Christina Miller has been a divorce lawyer for 30 years. Her office is in Park City, Utah, and she testified today as a prosecution witness in the murder case against Kouri Richins, who's accused of poisoning her husband with fentanyl in 2022.
01:47 "I'm a bit unusual as divorce attorneys go. ... We determined pretty early on in our practice that there was a lot of information we needed to receive from clients in order to get a case going."
03:43 "my process, I think, is pretty unusual, because I try and get as much information as the client knows or can give me, and I give them back as much information as I can."
04:19 "How many people actually, in your experience, proceed from that meeting to filing a divorce?" "Based upon my 30 years, almost every one of them, there are a handful that don't, but the process of emotionally, psychologically, finally calling a divorce attorney and then the process of showing up for a meeting is significant for most people."
05:27 "What are some of the reasons that those people give, or that you experience that they don't move forward with a divorce?" "It's pretty specific to each individual client who's not moving forward, but the top reasons are they're concerned about kids, the impact of divorce on kids.
They're concerned about the age of their kids and being too young to be able to speak up about what's happening in in both households, they some people are concerned about their religion and what it means for them from a religious standpoint. Some people have stayed together for for quite some time because of health reasons."
08:21 "I want to turn your attention to Eric Richins. Did you know him?" "I knew him in the sense that I met with him."
09:02 "I believe he contacted the office early October 2020, and ultimately met with him, October 23, 2020."
09:38 "Yes, he left the packet at my office. He didn't take it with him. We have a bound binder, for lack of a better word, that people take this packet of information home with them and read it. Eric did not."
11:10 "He was there to find out what it would look like in terms of going forward with the divorce."
12:34 "During your meeting with Eric, did you give him legal advice about custody?" "I did."
12:44 "What was the presumption when someone was contemplating divorce, about how custody arrangements would work at that time?" "Well, let me start with when I first started practicing way, way back when it was the old Ward and June Cleaver thing with regard to custody, somebody had most of the time, and the other person had weekends."
15:05 "And so you explained that that potential situation to Eric Richins right off?" "Yes." "And without saying if he had a verbal reaction, could you tell how he reacted?" "Yes, we had, we had no further discussion about custody..."
15:55 "Did you do that with Eric Richins?" "No, I didn't." "Was that unusual?" "It is unusual."
18:29 "And Eric walked out of this meeting with a to do list from you?" "He did not want to take it. ... He wanted me to correspond through his brother in law, Clint."
20:29 "So Eric went through this initial meeting with you. Did he ever file for divorce with you?" "He didn't."
Background:
Kouri Richins, 35, is accused of fatally poisoning her husband, Eric Richins, with fentanyl at their home in Kamas, Utah, in March 2022. After he died, she self-published a children's book she authored titled "Are You With Me?" about coping with grief.
Eric Richins, 39, was found dead in their home on March 4, 2022.
Prosecutors allege Kouri dropped a lethal dose of fentanyl in a Moscow Mule cocktail she prepared for him. They say she was motivated by money because she owed nearly $5 million to lenders and had changed her husband's life insurance policies prior to his death while also taking out a home equity line of credit without his knowledge. She also was in a romantic relationship with another man.
Her defense is that her husband died of a self-inflcited overdose and his family pressured police to implicate her.
Prosecutors allege she previously tried to murder him by poisoning his sandwich on Valentine's Day 2022, which her husband told a friend about.
Richins' criminal charges in Summit County, Utah, include aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, forgery and insurance fraud.
Her trial is scheduled to last five weeks. Judge Richard Mrazik in Utah's 3rd District Court is presiding at the Silver Summit Justice Center near Park City.
