Utah Supreme Court records show attorneys for Kouri Richins filed a notice appealing her aggravated murder conviction May 26. The case was referred to the Utah Court of Appeals the following day.
A Summit County jury found Richins guilty of poisoning her husband Eric Richins with a fatal dose of fentanyl in 2022 for financial gain. She would go on to write a children’s book about grief.
The Kamas-area mother of three was also convicted of attempted aggravated murder, forgery and two counts of insurance fraud on March 16.
Third District Court Judge Richard Mrazik sentenced Richins to life in prison without the possibility of parole May 13.
The seven-member Court of Appeals will consider whether there are grounds to overturn her conviction on any of the five charges.
The decision would not turn on trial evidence or witness testimony, but on whether the trial court correctly conducted the case.
Summit County is on the hook for Richins’ attorney fees during the appeal because it is an aggravated murder case.
It applied for state funding, but Deputy County Manager Janna Young told KPCW the state declined to cover appellate costs earlier in June.
She called it “unfortunate news for us and our taxpayers.” Summit County spent millions on the murder trial since Richins was unable to pay for her own defense.
She is also expected to ask Mrazik for a new trial on procedural grounds.
Meanwhile, Richins faces 26 other felony charges in a second case the Summit County Attorney’s Office filed in June 2025, weeks before the statutes of limitation on some of the charges.
The case represents the full scope of Richins’ alleged financial misdeeds while she was a real estate agent buying and flipping homes in the Wasatch Back.
Prosecutors say the debt she accrued in that business was part of her motive to kill her husband and cash his life insurance policies.
