2026年5月12日 美国东部时间晚上10:51 / 哥伦比亚广播公司/美联社
犹他州作家库丽·里钦斯因谋杀丈夫被判有罪，她的年幼儿子在周三的量刑听证会前表示，如果母亲从监狱中获释，他们将感到不安全。库丽·里钦斯于今年3月被认定杀害了他们的父亲。
现年35岁的里钦斯因五项重罪定罪面临数十年至终身监禁的刑罚，其中包括加重谋杀罪。
检察官称，2022年3月，她在靠近滑雪城镇帕克城的家中，在丈夫埃里克·里钦斯的鸡尾酒中掺入了五倍致死剂量的芬太尼。
随后在2023年5月被捕前不久，她自费出版了一本名为《你会和我在一起吗？》的儿童绘本，讲述一个男孩如何应对父亲的离世。她甚至还在犹他州当地一档电视新闻节目中宣传过这本书。
在这本书中，埃里克·里钦斯被描绘成一个永远陪伴在身边的天使。
“是的，我会在圣诞节陪着你，”库丽·里钦斯写道，“你看不到我的笑容，但它确实存在。我就在这里，我们会永远在一起。”
2026年3月16日，被告库丽·里钦斯在犹他州帕克城第三地区法院听取结案陈词。大卫·杰克逊/美联社社论图片
库丽·里钦斯的律师在周二的量刑听证会前拒绝置评，此次听证会恰逢她丈夫本应迎来44岁生日的日子。
她的儿子们在检察官敦促法官理查德·姆拉齐克判处里钦斯终身不得假释的备忘录中发表了上述声明。父亲去世时，这三个孩子分别为9岁、7岁和5岁。
现年13岁的长子表示，他希望法庭知道，他并不想念自己的母亲。
“我担心如果她出狱，会来找我和我的弟弟们，还有我们整个家庭，”他说，“我认为她会过来，对我们做出不好的事情，比如伤害我们。”
检察官称，这名男孩在父亲去世后遭受了库丽·里钦斯的情感和身体虐待，犹他州儿童与家庭服务部的调查结果支持了这一说法，相关内容包含在密封的法庭文件中。
检察官表示，库丽·里钦斯曾是一名房地产经纪人，经营着房屋翻新生意，负债数百万美元，并计划与另一名男子开启新生活。她在丈夫不知情的情况下为其投保了多份人寿保险，并错误地认为丈夫去世后自己将继承其价值超过400万美元的遗产。
“他（埃里克·里钦斯）曾对家人说，‘如果我死了，你们一定要留意她，因为我觉得她想杀了我，’”家庭发言人格雷格·斯科达斯在2024年2月接受《48小时》节目采访时表示。
检察官称，2022年初，库丽·里钦斯曾要求家中的管家为她购买芬太尼，而管家向调查人员承认曾向她出售芬太尼，《48小时》获取的法庭文件显示。
“他不是阿片类药物使用者……这起死亡事件背后疑点重重，”斯科达斯在谈及埃里克·里钦斯的死因时告诉《48小时》。
陪审团还认定库丽·里钦斯犯有其他重罪，包括保险欺诈、伪造文件以及谋杀未遂——情人节当天，她曾用掺有芬太尼的三明茶试图毒害丈夫，导致对方昏迷。
此外根据法庭文件，埃里克·里钦斯的家人怀疑他的妻子曾在2019年希腊度假期间试图毒害他，当时他在妻子递给他一杯饮料后病倒。
里钦斯家的次子现年11岁，他驳斥了母亲声称在父亲去世当晚睡在他卧室里的说法。他回忆起当晚的反常情况：比如没洗澡就被早早送上床、父母的卧室反锁着，里面还传出震耳欲聋的电视声。男孩表示，当他用扫帚试图够到父母卧室的钥匙时，母亲对他大吼让他滚开，而里钦斯后来在拨打911接线员电话时称，她在那里发现丈夫已经身体冰凉。
这名11岁的男孩告诉法官，他很伤心，因为父亲再也不能带他去露营和钓鱼、指导他参加体育运动，也无法见证他人生中的重要里程碑。和哥哥一样，他表示如果母亲没有入狱，他会感到不安全。
“只要（她）还在监狱里，我就能继续安心生活，过上幸福成功的人生，不必担心（她）会伤害我或任何我爱的人，”他的声明中写道。
最小的儿子表示，当人们谈论他的母亲时，他感到“憎恨和羞耻”，因为“她夺走了我的爸爸”。他说如果母亲从监狱里出来，他会“非常害怕”。
“她一旦不在了，我就会感到开心、安全和放松，也会更信任别人，”这名男孩在备忘录中未提及当前年龄。
库丽·里钦斯还在另一起尚未开庭审理的案件中面临二十多项与金钱相关的刑事指控。
仅她的加重谋杀罪一项罪名，就可被判处25年至终身监禁，或终身不得假释。检察官并未寻求死刑判决。
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/utah-kouri-richins-guilty-murdering-husband/
Sons of Kouri Richins, author convicted of murdering husband, say they’d feel unsafe if she wasn’t in prison
May 12, 2026 10:51 PM EDT / CBS/AP
The young sons of Utah author Kouri Richins said ahead of her sentencing hearing Wednesday that they would feel unsafe if their mother was ever released from prison after she was found guilty in March of killing their father.
Richins, 35, faces several decades to life in prison on five felony convictions, including aggravated murder.
Prosecutors said she laced her husband Eric Richins’ cocktail with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl in March 2022 at their home near the ski town of Park City.
She then self-published a children’s book titled “Are You With Me?” about a boy coping with the death of his father shortly before her arrest in May 2023. She even promoted the book on a local Utah television news program.
In the book, Eric Richins is portrayed as an angel who is always close by.
“Yes, I am with you on Christmas,” Kouri Richins writes, “You can’t see my smile but it’s there. I’m here, and we’re together.”
Defendant Kouri Richins listens to closing arguments in Third District Court in Park City, Utah, on March 16, 2026. David Jackson/Pool Photo via AP
Kouri Richins’ attorneys declined to comment Tuesday before her sentencing hearing, which falls on the day her husband would have turned 44.
The statements from their sons, who were ages 9, 7 and 5 when their father died, came in a memo from prosecutors urging Judge Richard Mrazik to sentence Richins to life without parole.
The oldest child, now 13, said he wants the court to know that he does not miss his mom.
“I’m afraid if she gets out, she will come after me and my brothers, my whole family,” he said. “I think she would come and take us and not do good things to us, like hurt us.”
Prosecutors allege that the boy suffered emotional and physical abuse from Kouri Richins after his father’s death, which they say is supported by findings from the Utah Division of Child and Family Services that are contained in a sealed court document.
Kouri Richins was a real estate agent with a house-flipping business who was millions in debt and planning a future with another man, prosecutors said. She had opened numerous life insurance policies on her husband without his knowledge and falsely believed she would inherit his estate worth more than $4 million after he died.
“He [Eric Richins] told his family, ‘If I die, you need to take a look at her because I think she’s trying to kill me,’” family spokesman Greg Skordas told “48 Hours” in a February 2024 interview.
Prosecutors alleged Kouri Richins had asked the family housekeeper to procure fentanyl for her in early 2022, and the housekeeper admitted to investigators that she had sold fentanyl to her, court documents obtained by “48 Hours” state.
“He wasn’t an opioid user…This doesn’t smell right,” Skordas told “48 Hours” of Eric Richins’ cause of death.
Jurors also found Kouri Richins guilty of other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Valentine’s Day with a fentanyl-laced sandwich that made him black out.
And according to court documents, Eric Richins’ family suspected that his wife had also attempted to poison him in 2019 during a vacation in Greece, when he fell ill after she served him a drink.
The Richins’ middle child, now 11, refuted his mother’s claim that she slept in his bedroom with him on the night of his father’s death. He recalled unusual circumstances from that night, like being put to bed early without a bath, his parents’ bedroom being locked and the television blaring from inside. The boy said his mother yelled at him to go away after he used a broom to try to reach a key to their bedroom, where Richins later told a 911 operator she found her husband cold to the touch.
The 11-year-old told the judge he is sad that his dad can no longer take him camping and fishing, coach him in sports or be present for major milestones. Like his older brother, he said he would feel unsafe if his mom wasn’t behind bars.
“With (her) in jail, I will be able to continue to feel safe and live a happy and successful life without fear of (her) hurting me or anyone I love,” his statement read.
The youngest son said he feels “hateful and ashamed” when people talk about his mom because “she took away my dad.” He said he would be “so scared” if his mother got out of prison.
“Once she is gone I will feel happy and I will feel safer and relaxed and trust people more,” said the boy, whose current age was not provided in the memo.
Kouri Richins also faces more than two dozen money-related criminal charges in a separate case that has not yet gone to trial.
Her aggravated murder conviction alone is punishable either by a range of 25 years to life in prison, or a life sentence without parole. Prosecutors did not push for the death penalty.
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/utah-kouri-richins-guilty-murdering-husband/
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