Chapter 1: What led to the conviction of Kouri Richens?
This case is about a wife and a mother who found herself in perhaps a failing marriage, a business in trouble. What's your first name? And took, some could argue, an easy way out. I think she really wanted to improve her life and be free and be rich and have this facade of being the successful person that she wanted to be. My name is Eric.
My name is Laura, and we served as jurors in the Corey Richens trial. Please have a seat. Corey Richens didn't seem to me like someone with a very strong moral compass.
Eric Richens was found dead in his home on March 4, 2022. Eric was married to Corey Richens, and they had three children.
My husband's not breathing. He's cold. I just came in the bed, in our bed, and I turned over, and he's just cold. He's just cold. That's what happened today.
He was just fine.
He was fine. I don't know. It just, it didn't, it didn't really make sense. The family had been alerted by Eric that if something happened to him, to look at Corey, it was almost like they knew something like this could happen someday. This was in the months leading up to his death. Right. He felt that his life could be at risk. Right.
They suspected Corey would take part in his death before it happened.
The state alleged that Corey Richens killed her husband, Eric, by giving him a lethal dose of fentanyl.
A Summit County woman who wrote a children's book about coping with grief following her husband's death, now accused of being the one that actually killed him.
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Chapter 2: How did Eric Richens' family react to his death?
Eric Richens owned a lucrative contracting business, and Corey worked as a real estate agent, buying and flipping houses. She was facing not just murder charges, but also insurance fraud and forgery counts.
She was absolutely convinced that she would be found not guilty.
Greg Hall is a friend and former colleague of Corey's. What made her so convinced of that outcome?
Because she knows that she didn't do it.
Initially, authorities thought Eric may have died from an accidental drug overdose. But as investigators dug deeper, they concluded that Corey poisoned Eric for financial gain. Watch out for Corey. Watch out if something happens to me. According to Greg Skordas, a spokesperson for Eric's family, Eric had raised concerns about Corey to his family.
The night Eric died, were they immediately suspecting that Corey took part in his death? They suspected Corey would take part in his death before it happened. And so when it did happen, it was everyone's worst nightmare come true. This man is not breathing. He's cold.
As the state billed its case against Corey Richens, her 911 call saying she found Eric unresponsive in bed was an integral piece of evidence. If you need to put me on speaker, put me on speaker. I'm going to guide you through CPR, okay? The prosecution used the recording throughout the trial to call into question whether Corey was even trying to resuscitate Eric.
Start counting out loud so I can count with you, okay? The operator repeatedly asks the phone to be put on speaker so Corey can listen while performing CPR. One, two, three, four. Am I on speaker? Yes. But a prosecution digital forensic analyst testified that phone receiver sensor activity showed Corey was actually holding the phone to her ear during the call.
There's a proximity sensor inside the device that activates the receiver. The digital download expert could actually see that Corey did not put the phone on speakerphone. She was still holding it up to her ear. That means she wasn't doing compressions, or if she was, she was doing it with one hand. The 911 call was impactful for jurors Laura and Eric, who requested we not use their last names.
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Chapter 3: What evidence was presented against Kouri Richens during the trial?
Closing on a multi-million dollar mansion, I could not wrap my head around it. Prosecutors also presented evidence of something accessed on Corey's cell phone that morning. These gifts seemingly celebrating coming into money. I thought the gifts were really odd.
If she was the one that pulled them up, which it certainly seems like that is the case, that's just more evidence of her state of mind at the time. It was not clear to the jurors whether the gifts were celebrating Eric's death or celebrating the Midway Mansion purchase. Either way, they found the timing curious.
It's still inappropriate the day after her husband passed away that she's accessing these. So it was strange. Strange behavior aside, the state's case hinged on proving Corey intentionally poisoned Eric, that he did not die of an accidental overdose.
The prosecution contends it was Corey who administered the fentanyl, either in a cocktail called a Moscow Mule or in a lemon drop shot that she prepared for Eric. Investigators found this note in a kitchen cabinet, which the prosecution says chronicles how Corey killed Eric.
Notice that here she writes drink in bed.
And the prosecutor told the jury about something else authorities found unusual. In this incident report describing what happened that night, Corey immediately writes about having a drink around 9.15 p.m. to celebrate work. Her story that night that she wrote started with... Eric drinking a drink that she made. Why would her story start then?
Why wouldn't it start when she walked in the door and found that he wasn't moving? That was just one of these really subtle things that I thought was really important. Also important for jurors was knowing how Corey obtained the fentanyl. For that, prosecutors turned to a witness who became a controversial figure in the case, Corey's housekeeper.
Did you ask Corey Richards about Eric's death?
Yes, I did.
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Chapter 4: What role did Kouri's children's testimonies play in the case?
She asked if I had ever killed anybody.
Did she ask a follow-up question?
Yes. She asked me how it made me feel or something along those lines.
The jury was also shown text messages between Corey and Josh. I mean, you see those text messages back and forth, very lovey. Life is going to be different, I promise. If I was divorced right now and asked you to marry me, you would. I just want to lay on the couch and cuddle you, watch a murder documentary and snuggle.
I mean, you know, I don't know that that gets any closer to the reality of what actually happened in this case.
Yeah, in hindsight, I don't think those were probably well thought out. These coming in the way they did, the timing of them, I think certainly did not help Corey.
Can I get Exhibit 3-1, please? Something else that did not help Corey was this reservation she booked for a romantic getaway with Josh.
And did you know about a trip planned to the secret St. Martin's Resort? Yes.
Corey sent Josh the reservation she made before Eric died, with the trip planned for April, a month after Eric's death. The reservation for that trip was damaging to Corey. To me, that made it look like she had been planning something for a while. And at some point soon, Eric would be out of the picture. As the investigation proceeded, Corey said the prosecution was worried about being caught.
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Chapter 5: How did Kouri Richens attempt to portray herself after Eric's death?
Eric suffered from pain a lot. Nestor told jurors Eric Richens lived with chronic pain. He suffered from knee and back pain related to his work. He did hard work. And used drugs recreationally, often taking marijuana gummies. These are all gummies that the police found in Eric's things. Nestor said Eric also used pain medication. You're also going to hear...
that there was an empty pill bottle right next to him. The label on that pill bottle was for the painkiller hydrocodone, and it had expired in 2020. Nestor suggested it was Eric who may have come into contact with fentanyl. You're going to hear that just a few weeks before Eric died, guess where he was? Mexico. Guess where the fentanyl comes into this country from? Mexico. One by one.
We'll proceed with cross-examination of Ms. Rich and Spenson. The defense challenged the state's witnesses, beginning with Eric's sister, Katie, and her account of Corey's behavior the night Eric died. And you also said that she just stood there and did not comfort you in any way? Not that I recall.
Okay. Your Honor, we'd like to play a clip. This is States Exhibit 1-4. Okay, so that's Corey.
Freeze it right there. And that's her squatting down to comfort you while you're on the ground. And that's y'all hugging, right? Correct. So your memory about that was clearly wrong. To be fair, it was four years ago. Okay. When it came to the state's key witness, Carmen Lauber. Good afternoon, Ms. Lauber. Good afternoon.
The defense pointed out that she made a deal with police in order to stay out of prison. Defense attorney Wendy Lewis played a portion of one of Carmen's interviews with investigators. They're looking to pull your drug court deal and ask for seven years on your two firsts.
The only exception to that and the only thing that they're willing to kind of help you out with is if you can help us out with this. And by so, he means like give us the details that will ensure Corey gets convicted of murder. So that's what they said to you? Yes. You may be getting seven years in prison on your state case. Correct. But if you help him out, that's not going to happen.
Correct.
The investigators keep pushing on her.
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Chapter 6: What financial motives did Kouri Richens have for Eric's murder?
We need more. That's not enough. And finally, in the last interview, they basically just spell it out.
I love Eric. It was done intentionally. He did not deserve it. We believe you, and that's why we're here working on what your get-out-of-jail-free card looks like.
You know, it's this is your one get-out-of-jail-free card. You have to basically say it's fentanyl.
And you are willing to do whatever it takes to save yourself from getting kicked out of drug court and going to prison, correct? I'm willing to go forward with the truth, yes. I think the defense was really hammering her, and I don't think it went over that well. She said, okay, go ahead and get the fentanyl. That's your testimony today? When I told her what I had, that's what she said, yes.
Even if Carmen bought fentanyl for Corey, the defense said there was no proof that Corey used the drug to poison her husband. Catherine Nestor told the jury the cups Corey served the drinks in were never tested that night. Nanny ended up putting them in the dishwasher the next morning.
I think the most powerful point the defense made is that we don't know exactly how the fentanyl got into Eric Richen's stomach. When you have to prove murder, you have to prove that she's the one that administered the fentanyl to him. The defense pushed back on the state's claim that Corey had tried to poison Eric weeks earlier with that Valentine's Day sandwich.
Corey's friend, Allie Staking, said the couple downplayed that episode as Eric having an allergic reaction. He took a bite of the sandwich and got an allergic reaction and had to shoot himself with an EpiPen. Was everyone laughing? Yes, we were all laughing and we jokingly said, don't eat what Corey feeds you. Okay. And did Eric appear upset about what had happened prior with the sandwich? No.
And as for the financial motive that Corey was broke, Sky Lazaro says Corey Richen's multi-million dollar debt was typical in the house flipping business.
That's what they do for a living is they invest in homes to flip.
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