A key witness in Kouri Richins’ murder trial testified Thursday that she obtained the fentanyl that prosecutors allege Richins used to kill her husband of 9 years.
Carmen Lauber, a housecleaner who labored for Richins, testified she offered illicit capsules to the Utah mom 4 instances in early 2022 on the defendant’s request.
“She’d called me and asked me if I could reach out to somebody for some pain meds for an investor that she knew,” Lauber testified.
A pair days after Eric Richins was discovered lifeless on March 4, 2022, Lauber mentioned she spoke with Kouri Richins on the cellphone.
“I said, ‘Please tell me these pills were not for him,’” Lauber recalled telling Richins. She mentioned Richins responded:
“No, they were not. Eric passed away from a brain aneurysm.”
Lauber’s testimony Thursday is pivotal to the prosecution of Kouri Richins, who’s accused of poisoning her husband with a deadly dose of fentanyl. Prosecutors allege she killed him for his cash and to begin a brand new life with the person with whom she was having an affair.
Richins, 35, has pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder and different expenses. If convicted of essentially the most severe cost, she might face up to life in jail.
Under questioning Thursday by Summit County, Utah, prosecutor Bradley Bloodworth, Lauber confirmed she was granted immunity in alternate for her truthful testimony. She spoke with investigators a number of instances earlier than she was given immunity, which she mentioned she did in half to take duty.
“I already knew Eric had passed away. But when they told – when they had mentioned that it was from an overdose, that hit hard,” Lauber mentioned, dabbing her eyes with tissues.
“Only for the fact that, if that’s what happened, I needed to step up and take accountability of my part in this, what happened and what I was asked for.”
On cross-examination, the protection labored to undermine Lauber’s credibility, highlighting her historical past of drug use – together with across the time she mentioned she bought the drugs in query – and the deal she reached with prosecutors to safe her testimony towards Richins.
Lauber testified she started acquiring illicit drugs for Richins round late January or early February of 2022.
Lauber bought an envelope of opiate capsules from a lady she labored with after which gave them to Kouri Richins in her driveway the following morning, she mentioned. Richins later requested for drugs a second time, saying the investor wished one thing stronger, Lauber mentioned.
Lauber testified she acquired in contact with a person who mentioned he had capsules containing fentanyl. When she texted Richins in regards to the fentanyl capsules, Richins responded, “Okay, go ahead and get them,” in accordance to Lauber’s testimony.
Richins left Lauber roughly $1,000 money within a home she was flipping, Lauber mentioned. After she retrieved the cash, Lauber mentioned she met the person at a fuel station on February 11, 2022.
“He handed me a little clear baggie with some pills in it,” she mentioned.
Lauber testified she left the capsules in the out of doors firepit of the identical dwelling the place she picked up the cash.
Prosecutors allege Kouri Richins tried to poison her husband a number of days later, on Valentine’s Day, by lacing his sandwich. Eric Richins informed his pals he broke out in hives and thought he was going to die after consuming the sandwich, in accordance to charging paperwork.
“I think my wife tried to poison me,” he informed one pal, per court docket data.
Around the top of February 2022, Richins once more requested for stronger drugs, referencing “some of the Michael Jackson stuff,” Lauber confirmed in her testimony. Jackson died of a propofol overdose in 2009.
Lauber testified she requested the identical man for extra capsules and picked up $1,000 money that Richins left in the identical dwelling. When she met the person on the fuel station, he gave her a baggie of sunshine blue capsules, she mentioned. Richins later picked up the capsules in Lauber’s driveway, she testified.
When Eric Richins was discovered lifeless on March 4, 2022, he had roughly 5 instances the deadly dose of fentanyl in his system, in accordance to charging paperwork.
Three days after her husband’s dying, Richins texted Lauber “still have your hookup?” in accordance to cellphone data displayed in court docket Thursday.
Lauber testified she then bought drugs for Richins once more after receiving a $1,300 examine from her. The examine, proven in court docket Thursday, was made out to Lauber for “Construction clean Midway.” At the time of Eric Richins’ dying, his spouse was working to flip a house in Midway, Utah.
“I never cleaned a house ever in my life for thirteen hundred dollars,” Lauber mentioned.
Lauber later requested Richins if she wanted any extra capsules, she testified. Richins allegedly responded she didn’t as a result of her investor had “left town.”
Richins’ protection has labored to undercut Lauber, questioning her reliability based mostly on purported inconsistencies in her statements and her historical past of drug use.
Lauber acknowledged her wrestle with dependancy Thursday, and mentioned she has been sober for greater than 4 years.
In her opening assertion, protection legal professional Kathy Nester mentioned Lauber first informed investigators Kouri Richins requested for an additional drug, oxycodone. After authorities supplied her immunity, Lauber then “changes her story” to embrace fentanyl, Nester mentioned.
The man alleged to have offered drugs to Lauber lately informed investigators he gave her oxycontin, Richins’ protection attorneys have written in court docket filings, though he beforehand mentioned he offered her fentanyl.
At factors throughout Lauber’s testimony, she admitted some particulars had been unclear and she was getting confused.
Under cross-examination Thursday by protection legal professional Wendy Lewis, Lauber confirmed she examined constructive for methamphetamine in late January, mid-February and early March 2022.
Kouri Richins Trial Preview
“You were high that whole time,” Lewis requested, “February, March ’22?”
“Not the whole time, no,” Lauber mentioned.
“You were using very regularly,” Lewis mentioned.
“I guess so, yes.”
Lewis additionally highlighted the deal Lauber reached with authorities in alternate for her testimony.
Lauber testified detectives started assembly along with her in regards to the Richins case in April 2023, when she was probably dealing with new expenses that might carry an extended sentence.
One investigator informed Lauber she could also be spared from punishment “if you can help us out with this,” in accordance to a recording of the assembly performed in court docket Thursday.
“He means, like, give us the details that will ensure Kouri gets convicted of murder,” one other mentioned.
Lauber confirmed on the stand she informed authorities she would do “whatever it takes.”