Brother of Utah grief author Kouri Richins breaks his silence and claims his sister is INNOCENT – insisting her husband died from a ‘drug overdose’ and not a poisoned Moscow mule
The brother of a Utah funeral writer has broken his silence by claiming his sister is innocent of killing her husband with a poisoned Moscow mule.
Kouri Richins was arrested in May and charged with first-degree murder for allegedly killing Eric with a fentanyl cocktail.
Her brother DJ spoke to ABC News in an interview that aired GMA he defended his sibling and expressed his own concerns about her treatment in prison.
“We know Kouri is innocent, and all of that will come out in court and I think it will shock people,” DJ said.
Richins and Eric were married for nine years, had three young sons together and lived near Park City, east of Salt Lake City, his obituary said.
Richins is accused of poisoning husband Eric (pictured right), 39, by injecting him with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl in the drink in March 2022.
DJ revealed the moment they learned about Eric’s death after he was found at the foot of his bed on March 4, 2022.
“When I got the news that Eric had passed away, I burst into tears,” DJ told ABC News. “He was a good guy.” “But she’s my sister, I knew Eric, she didn’t do this,” he added.
Prosecutors allege Richins poisoned her husband with a lethal dose of fentanyl, which she allegedly administered through a cocktail she made for him on the night of March 3, 2022.
The family of ‘Moscow Mule’ murder suspect Kouri Richins have shown a united front in support of the 39-year-old as her brother, DJ, speaks out for the first time since her arrest
An autopsy determined that Eric died of a fentanyl overdose and that the level of the drug in his system was five times the lethal dosage.
A medical examiner indicated the drug used was “illegal” and not of medical grade and was likely taken orally, according to a charging document.
Richins’ family claims that Eric used the drugs recreationally and possibly as an overdose.
Her attorney, Skye Lazaro, told ABC News that there is “no direct evidence that she ever purchased or administered fentanyl to her husband.”
In an April interview with “Good Things Utah,” while trying to promote her new children’s book about coping with grief, Richins said her husband died “unexpectedly.”
Her book is dedicated to “my wonderful husband and a wonderful father.”
In recent days, prison guards discovered what appears to be a letter to her mother that appears to be coaching family and friends to give false testimony.
DJ has accused prison authorities of misusing Richins’ medication ‘six times’ to get her out of her cell and carry out the search.
‘One time is an accident. Twice is incompetence,” DJ told ABC News. “Six times is… it looks like it’s on purpose.”
Prison authorities confirmed to ABC News that they could not comment on the letter and how it was obtained.
According to the search warrant affidavit, several of Eric’s family members reportedly told investigators they “suspected his wife had something to do with his death.”
“They said he warned them that if anything happened to him, she was the one to blame,” the search warrant said.
Prior to his death, Eric had taken his wife out of his will and life insurance policy and “was in the process of getting a divorce and wanted his children to be cared for,” according to a search warrant obtained by the outlet.
The couple had reportedly been arguing over a nearly $2 million property that Richins allegedly wanted the injunction to continue.
“The day after Eric’s death, his wife allegedly signed the closing papers on the home,” the search warrant said.
In January, the warrant stated that Richins allegedly updated her husband’s life insurance agreement to make her the sole beneficiary.
The company notified Eric and his business partner and changed them back to each other’s beneficiaries, the warrant said.
DJ praised Richins as a “great mother” who takes her sons to church every Sunday and who had tried to “protect Eric’s image” when she was arrested.
Richins had written a book after her husband’s death and appeared on TV to promote it
Richins promoted her book on a local station in Utah in April of this year. “We have three little boys,” she told the interviewer, “and my children and I wrote this book about the different emotions and grieving processes we have experienced over the past year.”
“When he died, I thought they were probably in the best place they’ve ever been,” DJ told ABC News.
“Kouri told police he did not use drugs to protect his image.”
A feeling that is disputed by Eric’s family. “He was someone who took very good care of his health,” family spokesman Greg Skordas told ABC News.
“And so it’s really disturbing to try to shed the light on him that we’ve seen recently. It’s really… it’s sad.”
Eric’s sister, Katie Richins-Benson, has since sued Richins, accusing her of playing a “heinous endgame” to steal money from her brother and orchestrate and profit from his death.
DJ is the second to defend Richins, after her mother Lisa Darden.
Speaking exclusively to DailyMail.com, Darden appeared to repeat the story captured in the six-page prison note found in Richins’ cell.
Richins has vehemently denied that the letter to her mother was an attempt to witness tampering, but was in fact excerpts from a fictional novel she was writing.
Richins ‘had an incident’ when he was given the wrong medication and was taken to the hospital after being booked into Utah’s Summit County Jail
Accused ‘Moscow Mule’ killer Kouri Richins has vehemently denied that a letter to her mother was an attempt to witness tampering, but was in fact excerpts from a fictional novel
The scathing letter appears to instruct Darden to tell Richins’ brother, Ronney, that he spoke to Eric about his travels to Mexico and that her late husband revealed he had been given “painkillers and fentanyl”… the ranch workers .’
Court documents show that when officers found the letter titled “Walk the Dog,” Richins claimed it was a fictional mystery book she was writing detailing her experiences living in a Mexican prison .
“Those papers were not a letter to you,” Richins told her mother during a Sept. 16 jail sentence. Crimeonline reported.
“They were part of my crazy book… I was writing this fictional mystery book.”
Prosecutors allege the letter asked her mother to “facilitate witness tampering involving her brother in an effort to get her brother to support a false factual story.”
Richins also told Darden to give her brother the instructions personally because she fears “her mother’s house and phone are being tapped,” according to court documents.
The filing also said that during a video conference with Darden on Sept. 13, Richins held up another letter for her mother to read and then said the letter had been flushed down the toilet or destroyed.
Eric’s family told investigators shortly after his death that they suspected his wife had killed the father of three
In a motion filed last Friday, prosecutors said, “It is imperative that Richins be barred from any contact with her mother and brother because of the letter.”
Speaking exclusively to DailyMail.com, Darden repeated the same story that her daughter had written in the letter found in her prison cell.
Lisa Darden told us she believed her late son-in-law Eric had purchased prescription drugs laced with fentanyl and simply overdosed, just as Kouri detailed in her prison note.
Darden repeated Kouri’s line that her husband would buy drugs abroad and put them in her luggage without her knowledge.
Kouri Richins will return to court on November 3 for a status conference, with no preliminary hearing date set yet.