Attorneys for Kouri Richins, the Utah mom charged with spiking her husband’s drink with a lethal dose of fentanyl in 2022, accused prosecutors of failing to turn over evidence after a key witness recanted his statement.
Prosecutors had alleged that Richins purchased the fentanyl used to kill Eric Richins from her housekeeper, Carmen Lauber, after Lauber said she procured the pills from a man named Robert Crozier.
But in court documents filed Thursday, Richins’ attorneys said members of the prosecution team interviewed Crozier in April, and he denied giving Lauber fentanyl. The filings state that prosecutors failed to notify the defense.
“The prosecution has been aware of this exculpatory evidence since April of this year. The prosecution did not inform the defense of this information,” the documents say. “No press release was issued. No reports. Nothing. The prosecution just kept quiet.”
The Summit County Attorney’s Office said it “does not comment on pending matters” and “will respond in the public record in 14 days as allowed” under court rules.
A spokesperson for Eric Richins’ family did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.
Richins has been in jail since May 2023. She was charged with aggravated murder and other crimes related to the March 4, 2022, death of her husband. He died at the couple’s house during what she said was a celebration after she closed on a home for her real estate business.
Richins, who wrote a children’s book about grief after his death, pleaded not guilty and told NBC’s “Dateline” last year that she would prove her innocence.
According to prosecutors, Richins had purchased fentanyl from her housekeeper on two occasions in 2022. They alleged that she drugged her husband’s Valentine’s Day sandwich in February 2022 in an attempt to kill him, but he survived. Weeks later, prosecutors said she spiked a cocktail he was drinking with a fatal dose of the drug.
During the April interview, Crozier told prosecutors that he sold OxyContin to Lauber, not fentanyl, according to the court documents filed by Richins’ team. Prosecutors asked Crozier why he told detectives in a 2023 interview that he had sold her fentanyl. Crozier said he did not recall saying that, and he was detoxing at the time and was “out of it,” the court filings state.
Richins’ lawyers said they only became aware that Crozier had changed his statement after they interviewed him last month. They said that Lauber believes she sold Richins fentanyl because that’s what she thought Crozier gave her.
“If the state cannot place fentanyl in the hands of the defendant, the state has no case. Mr. Crozier’s statement doesn’t just poke holes in their case, it throws a grenade into the middle of it leaving them nothing but speculation and conjecture, getting them nowhere near the realm of beyond a reasonable doubt,” Richins’ attorneys said.
Court documents say Crozier is in custody in an unrelated case and it was not immediately clear if he had an attorney. Lauber could not be reached Friday at phone numbers listed for her.
In another filing, they asked the court to reconsider bail and grant Richins pretrial release.
“In order to continue to hold Ms. Richins without bail, the court must first find that there is substantial evidence to support the charge and that simply no longer exists,” the filing says.