Sydney Sumner

Robert Grossman, 43, an Iraq war veteran, took the stand Wednesday and described a series of intimate text messages exchanged with Richens just weeks before her husband's death in 2022.

According to testimony, less than a month before her husband Eric Richens died, Corey Richens sent Grossman a message, asking, If I was divorced right now and asked you to marry me tomorrow, you would?

Grossman replied, Yes, in love with Y-O-U.

Of course I would.

Prosecutors say the messages reveal the pair discussing a future together.

In another text shown to jurors, Richens allegedly wrote that life would be perfect if her husband could just go away and you could just be here.

Richens muses about purchasing a mansion with Grossman, living in the guest house, and renting out the main house as an event center.

Richens suggests they hang out every day on a little farm and raise her children.

As the texts were displayed in court, Grossman became emotional and wiped away tears.

During his testimony, Grossman also described a troubling conversation he had with Richens just days after her husband died.

He told jurors she asked him if he had ever killed anyone,

referring to his military service in Iraq, and questioned him about how it made him feel.

Grossman said at the time he had no suspicion that Richens might have been involved in her husband's death.

Prosecutors allege Richens killed Eric Richens in March 2022 by slipping four times the lethal dose of fentanyl into a Moscow mule cocktail she prepared for him.

Additional charges accuse her of a previous attempt to kill Eric by spiking his sandwich with fentanyl a month earlier on Valentine's Day.

After his death, Richens went on to self-publish a children's book about coping with grief, saying it was meant to help her sons and other children deal with the loss of a parent.

Prosecutors argue Richens planned the killing in hopes of starting a new life with her lover and believe she would inherit her husband's estate, valued at more than $4 million.

Her defense team, however, maintains that Eric Richens died from an accidental overdose.

They say it's unclear how Eric ingested the drug and that investigators did not thoroughly test the drink's cup for evidence.

Corey Richens has pleaded not guilty and the trial continues.