A month and a half before Kouri Richins is scheduled to stand trial for her husband Eric Richins’ alleged murder, her attorneys have asked a judge to move proceedings to Salt Lake County.
If 3rd District Judge Richard Mrazik rules in their favor, no one from Summit County will serve on the jury — only Salt Lake County residents will.
Richins is charged with attempted murder, aggravated murder and financial crimes in connection with her husband’s 2022 fentanyl overdose. She has pleaded not guilty to every count and is scheduled for a four-week trial beginning the last week of April.
Her attorneys say she’s more likely to get a fair trial in Salt Lake County, with 2.5 times more people than Summit County and a larger potential pool of jurors.
In a motion filed Monday, March 17, attorneys cite the more than 100 local media stories and the “prominence of the victim’s family in the community.”
They surveyed residents of Salt Lake and Summit counties. A quarter of Summit County residents surveyed had a direct or indirect connection to the Richins family, according to the defense.
By comparison, Kouri Darden Richins is “a Summit County transplant, from a non-LDS, low-income family,” which her attorneys say might bias a local jury against her.
Her attorneys further argue local and national media reports have contained inaccurate details. And based on their survey, Summit County residents may have consumed “inflammatory, misleading and false” information about the case.
Eighty percent of Summit County residents said they were familiar with the case, compared to less than half of Salt Lake County. An even smaller fraction of Salt Lake said they had closely followed the case.
The defense team concluded it can’t make up for the disparity in jury selection, during which they say potential jurors can be dishonest or influenced by biases they’re unaware of.
Prosecutors have two weeks to respond if they’d like to keep the trial in Summit County. Oral arguments won’t be until April, and it’s unclear if moving the trial would delay proceedings.
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.
