A recent search of Kouri Richins’ cell produced the so-called “Walk the Dog” letter, which has prosecutors considering extra charges and defense counsel calling for all charges to be dropped.
Kouri’s current charges are aggravated murder and three counts of drug possession with intent to distribute. Prosecutors say she poisoned her late husband Eric Richins with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl in March 2022 before writing a book to help their children grieve.
Kouri has said the six pages she wrote in jail aren’t—as prosecutors claim—a letter to her mom asking her brother to testify falsely; instead, she said it was the beginning of a new, 65-page fictional book.
It wasn’t clear if Kouri had actually written the rest of the new book. But now she says there are 60 more pages she gave her attorney Skye Lazaro.
Here’s where things get confusing.
Prosecutors want the rest of the “Walk the Dog” letter, saying a fictional book isn’t attorney-client privileged information. But Lazaro says the writing is privileged information and hasn’t shared anything with prosecutors.
Kouri passed the documents to her attorney in an envelope marked “Skye Lazaro (Attorney Privilege),” so authorities at the Summit County Jail didn’t search it.
And now prosecutors believe a second letter—which they previously thought Kouri destroyed—left the jail in the envelope too. Kouri had held up the letter for her mom to read during a video call, and prosecutors believe it was written by another inmate to Kouri.
The Summit County Attorney’s Office says neither fictional books nor inmate communications are confidential.
The defense and prosecution met to discuss the “Walk the Dog” letter controversy Oct. 2.
Lazaro says the state conceded the “Walk the Dog” letter was bound to other material in the envelope with glue, as if they came from the same legal pad.
Prosecutors say the two parties had agreed she would give the envelope’s contents to a third-party attorney to filter out or redact any confidential information. Lazaro later disputed their characterization of the conversation, saying there’s no such agreement.
“We did meet and try to resolve these issues,” the defense attorney said. “I said I'd take a look at it and think about it.”
Ultimately, Lazaro decided not to hand over the envelope’s contents, so prosecutors asked the court Oct. 12 to compel her to do so.
That brings the total number of motions filed since the Summit County Sheriff’s Office found the “Walk the Dog” letter to five.
Here they are in order: first, the state motioned to prohibit Kouri from speaking with her mother and brother.
Second, the defense motioned to hold the state in contempt of court, saying the “Walk the Dog” letter should never have been made public.
Third, the defense doubled down and motioned for all charges against Kouri to be dropped over the handling of the “Walk the Dog” letter.
Fourth, the prosecution motioned for more time to respond to the attempt to get charges dropped.
Then Oct. 12, the prosecution filed its motion demanding to see what was in the envelope Kouri gave to Lazaro.
Judge Richard Mrazik called a hearing that same day to sort through it all. He decided prosecutors won’t get extra time to respond to Lazaro’s motion to dismiss all charges.
Instead, the first three motions—all related to the search of Kouri’s cell—will be handled at the Nov. 3 hearing already on the court’s calendar.
Whether Lazaro has to hand over what Kouri gave her in the envelope the day of the search will be determined at a later date.
