The parties trying the Kouri Richins murder case scheduled up to six days for jury selection, expecting to screen about 50 potential jurors each day.
After just one day of questioning, on Feb. 11, they finalized the eight jurors and four alternates needed for the highly anticipated trial set for Feb. 23. All are Summit County residents.
Richins is charged with aggravated murder, attempted murder and financial crimes in connection with the 2022 overdose death of her husband Eric Richins.
The Kamas-area mother and former real estate agent wrote a children’s book about grief before her May 2023 arrest. Richins has pleaded not guilty to all counts and remains in the Summit County jail.
Richins’ defense attorneys have repeated concerns about seating an impartial jury for the case, which has garnered state, national and international media attention.
Over the last two months, the court received 1,700 written questionnaire responses from potential jurors.
During further questioning Feb. 10, 3rd District Judge Richard Mrazik excused those he determined not fit for jury service based on their answers. Then, Summit County prosecutors and the defense team each got to excuse six jurors of their choice.
Of the 12 people remaining, half are men and half are women.
Their occupations span the ski and tourism industry, real estate and entrepreneurship.
The morning of Feb. 11, attorneys for Richins, who is white, objected that the jurors and alternates are all white.
They criticized prosecutors for striking the lone Latino juror from the pool of 24. Prosecutors said they did so because they were seeking jurors who could feasibly leave work for five weeks and have more education or business experience, not because of the person's race or ethnicity.
Mrazik did not find any illegal discrimination and allowed the potential juror to be released.
The judge said he would email instructions to the jurors before the trial begins Feb. 23. It is scheduled to last until March 26.
Mrazik has not sequestered the jury. Jurors will be told not to research the case or follow news reports about it.
The defense team twice asked to move the trial to Salt Lake County but was unsuccessful.
