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"She Didn't Do This": Kouri Richins' Brother Claims She's Innocent in the Death of Her Husband
"We know Kouri's innocent, and all that's going to come out in court. And I think that's going to shock people," Richins’ brother DJ told Good Morning America.
Kouri Richins’ brother DJ is speaking out to say that he believes his sister is innocent after she was accused of fatally poisoning her husband before writing a children’s book about grief.
"We know Kouri's innocent, and all that's going to come out in court. And I think that's going to shock people," DJ told ABC News’ Good Morning America.
Richins, 33, was arrested in May on a series of charges, including first-degree aggravated murder, in connection with the sudden death of her husband, 39-year-old Eric Richins.
"When I got the news that Eric had died, I broke down into tears," DJ said. "He was a good guy."
"But it's my sister, I knew Eric, she didn't do this," he added.
Eric was pronounced dead on March 4, 2022, when emergency service workers found him unresponsive at the foot of the couple's bed at their home in Kamas, Utah. Prosecutors have accused Richins of giving her husband a Moscow Mule containing five times the lethal dose of fentanyl the night before, allegedly trying to make his death seem like an accident.
Earlier this month, prosecutors accused the Utah mom of witness tampering based on the contents of a six-page letter found in her Summit County Jail cell, which has since been filed into evidence.
The letter, obtained by People, was allegedly addressed to Richins’ mother, Lisa Darden, directing her brother, Ronald Darden, to falsely testify that Richins late husband obtained drugs from Mexico before his death.
Richins’ defense team filed a motion stating that the State of Utah violated a gag order by filing the letter.
In a jailhouse call with her mother on September 16 — the day after the state filed its motion regarding the letter — Richins claimed that the note was not intended for her mom, but was actually a part of “this fictional mystery book" that she has been writing.
“Those papers were not a letter to you guys, they were a part of a freaking book,” Richins allegedly said during the call.
Richins wrote a children’s book dealing with the grief that comes after losing a loved one, which was published a year after Eric’s death.
In his interview with Good Morning America, DJ described his sister as a “great” mom to the three children she shared with her late husband. He claimed that, before Eric died, he believed his sister and her husband were “in the best place they’ve ever been.”
DJ also accused prison authorities of giving Richins the wrong medicine so they could search her jail cell when she was not in it. He said authorities gave her the wrong meds six times. "One time is an accident. Two times is incompetence," DJ told ABC News. "Six times is — looks like it's on purpose."
Her lawyer added that the letter was marked "attorney-client privilege" and should not have been opened.
