that ties them to this event. To Jen joining us from DailyMail.com, Jen Smith, what can you tell us about prior incidents, including one on Valentine's Day, just a month, the month before Eric drops dead in his sleep. Yeah, exactly. So we know about the Valentine's Day incident that you mentioned, Nancy.

They ate a meal together and he became very ill afterwards. As a result, he ended up telling friends, I think my wife has poisoned me. Not only is that disturbing, but more so is the fact that this was the second time he thought she had tried to poison him. Once previously, during a vacation with the family, he told his sister that he thought she had tried to poison him. So once, twice, what happens after that? So the first time we believe, and this is according to him, and I'm going to go back to Jeff Wolf in just a moment about how you can or cannot use the words of someone now dead in court. Because under the Sixth Amendment, everybody on trial has a right to cross-examine witnesses, evidence, documents, tests used against them. And if the person is now dead, you cannot cross-examine them. It's hearsay. So how can you get this information into evidence to show, if you can, that there were prior attempts on Eric's life?

The first one, Jen Smith, is I believe about three years ago in Greece. Family vacation, as you described. And they had dinner and drinks together. And he got very, very ill. And that's when he called his sister. Was that when he called his sister? Yeah, we think so. We know that we're not sure exactly when this vacation was. Only that it was several years ago, maybe a few years ago.

And he confided in his sister and this is a sister who he continued to confide in especially about his marital problems with curry so that was the first instance so i believe it was about three years ago that was in greece fast forward he didn't die fast forward to this past March. OK, March a year ago. Yeah, that's when he died the month before on Valentine's Day. What happened, Jen? What happened, Jen Smith? We know that they sat down to have dinner together in their home. And for whatever reason, even though he has this previous suspicion that his wife has

tried to poison him at least once before he sits down with her he has a meal with her and again he becomes incredibly ill he doesn't die and we don't really know even if he went to the hospital we're just going off of what we've seen in the third for it that's been released so far. He became very, very ill after that Valentine's Day. And it was so bad he used an EpiPen and Benadryl and still went unconscious. Guess what? He didn't die again. Detective Eric Maynard and Deputy Jamie Woody were questioned about what happened in the initial investigation of Corrie Richens. They described detaining Richens before executing search warrants for her home and person.

Her defense lawyers arguing they took her phone without a warrant and accused them of not informing her of her rights. We all know the Miranda rights. You have the right to remain silent. You have a right to a lawyer and so forth. Maynard and Woody insist Corey Richens was not under arrest at that time and she voluntarily handed over her phone. They do, however, state that they never explicitly informed her of her rights or asked if she wanted her lawyer present. If I were prosecuting this case, I would say because she wasn't under arrest at that time. That said, what happened? Dr. Angie Arnold, if I had two brushes with death while David is hovering over me, I would leave. But I've got a feeling this guy, Eric Richens, did not want to believe his wife would

try to kill him. Even though he verbalized that, I think she's trying to poison me. I think he didn't want to truly accept it and leave the boys. I completely agree with you. Nancy, and if you thought that someone was actually trying to kill you, and this is the person that has been called the love of your life, then what could she possibly do to your children if you're not there? So you can't abandon your children for your own sake. No, people don't do that. So he was just taking his chances, I guess,

scared, probably in some disbelief that she would actually want to kill him right so you might think it but you're still going to be in disbelief that this woman who you're sleeping with and who you're who you're going on trips with and you're going to the kids baseball games with is actually trying to kill you and who you're practicing your mormon religion with how, we call that an incongruent thought. How incongruent could that be to this man? Okay, maybe she's trying to kill me, but really, is she? Is she? Yeah, I think he just really, he may have said that, but he couldn't truly take it in.

You know, another thing, I love Bobby Chacon, as I know you do too, former special agent with the FBI. I love cell phone data. I love it so much. I want you to take a listen to Hour Cut 17, our friend Ariel Harrison. Evidence gathered in the death investigation revealed Corey claimed she was away from her phone that night and it was left on a charger by her bed. Teams, however, gathered evidence the phone was in use during that time and sent messages had been deleted. Additional evidence showed Corey was in contact with a drug dealer in Ogden, leading up to Eric's death.

The legal documents state she received both hydrocodone pills and fentanyl from the dealer, claiming the drugs were intended for a client experiencing back pain. At one point, police say she requested for, quote, the Michael Jackson stuff asking specifically for fentanyl. Information from the autopsy report determined Eric died from an overdose of fentanyl five times the lethal dosage. Wow, that's like drinking from the fire hydrant. That is so much, way too fast.

I can't drink it in. And let's just start with Bobby Chacon the phone evidence because she says I wasn't on the phone all night I plugged it in in our room and then I went down the hall to sleep with one of my boys who was having nightmares I go back at 3 a.m. ish and I find him cold to the touch dead. I immediately perform CPR. But the phone says and help me out, Jim Smith. I believe the phone showed that there had been a lot of texting back and forth during the time where she says the phone was plugged in, not in use while she was in her son's room and all those texts were deleted so what is she doing

texting back and forth while her husband is dying and then lying about it i mean jim smith are those is that are those facts correct those facts are absolutely correct now she obviously thought that he was outsmarting the authorities when she told them that she left her phone plugged in. Maybe she thought that was the location inside the house would show. But, yes, there is a record. There's a digital record. We know this. We've spoken about it many times.

You can't get rid of it. It's digital footprint. Yes. Bobby Chacon, we just saw digital evidence basically convict Alex Murdoch and the double murder of his wife and son, Maggie and Paul. So what about this? Had my phone plugged in the whole night, you know, until I find him killed over dead. Yeah, I mean, when you have a case like this where she's the only other person that could have, you know, either rendered aid or caused harm, there's no forced entry. There's no blunt trauma. You immediately start to get her story. And for her initial statement, the minute those phone records come back and you realize she lied to you, she has to become suspect number one, because now

why would a wife lie about using her phone in the immediate aftermath of finding her husband dead or during the period where she found him dead or shortly before that? So the minute you find out she lied to you about the phone, you have to start taking a much harder look at her. Who are her associates? Look at her phone records harder. Who has she been calling? Who has she been in contact with?

So she made, by lying, she made herself suspect number one. If she would have simply come up with a different excuse on why she was texting, maybe she had the phone in bed with her with the kid and she was. But the minute she lied about that, she has to become suspect. Right. Then the gig is up. Jeffrey Wolf, high profile lawyer joining us out of Colorado at Wolf Law Colorado dot com. I want you to take a listen to another alarming circumstance in our cut three. Our friends from CrimeOnline.com. Valentine's Day 2022. Eric Richens becomes violently ill after suffering an allergic reaction after having dinner with his wife of nine years, Corey. He breaks out in hives,

can't breathe, passes out after using his son's EpiPen and taking Benadryl. When Eric wakes up, he calls his business partner, Cody Wright, to let him know what has just happened. Then, without Corey knowing, Eric changes the beneficiary of his will and his power of attorney, replacing his wife, Corey, with his sister. Legal paperwork suggests that Eric believes Corey might kill him for the money, and he wants his children to be financially secure. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Defense lawyers also questioning Detective Jeff O'Driscoll about whether he interviewed Richens without her lawyer present, which, if she had asked for a lawyer, would violate your Sixth Amendment right to a lawyer. The detective described Corey Richens as, quote, cheery, i.e., cheerful, and open to speaking with law enforcement,

noting after the three-hour meeting, she sent a follow-up email with additional information related to the investigation. What happened to Eric Richens? She goes into his life insurance policy where his partner, Cody, is his beneficiary, his business partner, and he, she changes it to make her exclusively the life insurance policy beneficiary. And he's so worried after this Valentine's day incident where he gets horribly ill, he cracks a joke. Hey, she might kill me for the money. And he changes his will. I mean, Jeffrey Wolf,

that is no joke. No, it certainly is no joke. And what you saw here in this case is you see her attempt to take his business life insurance policy. I have one with my law partner. If something happens to one of us, we want to make sure the business is secure. And so she goes into that policy and attempts to change it so that she gets the money if he dies. And then he has this magic allergic reaction. My wife has a severe allergy that could cause problems for her. One of my employees does. You can bet your bottom dollar if I'm making them food or if I'm buying a meal for them, I'm making sure that those ingredients are not present because those are people I care about who I have a knowledge would be in trouble.

What is your wife allergic to, by the way? She's allergic to raw tomatoes. It's a very unique allergy that a lot of restaurants have trouble with. But you can bet your bottom dollar there's no raw tomatoes in anything I buy her or serve her because I know what would happen. OK. And so the fact that she did that is incredibly concerning. And she did it after attempting to make that change. The company caught it by the way, and it was changed back. And then when he wakes up from that, he calls his business partner to tell him his suspicions, joking or not, that could be a present sense impression, which is a reason to get hearsay in

at the trial. Since you were mentioning hearsay before, I wasn't aware I had an evidence test today, but I'm going to pass it. I was ready to pounce on you with the hearsay loophole, but go ahead. I'm ready for it. I'm ready for it. My evidence practicum professor from law school would be so proud. And so present sense impression allows those statements of somebody who is not available to be cross-examined to come in. But it's going to require a recency to the event and something to say that they were still under the impression of that event in order to be able to get that statement in. So how quickly he called him after he woke up needing to use an EpiPen and Benadryl is going to matter a great deal. How would you compare present sense impression to excited utterance exception? So excited utterance is something that happens right then.

You're seeing something and you're saying exactly what you're seeing in that moment. It happens a lot on 911 calls. Like right when you wake up from an overdose of fentanyl, that kind of excited utterance. It could be an excited utterance, but it has, you have to be excited, right? So there's, it's not just that you're saying something that's happening and relaying it as it's happening. You have to be in an excited state as well. That emotional state, if he called and he's making a joke about it, that could still be a present sense impression to say that this is something that I have recently seen. You think there's any problem getting these statements in? Honestly,

I think that it's going to be a tough road to hoe to get these, you know, statements of somebody who's not able. I totally disagree. That's why we have the exceptions to the hearsay rule for situations just like this. It is exactly why we have the hearsay exceptions. However, in a court and you're doing a criminal trial, the only person who has a right to a fair trial is the criminal defendant. And some judges will err on the side of caution. True. OK, you know what? Let me throw something else at you. Let me throw something else at you. Now, we already know that. You know, what's your cut five? KSL. Court papers say Corey first bought painkillers from a drug dealer, weeks later asking for something stronger.

She called it some of the Michael Jackson stuff. That was just before Valentine's Day last year. Records say on Valentine's Day, Eric became very ill and believed he had been poisoned and told a friend he thought his wife was trying to poison him. The dealer told police that two weeks later, Corey purchased more fentanyl. Six days later, on March 4th, 2022, Eric was found dead of a fentanyl overdose. Let me get this straight, Jen Smith, chief investigative reporter, DailyMail.com on the story from the very beginning. So he has the horrible episode in Greece where he calls his sister and says, I swear, I think she's trying to kill me. Ha ha ha. Then fast forward to February, 2022, Valentine's Day, another horrible episode after eating and drinking. There's your

similar transaction, Jeff Wolf, always after ingesting food or or drink beverage with his wife always the same mo modus operandi method of operation she puts whatever it is if whatever he is ingesting so it's valentine's they have a dinner and drinks. Bam. He's out again. This time he lives the second time, changes his insurance back, changes his will. And then we find out that prior to the February incident, Valentine's and the March incident, she goes back to the drug dealer and she says, hey, I need some more. She buys $900 worth of fentanyl in March. He doesn't die. She goes back to the same dealer and says, hey, give me some more, man. She buys $900 worth more. This time he dies. You know, have you ever seen those pictures? If you want to be an artist, you can just paint between the lines and suddenly have this beautiful picture. Jeff Wolf. Yeah, I have seen it. And that's what we're looking at here

is that the pieces of this just keep coming into focus and throw on top of the fact that these are similar transactions that could go to a modus operandi or a pattern of behavior. But throw into that that a lot of states, my state, Colorado being one of them, have domestic violence allowances for similar transaction 404B evidence as well to show the certain types of behaviors that can occur in a domestic violence relationship as well. And you're going to start seeing all of this stuff like an avalanche coming in against the defense. And it is going to be very, very tough to beat it all back with no matter how big your bat is. Bobby Giacone and Jen Smith, I want you to hear our cut seven, our friends at ABC. A Utah woman who wrote a children's book about coping with grief after the death of her husband last year has now been charged with his murder. Corey Richens was arrested yesterday accused of

poisoning her husband, Eric, with fentanyl. She also faces drug charges. Just last month, Richens appeared on local TV to promote her book about a boy who lost his dad. At the time, she said her husband's unexpected death left her and their three boys reeling. Bobby Chacon, not only do cops believe she murdered him, she then writes a book and tries to sell it on TV and on Amazon. Really? Yeah, I'm not sure. I mean, I'm sure the investigators are watching that. I'm not sure it's impacted that much. I mean, they probably already had her in their site. You know, her journey to do this kind of brings the next level evil to her. But I'm sure that, you know, once they saw the toxicology report, once they got

those phone records back, which was all within six, eight, 10 weeks of the event of the murder, they had her in their sights. And it was a matter of finding that drug dealer, getting getting a statement from them and just tying everything together with the prosecutor and putting it all together. But her writing the book, I mean, I just I think that impacts her reputation in the community more than than this actual case, because everything was put together. Well, that's going to hurt her a whole lot more than this actual case because everything was put together. Well, that's going to hurt her a whole lot more than murdering her husband. Dr. Angie Arnold, will you help me out, please? I mean, to murder your husband and then write a book about how much your children are suffering, what they're going through. We had one child that was already having nightmares, according to her.

But doing that, not just to your husband, but to your children, and then trying to profit off of it with a book. Nancy, I think it shows that she has a complete lack of attachment to her husband. Lots of people do not develop attachment. There's something called attachment theory, okay? So I believe that she lacks attachment to the people in her life, and that is what, it doesn't mean you're insane. No. But she doesn't have any attachment. How do you kill your husband?

So to me, that's the worst thing that she's done. So anything after that, okay? Bombshell. If the judge grants these motions, the state's case against Moscow mule mom Corey Richens is destroyed. What happened to husband Eric Richens? We wait as justice unfolds. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.