A handyman who had worked on several homes owned by grief writer Kouri Richins died in a tragic accident in September after making shocking claims about the Utah mother accused of poisoning her husband.
William Hayden Jeffs, 35, died on September 30, 2024 in a traffic accident while riding his Harley Davidson. according to an obituary posted online.
But he had previously told police officers that Richins had asked him for fentanyl — weeks before Richins allegedly poisoned her husband, Eric, 39, with a lethal dose of the drug she put in his Moscow mule, it emerged a recently released search warrant.
The document, released Tuesday, said police interviewed Jeffs earlier this year and that he “disclosed” that [Richins] asked him if he could buy her both fentanyl and propofol,” ABC 4 reports.
He also allegedly showed officers text messages between him and the mother of four, and sent copies of those messages to detectives.
The search warrant made no mention of him purchasing the drugs, only noting that Richins asked him to do so.
After Jeffs’ death, a judge granted a search warrant to use his phone as evidence in Richins’ upcoming murder trial. according to KSL.
It is currently in the custody of Heber City police as part of a separate investigation, prosecutors noted.
William Hayden Jeffs, 35, allegedly told police that Kouri Richins, 34, asked him for fentanyl — weeks before Richins allegedly poisoned her husband, Eric, 39, with a lethal dose of the drug she found in his Moscow mule had stopped
Richins now faces felony charges of aggravated murder, attempted criminal murder and two counts of fraudulent insurance claims
Prosecutors have long alleged that Richins, 34, obtained fentanyl from her former housekeeper, Carmen Lauber, whom police interviewed several times.
Then, on February 14, 2022, Richins allegedly put the drugs in a sandwich she bought for him at a restaurant in their hometown of Kamas.
She left the food with a note on the seat of Eric’s truck so he could eat it at lunch, the complaint alleges.
Eric felt so nauseous that he drank a bottle of Benadryl, self-administered his son’s EpiPen, and went completely dark.
That afternoon, Eric texted a close friend: “I think I almost died… I think my wife tried to poison me.”
But Kouri, who is currently being held at the Summit County Jail in Park City, went through with her plan, prosecutors allege.
She allegedly slipped an obscene amount of drug fentanyl into Eric’s Moscow Mule cocktail on March 3, 2023, amid financial disputes involving their $2 million, 10-acre home.
She called police the next morning to report seeing her husband “cold to the touch” at the foot of their bed.
Prosecutors say she slipped an obscene amount of drug fentanyl into Eric’s Moscow Mule cocktail on March 3, 2023, amid financial disputes involving their $2 million, 10-acre home.
She allegedly obtained the drugs from her former housekeeper, Carmen Lauber
Prosecutors allege Richins was motivated to kill her husband after discovering she had taken out and spent a $250,000 line of credit, withdrawn $100,000 from his bank accounts and spent more than $30,000 on his credit cards.
Kouri also stole about $134,000 from her husband’s business, intended for tax payments, according to previously filed court documents.
She even allegedly purchased four different life insurance policies, which totaled more than $1.9 million between 2015 and 2017.
Yet the couple still signed an agreement that would grant her the sale of the house before Eric’s death.
Then, a day after calling police about her husband’s death, affidavits for search warrants revealed that Kouri had signed closing papers on the couple’s home and invited friends to a party where she drank and partied.
She also benefited financially after writing a children’s book about grief.
Kouri explained in an interview that she was motivated to write the book after searching Amazon and Barnes and Noble and finding “nothing” to help her sons “cope.”
She then dedicated the book to Eric and promoted it on television and radio, describing the book as a way to help children grieve the loss of a loved one.
Richins benefited financially after writing a children’s book about grief
Kouri explained in an interview that she was motivated to write the book after searching Amazon and Barnes and Noble and finding “nothing” to help her sons “cope.”
Richins now faces felony charges of aggravated murder, attempted criminal murder and two counts of fraudulent insurance claims after a judge granted prosecutors’ request earlier this month to dismiss two drug distribution charges.
Judge Richard Mrazik also agreed to try four counts of mortgage fraud and forgery separately from the murder charge, but denied Richin’s bail a second time — ruling that she was a flight risk and a potential danger to herself and others .
Her lawyers used certificates she earned in prison programs as evidence that the mother of three has been a model prisoner since she was first detained in May 2023.
They also noted that Richins no longer faced the death penalty, and that the dismissal of the two drug counts provided an opportunity for renewed discussion about her release.
“As a mother, there is no way that Kouri Richins would abandon her children, no matter what they are told… She would never abandon her children,” attorney Kathy Nester told the judge.
She further argued that Richins does not have the resources to move elsewhere.
‘She literally has no means to leave the country, to settle anywhere else. She would not be able to support herself,” Nester said, urging the judge to release Richins and impose measures such as an ankle monitor or house arrest.
But Mrazik said that with the loss of her connections to the community over the past year, her children being under the custody of her husband’s family and her business gone, nothing ties her anymore as she faces a possible life sentence risks. .
He praised her for using her time in prison “as productively as possible,” but said the possibility that she could die in prison “creates a powerful incentive for her.” [Richins] to harm herself to witnesses in this case and to flee the jurisdiction of the court if she were released on bail, Fox 13 reports.
Richins will now stand trial on April 28 as prosecutors continue to search her former home for “diaries or written recordings” she may have made.
They say she referred to additional writings in recorded prison sentences and statements to Eric’s family, who now manage the Richins’ former home and allowed police to search it.