Trent Nelson/Pool/The Salt Lake Tribune/AP

Before a judge sentenced Kouri Richins for fatally poisoning her husband, the couple’s three young sons made their feelings clear.

They urged Judge Richard Mrazik to sentence their mother – who two of them referred to as “Kouri” – to life in prison, saying they would fear for their safety if she were ever released.

“I don’t want you out of jail because I will not feel safe if you are out,” the middle child, identified as A.R., wrote in a statement read aloud in court Wednesday. “You have never said sorry for anything that you have done to me and my brothers. I don’t want you to hurt anyone again.”

The youngest son, W.R., said he wanted her to go to jail “forever.”

“If she got out, I would be so scared, really mad, and I wouldn’t want to go with her anywhere,” he wrote.

After listening to statements from the couple’s children and loved ones of Kouri Richins and the victim, Eric Richins, Mrazik ultimately sentenced the mother of three to life in prison without parole – the most severe sentence she faced.

Richins’ defense attorneys told the court they plan on appealing the sentence and filing a motion for a new trial.

Earlier this year, an eight-person jury convicted Kouri Richins, 36, of aggravated murder for fatally poisoning Eric in March 2022.

At trial, witnesses testified about troubles in the couple’s marriage, her yearslong affair and her spiraling debt – all reasons prosecutors say she killed him. Kouri Richins was also found guilty of attempted murder for trying to kill him weeks earlier, on Valentine’s Day, as well as insurance fraud and forgery related to his life insurance coverage.

“A person convicted of those things is simply too dangerous to ever be free,” the judge said during the sentencing.

The sons have their say

Before Mrazik handed down the sentence, three therapists read the children’s victim impact statements, explaining the boys each decided how their remarks would be shared with the court.

“Our roles are to read their words exactly as they wrote,” one of the therapists, Jessica Black, explained. “The boys want the court and the world to hear their side.”

The kids were all younger than 10 years old when their father was found dead in their Utah family home with roughly five times a lethal dose of fentanyl in his system.

Their mother, Kouri Richins, published a children’s book on grief about a year after his death, saying she wrote it to help their sons cope with their loss. She was arrested shortly after the book’s publication.

“You took away my dad for no reason other than greed, and you only cared about yourself and your stupid boyfriends,” A.R. wrote in his statement. “You were not caring and watching over me and my brothers.”

The two oldest children said they felt like had to take care of each other, with one describing how they would walk the youngest sibling to the bus stop and feed him. The oldest son, identified as C.R., said his mother was “always drunk or gone,” and would frequently lock him in his room.

“Kouri would lock me up if I told her she was drunk,” he wrote. “This happened pretty much daily.”

C.R. and A.R. both lamented that their animals weren’t taken care of properly, saying some of them ended up dying.

“You wouldn’t let me put my kitten in the garage for safety at night and we found it eaten by raccoons the next day,” A.R. wrote. “You wouldn’t let us turn on and use the heater lamp for the chickens and bunnies and they froze to death.”

The youngest child, who was in preschool when his father died, said he feels “hateful and ashamed” when people mention his mother.

“She took away my dad,” W.R. wrote. “It’s made me have a hard time trusting people.”

The boys – who are currently being raised by their paternal aunt and uncle – said they feel happier and safer with Kouri Richins behind bars.

“I miss my dad, but I do not miss how my life used to be,” the oldest son wrote. “I don’t miss Kouri, I will tell you that.”

A spokesperson for Richins’ defense team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Defendant addresses her kids

The kids’ statements stand in stark contrast to that of Kouri Richins’ mother, sister and sister-in-law, who all described her as a devoted mother who loved her children immensely.

“I don’t minimize what Kouri’s boys are saying today. I understand it’s contradictory to what other people are saying regarding Kouri as a mother,” defense attorney Wendy Lewis said at the sentencing hearing. “I don’t know why they’re saying these things, but what they think and feel today – they’re allowed to think and feel those things.”

In a lengthy statement addressed to her sons, Kouri Richins repeatedly told them how much she loved them and said they had a right to feel confused and sad about their father’s death.

“As much as you’ve been influenced into thinking that dad was murdered, that I took your dad from you, that is completely wrong. An absolute lie,” Richins said in court Wednesday. “And the thought of that is still as absurd today as it was four years ago.”

In her statement, Richins acknowledged the boys might not believe her.

“I still and will always love you, and I’m asking that you please just don’t give up on me,” she said. “I’m coming home. Not today, not this year, but we’re going to make this right.”

Lewis argued the judge should impose a lesser sentence with the possibility of parole in case the children change their minds and later decide they want a relationship with their mother.

“Don’t allow their statements at age 9, 12 and 13 to become another tragedy, another trauma that they may end up suffering as adults,” she said.

Mrazik ruminated on the potential impacts different sentences would have on the couple’s young sons before he sentenced Kouri Richins to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

“Sitting here today, it is simply not possible for anyone, even those young men, to know how their view of this case may evolve over the next several decades,” he said. “My hope is that every person affected by Eric Richins’ death will, over time, find their way to a state of peace.”