更新于：2026年2月23日 / 美国东部时间下午1:49 / CBS新闻
周一，犹他州母亲库丽·里奇斯（Kouri Richins）的谋杀案审判将开始陈述案情。她被指控在丈夫去世后出版一本关于悲伤的儿童读物之前，毒杀了自己的丈夫。
35岁的里奇斯因涉嫌2022年3月在帕克城附近家中向丈夫埃里克·里奇斯（Eric Richins）的饮品中掺入致命剂量芬太尼而被多项重罪指控。据指控，她在调制的莫斯科骡子鸡尾酒中加入了近五倍于致死量的阿片类药物，并端给了他饮用。
除了加重谋杀和未遂加重谋杀罪外，里奇斯还面临抵押贷款欺诈和伪造罪指控。她对所有罪名均不认罪。如果谋杀罪名成立，她可能被判处终身监禁。
里奇斯的审判在犹他州萨米特县进行，预计将持续至3月底。以下是关于此案的要点。
涉嫌投毒
根据搜查令宣誓书，2022年3月4日凌晨，萨米特县治安官办公室接到里奇斯的报警，称其丈夫已无呼吸。文件称，她告诉侦探自己和孩子们睡在旁边房间，凌晨3点左右躺到丈夫身边时发现他”身体冰冷”。
尽管里奇斯告诉执法部门她试图对丈夫进行心肺复苏，但赶到现场的消防和医护人员表示，从其丈夫身体状况看，她似乎并未实施急救。
埃里克·里奇斯死后进行的毒理学报告显示，大剂量芬太尼导致其死亡。他的朋友和家人（包括妻子）后来告诉侦探，他没有吸毒史。库丽·里奇斯告诉调查人员，当晚他们喝庆祝饮品是为了纪念一处房产的出售。
在调查其死亡过程中，埃里克·里奇斯的家人表示怀疑妻子涉案，并回忆起他生前曾告诫家人，如果自己出事，妻子应承担责任。埃里克·里奇斯的妹妹告诉调查人员，他相信妻子几年前在希腊旅行期间曾试图给他下毒，当时是通过一杯饮品让他生病。法庭文件显示，就在他去世前的2022年情人节，埃里克·里奇斯因食用妻子带来的三明治出现荨麻疹并呼吸困难。
库丽·里奇斯的律师质疑她在丈夫的莫斯科骡子鸡尾酒中掺入芬太尼的指控，称检方尚未正式证实这一说法。
欺诈、伪造
法庭文件显示，埃里克·里奇斯遇害前正考虑与妻子离婚。检方称，与此同时，库丽·里奇斯正面临其房地产公司的巨大财务压力，并且是丈夫多份人寿保险单的受益人，尽管他在去世前不久试图将她从人寿保险和遗嘱中除名。
尽管她声称丈夫去世当晚两人在庆祝一笔房地产交易，但家人后来告诉侦探，两人曾就是否完成她想要”转售”的价值200万美元豪宅的交易条款发生争执。据称，埃里克死后第二天，库丽签署了该房产的交易文件。
儿童读物
库丽·里奇斯在丈夫去世一年内撰写了一本名为《你在我身边吗？》的儿童绘本。在推广这本聚焦于亲人离世后应对机制的读物时，里奇斯出现在犹他州当地电视台，讲述她和三个儿子如何意外失去丈夫和父亲。
里奇斯于2023年5月被捕，多次被拒绝保释。
美联社对本报道有贡献。
A Utah mom accused of poisoning her husband is on trial for murder. Here’s what to know.
Updated on: February 23, 2026 / 1:49 PM EST / CBS News
Opening statements begin Monday in the trial of Kouri Richins, the Utah mother accused of killing her husband before publishing a children’s book about grief in the wake of his death.
Richins, 35, is charged with multiple felonies for allegedly poisoning her late husband, Eric Richins, in March 2022. She has been accused of spiking his drink with a deadly dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City, placing nearly five times what would be considered a lethal amount of the opioid into a Moscow Mule cocktail that she mixed and proceeded to serve to him.
In addition to counts of aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder, Richins faces charges for mortgage fraud and forgery. She has pleaded not guilty to all counts. If convicted of murder, she could be sentenced to life in prison.
Richins’ trial is taking place in Summit County, Utah, and is expected to last until the end of March. Here’s what to know about the case.
Alleged poisoning
In the early morning hours of March 4, 2022, the Summit County Sheriff’s Office received a call from Richins, who reported that her husband was not breathing, according to a search warrant affidavit. She told detectives that she had fallen asleep with the couple’s children in the room beside the one she shared with her husband, where he had gone to bed, and noticed only when she lay down next to him at around 3 a.m. that he was “cold,” the document said.
Although Richins told law enforcement that she attempted to perform CPR on her husband, the fire and medical personnel who responded to the scene said it appeared she had not given CPR based on the state of his body.
A toxicology report conducted after Eric Richins’ death showed that an enormous dose of fentanyl killed him. His friends and family, including his wife, later told detectives that he had no history of drug use. Kouri Richins told investigators that they had celebratory drinks that night to mark the sale of a property.
During the investigation into his death, Eric Richins’ family members said that they suspected his wife was involved and recalled him advising them while he was alive that, if something happened to him, she was to blame. Eric Richins’ sister told investigators that he had believed his wife tried to kill him during a trip to Greece several years earlier, apparently by serving him a drink that made him sick. Shortly before his death, on Valentine’s Day 2022, Eric Richins broke out in hives and had trouble breathing after eating a sandwich that his wife had brought to him, according to court filings.
Kouri Richins’ attorneys have challenged the claim that she laced her husband’s Moscow Mule with fentanyl, telling CBS affiliate KUTV that the prosecution has not officially documented that theory.
Fraud, forgery
Court filings show that Eric Richins was considering divorcing his wife when he was killed. Prosecutors have said Kouri Richins, meanwhile, was under significant financial pressure from her real estate company and was also the beneficiary of multiple life insurance policies on her husband, even though he had tried to remove her from both his life insurance and will not long before he died.
Although she claimed that the pair were celebrating a real estate purchase the night of her husband’s death, family members later told detectives that the couple had argued about whether or not to finalize the deal on a $2 million mansion that she wanted to “flip.” Kouri allegedly signed to close on the property the day after Eric died.
Children’s book
Kouri Richins authored a children’s picture book called “Are you with me?” within a year of her husband’s death. While promoting the book, which focused on coping mechanisms to deal with the death of a loved one, Richins appeared on a local television station in Utah and explained how difficult it was for her and her three sons to lose their husband and father unexpectedly.
Richins was arrested in May 2023 and has been denied bail multiple times.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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