Park City — A mother of three who lives in Utah. After her husband’s death, she wrote a children’s book about coping with grief and then accused of poisoning manslaughter A judge announced on Monday that he will remain in prison pending his trial on murder and drug charges.

Kouri Richchins knelt down and cried as detectives testified that authorities found her husband dead and “cold to the touch”. Her prosecution argued that her evidence against her was strong enough to deny her bail.

Her case became a real crime sensation last month when she was indicted for a public stare at “Are You With Me?” Illustrated fairy tales watching over children after her angel-winged father dies, and Richnes’ harsh remarks touting the book as a tool to help children grieving.

Monday’s detention hearing provided both prosecutors and Richnes’ attorneys with an opportunity to preview the case and offer contrasting theories of the case. Prosecutors have called detectives, private investigators and forensic accountants to the stage to help Ms. Litchins engineer the calculated murder of her husband, make financial arrangements and purchase drugs found in her body after her death in March 2022. I drew it.

Eric’s sister, Amy Richchins, called her sister-in-law “desperate, greedy and very manipulative” in a shocking statement read by the victim in court, and deliberately poisoned Eric. He said it was painful for his family to watch over Kouri. Her Ms. Richins promotes her own book and herself, her wonderful mother.

“How can human life be valued so cheaply? I don’t understand,” she said.

Mr. Richnes’ attorney argued that the evidence against Mr. Richnes was dubious and circumstantial, pointed out that no drugs were found in his family’s home after his death, and claimed that the state’s star witness (who sold drugs to Mr. Richnes) The housekeeper) may have had a motive for lying. She called for leniency on state and federal drug charges.

“They basically gave her evidence until she got it right,” said Skye Lazarus, Ms. Richins’ attorney, of the police interrogation with the housekeeper.

As the handcuffed Ms. Litchins shakes her head defiantly, prosecutors point to a housekeeper who claims she sold fentanyl weeks before it was found in her husband’s system, and suggested they made emergency food. Detectives were questioned about the family’s “emergency bag” filled with passports. She is at risk of escaping unsuitable for her bail.

She took a deep breath as a private investigator questioned her device’s search history, including “luxury prisons for the rich” and information disclosed on her death certificate.

And families from both sides sat in the courtroom in the back, asking a forensic accountant about Litchins’ personal financial struggles and the millions of dollars at stake on her husband’s estate.

“One or two pills could be a coincidence. Twenty, or five times the lethal dose, isn’t a coincidence. That’s a lot. That’s who wanted Eric dead,” said Summit County Chief Prosecutor Patricia Cassel. Told.

The detention hearing revealed that, amidst a marital quarrel and a fight over the multi-million dollar mansion they eventually purchased as their home, Ms. Richens injected five times the lethal dose of fentanyl into a Moscow Mule cocktail she made for her husband Eric Richnes. It was based on court documents that prosecutors claimed were tampered with. investment.

Court documents depict a conspirator who attempted to poison her husband multiple times, including while on vacation in Greece and several weeks before his death. When she was questioned as part of an alleged Valentine’s Day investigation, she slipped hydrocodone into a sandwich she made for him, repeatedly denied involvement on the day of his death in March 2022, and was called to police. “My husband is active,” she even said. He doesn’t just die in his sleep. This is insane. ”

Richnes’ attorneys said in court filings that the prosecution “simply accepted” Eric Richnes’ family testimony that his wife poisoned him, and conducted an investigation that lasted about 14 months. But he said he found no evidence to back it up and “calculated backwards to back it up.” hypothesis. She said Litchins’ financially motivated prosecution case proved she was not guilty of murder and was “bad at math.”

“Just because you spend money poorly doesn’t make you a murderer,” says Lazarus.

The incident put a spotlight on a community behind Utah’s Wasatch Mountains near Park City, one of the great destinations for skiing, hiking and outdoor recreation in the western United States. The couple and their three sons lived in a new housing development in the town of Francis, about 50 miles east of Salt Lake City. They argued over whether to buy an unfinished 20,000-square-foot (1,860-square-meter) mansion near Midway, Utah, according to court filings.

If this case goes to trial, it will likely revolve around financial and marital disputes as possible motives. In addition to squabbling over real estate, prosecutors allege that Kouri Richchins made significant changes to her family’s inheritance plans during her husband’s lifetime. take out life insurance He launched a policy with benefits totaling nearly $2 million.

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