LIVE UPDATES | Day 13 of Kouri Richins murder trial

Kouri Richins, a Utah mother of three boys, is accused of fatally poisoning her husband, Eric Richins, in 2022. She is on trial in Summit County, Utah, on charges of aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, insurance fraud and forgery.

Today is the 13th day of the trial. It is scheduled to begin today at 8:30 a.m. East Idaho News will be posting live written updates all day. Please excuse typos. You can watch the livestream here. The most recent updates are at the top of this page.

1:12 p.m. Judge tells attorneys to have a conference call at 4 p.m. today to talk about jury instructions. Counsel asks to meet with judge tomorrow at 1 p.m. to discuss jury instructions. Nothing further today. We will talk about it all tonight on “Courtroom Insider” at 7 p.m.

1:11 p.m. Judge tells jury they don’t need to report back to the courthouse until Monday at 8:30 a.m. He tells jurors not to discuss the case with anyone. They will be given instructions on Monday.

1:08 p.m. Defense just said they plan to rest. Jury is brought in. Prosecution says the state rests its case. Lewis says after consulting with their client, the defense rests.

1:05 p.m. Back from lunch. Judge is about to call in the jury and tell them the state has rested. Judge asks defense who their first witness will be. Wendy Lewis asks to confer with Kathryn Nester – “we have a couple of options.”

12 noon Judge is back on the bench. He says his role is to determine if the state has produced believable evidence and he says they have. The motion for dismissal is denied. Court is in recess until 1 p.m. when the defense will take over. Witnesses are waiting to testify.

11:50 a.m. Judge Mrazik needs five minutes to collect his thoughts. We will be back at 11:55 a.m.

11:40 a.m. Bloodworth asks the judge if he has anything particular he wants Bloodworth to address in the defense’s motion. Judge asks Bloodworth to speak to “lack of believable evidence regarding intent to defraud.” Bloodworth says this is in reference to the $100,000 TruStage life insurance policy. Bloodworth says at the time Kouri forged Eric’s signature on the document for this policy, she intended to defraud. He says nothing on the application indicates that Eric was aware of the application. Everything comes back to Kouri’s address, etc.

11:33 a.m. Judge says the door doesn’t appear to have been opened. Bloodworth just said the state rests. Defense attorney Alex Ramos files a motion. He says the state has not proven its case. He lists the reasons why the defense believes the state has fallen short.

11:30 a.m. Judge tells jury we will likely have a 90 minute lunch. He excuses them. Bloodworth needs to know what the defense is going to do regarding the Norris matter. If they want to proceed with it, then the state needs to call additional witnesses. If not, the state is prepared to rest.

11:25 a.m. Bloodworth asks O’Driscoll several follow up questions. He asks what happened to the empty hydrocodone bottle. He does. Bloodworth asks O’Driscoll if he and other detectives gave Carmen a ride anywhere other than court. Just court. Bloodworth asks if the Kevin Spacey gif is from the show “House of Cards.” It is. No further questions. Defense has nothing further. Witness is released.

11:19 a.m. Nester has nothing further. Bloodworth will now follow up. He begins by asking O’Driscoll if he’s the lead investigator among many investigators. He is. He’s the lead investigator for the sheriff’s office, not the county attorney’s office. O’Driscoll says he can’t know every single bit of information as there are terabytes of data.

11:17 a.m. Nester says we have not heard any testimony about statements Kouri made to her insurance company. O’Driscoll says no statements, but we have heard evidence about it. Nester says there has not been any testimony about whether Eric gave Kouri permission to sign his name on documents. O’Driscoll says he doesn’t think that’s required to meet the forgery statute.

11:14 a.m. Nester asks if any fentanyl has been found in the house. He said there was a “boatload” in Eric’s stomach. Nester says you can’t say how it was ingested or what dosage was taken. Nester asks O’Driscoll if he can say what was ingested on Valentine’s Day. He says they don’t have reports about what was in Eric’s body on Valentine’s Day.

11:10 a.m. O’Driscoll says they found a bag of loose hydrocodone pills in the laundry mud room. They were tested and did not contain fentanyl. Nester asks if they were able to track Eric’s phone movements in Mexico. They were not. Nester says this investigation has been happening for four years and 10 search warrants were issued.

11:05 a.m. Nester asks O’Driscoll if he became aware of Eric using an EPIPen on Valentine’s Day. She asks O’Driscoll if Eric was treated for allergies and O’Driscoll says he was. Some EPIPens were located in the refrigerator. Nester asks if O’Driscoll contacted Eric’s allergy doctor and what Eric was allergic to. O’Driscoll says it was seasonal allergies – trees, grass, etc. Nester asks if Eric sought medical treatment for what happened on Valentine’s Day 2022. He says Eric mentioned going to the hospital, but is unsure if he ever did.

11:01 a.m. Nester shows O’Driscoll some texts she says are between Eric and Kouri discussing the trust. He doesn’t recall seeing the text and doesn’t know the context. Nester asks O’Driscoll if he interviewed people and looked at documents to see if they knew Kouri was aware of a trust that Eric created prior to his death. O’Driscoll says based on everything he reviewed, Kouri was not aware of how the trust worked and all of the conditions. Nester pushes back and says, “Was she aware it existed?” O’Driscoll says there is evidence that suggests she was aware.

10:58 a.m. O’Driscoll asks about Eric’s obituary found on Carmen’s vision board. She asks if there were other obituaries on the poster. He doesn’t recall. She shows the picture and it appears there is a memorial program for someone else.

10:54 a.m. Nester now refers to the orange notebook and the page from the notebook where Kouri laid out a timeline of events. On one of the dates, she wrote, “Kouri starts counseling.” Nester asks if O’Driscoll took steps to verify she was in counseling. O’Driscoll says they got Kouri’s medical records and he doesn’t remember if mental health records were included.

10:50 a.m. Nester asks about website searches from Kouri’s device and if they were all made after April 13, 2022. She asks O’Driscoll if he ever spoke with Kouri’s family to see if they did any of the searches. He says he did not.

10:47 a.m. Nester now shows some text messages. On the morning of the 4th, a photo of the Midway mansion was accessed on Kouri’s phone. There was also a photo of a farmer and champagne. The photos could have been sent the day before.

10:42 a.m. Nester asks O’Driscoll about texts retrieved from Eric’s phone on the day he died. O’Driscoll recalls seeing them, but doesn’t remember the content of all of them. Nester shows some messages between Eric and Kouri. Nester asks if these are messages from the day Eric died. O’Driscoll says they are from March 3, the day before Eric died.

10:37 a.m. Jury is in the courtroom. Det. O’Driscoll is sworn back in and takes the stand. Kathryn Nester will continue questioning him. Nester begins by asking about the gifs on Kouri’s phone. Nester admits a document showing gifs from a Cellebrite record. The three gifs were accessed at 8:29 a.m. on March 4, 2022. There are the gifs:

10:31 a.m. Court is back in session. Nester says they understand what the judge said – that if any of it comes in, all of it must come in. Nester says she accepts that O’Driscoll is not the proper witness to introduce the substance about Norris, so they will wait until they can question a foundational witness if they decide to go down that route.

9:55 a.m. Nester asks if she can have time to meet with their client in private. Judge says Nester needs to explain to Kouri that if Norris’s statement comes in, the state can respond and statements made by Hayden Jeffs and Nick Bonsavage could also come in. There is a recording of Bonsavage saying Carmen could buy a PlayStation because she just made a lot of money selling street drugs. Nester needs 30 minutes to chat with Kouri. We are in recess until 10:30 a.m.

9:44 a.m. Bloodworth saying if Norris information is allowed in, prosecution has some other potential witnesses they may call as part of their case-in-chief. Bloodworth says the state has not rested and would want the other witnesses in before the defense takes over.

9:40 a.m. Judge is back on the stand and has given a case to both the defense and prosecutors to read. He says the case may allow the defense to bring in the information on Norris, but then the prosecution could also bring in other statements from other potential witnesses. Judge says the attorneys need to consider this very carefully because the judge “can’t unring the bell.”

9:17 a.m. Nester confers with her co-counsel and says she will respect the court’s ruling. Judge says he needs to take a five minute break before inviting the jury in. We are in recess until 9:25 a.m.

9:09 a.m. Judge says there is no admissible evidence that Eric ever obtained any narcotics other than when he got oxycodone following knee surgery years ago. Nester pushes back about what she wants in. Judge says there are limits about what can be brought in and this line of questioning cannot be allowed in.

9:04 a.m. Nester pushes back and says there is a foundation. Judge says it would be an error for him to allow Nester’s questions. Nester wonders if she can alter the question and leave fentanyl out – instead say “drugs.” Judge says the four questions cannot come in.

9 a.m. Bloodworth does not object to the first question, but objects to the next three. He says this is a transparent attempt to circumvent the court’s ruling by not allowing Norris in. Bloodworth says, “This setup has been long in the making.” Bloodworth says Norris called the Summit County Sheriff’s Office after the judge issued his ruling and told them he was calling because the defense told him to call. Judge says there is a lack of foundation for the premise of the question – that you could make up any set of facts to bring in a question.

8:54 a.m. Nester says she doesn’t plan to publish the photo to the jury. She has another issue but needs Detective O’Driscoll to leave the courtroom. He leaves. Nester references her motion to admit the statement of David Norris, which was denied by Judge Richard Mrazik. Nester says Norris would have testified that in 2019, he had an encounter with Eric Richins and Eric asked if he had any fentanyl. Mrazik said the residual hearsay exception was not met, so he rejected the motion and said Norris could not come in. Norris says she wants to ask O’Driscoll four questions in relation to what Norris would have said.

8:40 a.m. Jury is not in the courtroom yet. Debate between the prosecution and the defense over a photo Eric sent to Kouri. Bloodworth says a message with the photo says, “I just dropped gravel at the Midway mansion.”

8:28 a.m. Day 13 of Kouri Richins’ trial will begin with Summit County Detective Jeff O’Driscoll back on the witness stand. He is the lead investigator on the case. Defense attorney Kathryn Nester will continue cross-examining him. Prosecutor Brad Bloodworth has said O’Driscoll is their last witness. The defense is expected to begin its case-in-chief today and plans to call witnesses.