Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - MORMON MOM CHARGED W/POISONING HUBBY FACING ADDITIONAL CHARGES

Episode Date: December 13, 2025

Kouri Richins remains in Summit County Jail, after the judge denies a defense motion to reconsider bail and release. In addition to the murder charges in the death of her husband,  Richins faces over two dozen charges in a separate case alleging she committed mortgage fraud,  submitted falsified banks statements, committed money laundering and issued bad checks.  Meanwhile, 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 I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. So-called Moscow Mule Mom. Corey Richens charged in the poisoning death of her husband, the father of her children, now facing a slew of new felony charges. and, of course, she's whining behind bars. Look, woman, that's what happens.

When you kill your husband, according to prosecutors. I'm Nancy Grace. This is crime stories. I want to thank you for being with us. The so-called Moscow mule mom, Corey Richen, set to go to trial now facing a host of brand-new criminal charges. Guess what they are? 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 of those are second-degree felonies

plus five counts forgery and seven counts issuing bad check. Third-degree felonies. You know what? Even if she was convicted on all of those, she got out of jail in no time. It's the murder charge. interested in. But as of right now, the mother and realtor charged with aggravated murder and the death of husband 39-year-old Eric Richens and attempting to murder him a month before. Jury selection set to go forward in just weeks. This is what police say happened. First of all, take a listen to our friends at KU TV. 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 meal, 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 lecturer 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 Christo with us. Dr. Krause, my first question to you is, how long has a body, how long has the person been dead before their body is cold to the touch? Usually once your heart stops bleeding and your body starts taking on the temperature of the surrounding environment, so it can happen in probably about a half hour to an hour where you start noticing the body is, has changed temperature gotten cold. Okay, you know, Dr. Kindle 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 Aks and Gaines, 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 ambion 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 Cristo, 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 angela arnold md.com doctor angie maybe it's just my line of business but when i ever 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 and it's usually older people who die in their sleep they can suffer in arrhythmia of their heart and and those are the people that can die in their sleep but like you said nancy whenever we hear of a young 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 at night. I disagree with you too. All three of you doctors. 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. 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 Investigator Reporter for Daily Mail.com on this from the very beginning. The unusual death of Eric Rich is just 39 years old, father of three little boys. Jen, thank you for being with us. explained 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 and 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, Curry 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 and Utah. The town is called Kamas, 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. evening. Now, let me understand, they're Mormons, correct? They are, yeah. So Eric Richens actually comes from a pretty prominent Mormon family. The Richmond family is a large family in at least Summit County. This is the area of Utah that we're talking about. Many, many, many relatives, and very well known in the community. He and Turi 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. gin 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 base cocktail and 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 eight my husband passed away unexpectedly last year so it's march fourth was a one year and 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, you know, deal with this and kind of, you know, you know,

find happiness some some way or another and let's hear a little bit more of corey richens on good things Utah that's on kTV x describing what she and her children had endured our cut nine i'm new to all of this so kind of doing all you know research and reading books and things to try and understand you know not only how to grieve as a widow as a is a wife but also you know with my kids how to help them how to help them understand what just happened and um what I have kind of found is as I mentioned it's kind of the three Cs is how I has 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 are 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 decap. So every year on his birthday, or really throughout the year, I will send my sister a picture, you know, like on a text, of a cup of 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 excruish you. 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, 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 when the parent passed away and this is how they came up with the name of the book are you with me and our cut 11 the first day of school and you know all the nerves that kids face on the first day of school with new 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 um 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 gray

Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practiced to deceive. I can't take credit for that, but I do know how to add. Corey Richens allegedly used a power of attorney to get a $250,000 home equity line of credit on her husband Eric Richen's premarital home without his. knowledge. Remember that math? That's 250,000 reasons she had to kill him. She used the proceeds from that home equity loan to fund Kay Richens Realty. Translation Corey Richens Realty. And hard money loans to finance its ongoing operations. You don't think you'd get angry when he finds out she takes out a quarter million dollar equity loan on his home.

This was the home he had before they got married. When he learned about that, prosecutors say it was a, quote, source of tension. I guess it was. Oh, I can tell you this right now. Alt-H-E-Double L break loose. If I found out my husband David took out a home equity loan without telling me, uh-uh, N-O. So it all came to a head.

The night, her husband, died from a poisoning 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 one. 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. A 39-year-olds 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, etc. 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 examiners 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, Nancy. times the amount of a lethal dose of fentanyl. You know I introduced to you Dr. Paul Christo earlier in addition to being an associate prophet John Hopkins School of Medicine, that's not shabby. He's also an opioid expert. Dr. Cristo, 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 a an opioid first and foremost and opioids are used as pain relievers they uh 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, but 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. Kristo, because a further analysis reveals that the fentanyl in Eric's blood was not legal. So apparently, you can tell whether fentanyl is. 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 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 Dwayne read he's getting it somewhere else okay uh you know who would know

this panel. Let's just go with Dr. Angie Arnold. Do you know what's in a Moscow meal? No, I'm sorry. I don't. Oh, man. I got to surprise. You just surprised me because I could just see you kicked back with some of those copper. I bet Bobby Chaconne does. Bobby Chaconne, former special agent with the FBI and screenwriter for criminal minds. You can find them at bobbychicone.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 familiar with ginger, 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, what does fentanyl taste like?

Sunil 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. Well, what's a 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. 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 are injecting fentanyl died so quickly they left the needle in their arm so the the street name was originally dropped dead because when you took it you dropped dead instantly i think that's kind of fallen out of favor because every 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 it started all three only you Kendall crowns only well you can imagine the shock that reverberates through the community when this goes down. Take a list on our cut 14 kT bX. We have breaking news of this hour. Local children's book author charged with murder. 33 year old

Corey Richens of Camus 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 Wolfe on this, criminal defense attorney, high-profile criminal defense attorney joining us out of Colorado.

You can find them at Wolflaw, Colorado.com. Jeffrey, you know what I love? I love what we call, in my jurisdiction, similar transactions. Typically, as we saw in the Alex Mardy 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 Wolfe? 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 acts can come in as evidence in the case against them currently. It can't come in to show act in conformity therewith, meaning just because they did some. something before they did it again, but 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 daily mail.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 and his sleep?

Yeah, exactly. So we know about the Valentine's State 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 had 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 by 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 for 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 a 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. Okay. March a year ago.

Yeah. that's when he died the month before on valentine's day what happened jenn what happened jenn 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 search for it. It's been released so far. He became very, very ill after that Valentine's Day. And it was so bad he had used an EpiPen and Benadryl and still went unconscious. Guess what?

He didn't die again. Prosecutors note in charging documents that five months before Eric's death, Corey Richens' realty was swimming in debt, her nose just barely above water. Let me quote, despite Kay Richens' realty's existing debt and insufficient revenue, Richens continued to use hard money loans to purchase three additional properties. Adding debt upon debt upon debt, including $1.1 million, million and high interest debt to her already staggering and unserviceable. In other words, you can't pay it off. Debt load.

She needed that life insurance policy proceeds and she needed it quick. This is what we know. 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 you. 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 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 Chaconne, 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, please 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. Let's just start with Bobby Chacon, the phone evidence, because she says I wasn't on the phone all night. 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. isish 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, Jen 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 it was the location inside the husband's show. But, yes, she, 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. This digital footprint. Yes. Bobby Chaconan 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 with, she's the only other person that could have, you know, either rendered aid or caused harm. There's no force. 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 associates, look at her phone records harder, who has she been calling who she being in contact with so so she made her 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 but the minute she lied about that she has to become suspect one right then the gig is up uh 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

It's in our cut three are 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. Quote, on the day of Eric Richon's death, Kay Richon's real. owed hard money lenders at least $1.8 million. And the day after his death, it owed nearly $5 million. So why did she agree to purchase an unfinished mansion

using $2.9 million of high interest debt due payable in just six months? She knew she didn't have that money. It's all so clear. so clear. And then when he kills over, she could use that life insurance policy money to pay it all off. She goes into his life insurance policy, where his partner, Cody, is his beneficiary, his business partner, and 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 the joke, hey, she might kill me for the money. And he changes his will. I mean, Jeffrey Wolfe, 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 you, 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. Okay. 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. 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, 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 examine 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 epipenant 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 you have to be excited, right? So 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. Okay. 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 Daily Mail.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 Wolfe, always after ingesting food or drink beverage with his wife. Always the same M.O. Motorsop perendi, method of operation. She puts whatever it is, 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 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 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 Wolfe? 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 bad is. Bobby Jocone 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 Chaconne, not only DeCotte's belief 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, ten weeks of the event of the murder,

they had her in their sites. and it was a matter of finding that drug dealer, getting a statement from them, and just tying everything together with the prosecutor and putting it all together. Her writing the book, I mean, I just, I think that impacts her reputation in the community 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. Anci-Arnell, 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 I 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. 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 murder suspect corey richens clearly swimming in millions of dollars of debt and she believed according to prosecutors her husband's life insurance policy would take care of it all but first He had to die.

We wait as this case goes to trial and justice unfolds. Nancy Gray signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed human.