Third District Judge Richard Mrazik says the Kamas mother of three’s defense team plans to file a motion for a change of venue, which could mean moving the trial to another county in Utah.
At a hearing last September, the judge and defense team signaled that changing venues could also mean drawing jurors from Salt Lake County, for example, to the Summit County courtroom.
Tuesday, Mrazik gave defense attorneys a deadline of March 17 to file their motion. He says Summit County prosecutors will have two weeks to respond and scheduled oral arguments for April 7.
Ahead of their motion, the defense team is polling potential jurors in Summit and Salt Lake counties to see how familiar residents are with the case.
Richins’ attorneys may use the polling to argue Salt Lake County jurors could be more impartial than ones from her home county.
The murder case has already drawn media attention from local, national and international outlets.
Richins is accused of fatally poisoning her husband, Eric Richins, in March 2022. She later wrote a children’s book about grieving. She has pleaded not guilty to nine felonies, including aggravated murder, attempted murder and financial crimes.
Ahead of the trial, the Utah Supreme Court told the attorneys they may not pull jurors from both Salt Lake and Summit counties.
Both sides favored a two-county search because they thought a wider pool could help find impartial jurors. However, the justices interpret state law as prohibiting multicounty juries.
