Kouri Richins, a Utah mother of three boys, is accused of fatally poisoning her husband, Eric Richins, in 2022. She is on trial in Summit County, Utah, on charges of aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, insurance fraud and forgery.
Today is the fourth day of the trial. It is scheduled to begin each day at 8:30 a.m. East Idaho News will be posting live written updates all day. Please excuse typos. You can watch the livestream here. The most recent updates are at the top of this page.
11:32 a.m. Before break, judge says to gallery, “If ANY of you see a juror out in the wild, I need you to turn around and walk away. I cannot emphasize this more clearly.”
11:25 a.m. Jury dismissed for lunch until 12:30 p.m. Prosecutor Brad Bloodworth asks to make a record that defense counsel is making hypotheticals with certain witnesses. Bloodworth says for a “fact” witness, a hypothetical has to involve admissible evidence. Judge asks prosecution to object in the future if this issue comes up. Judge also asks for a “one horse, one rider” policy at sidebars where only one attorney from each side comes up, rather than multiple attorneys. We are in recess until 12:30 p.m.
11:23 a.m. Next witness is ready, but prosecution suggests possibly taking lunch now to now split up direct questioning. Judge asks attorneys to approach.
11:20 a.m. Sidebar with the witness is done. Jury is being invited back into courtroom. Nester asks how he would test an empty pill bottle. Holden says there was no pill bottle to test. No further questions from either side.
11:14 a.m. Holden needs to look at his notes to answer Nester’s next questions. Jury is dismissed while Burmester and Nester review the witness’s notes and ask him questions about them.
11:12 a.m. Holden tested 19 items. He’s asked if he ever tested a pill bottle. Prosecution objects. Sidebar. Nester asks the process of how Holden would test an empty bottle.
11:09 a.m. Nester pulls up a report for Holden to review. She asks the name of the officer who got the items to Holden. It was Jamie Woody. The person who delivered the items to Holden was Chelsea Gipson. Nester asks Holden if he ran tests on any of the pills or items to see if they contained oxycodone. He has never been asked to test for oxycodone or hydrocodone.
11:06 a.m. Holden was only looking for fentanyl. He was not able to confirm any fentanyl on anything he tested. Burmester has nothing further. Defense attorney Kathryn Nester will question Holden.
11:04 a.m. Next witness is Bryan Holden with the Utah Bureau of Forensic Services in the Utah State Crime Lab. He is being questioned by prosecutor Fred Burmester. Holden was given a large number of items to test and was asked to look for fentanyl in all of the items submitted to the lab.
10:56 a.m. After the information is pulled off, it was given back to the Summit County Sheriff’s Office. Eng-Tow is certified with Cellebrite. Ramos has no further questions. Chervenak has one follow-up. She asks if, once the data is downloaded, can it be manipulated. He explains that the process can not. Nothing further. Witness excused.
10:52 a.m. Prosecutor Lindsay Chervenak is questioning Eng-Tow. She asks him about the cell phones Eng-Tow downloaded – two iPhones and he was given the passcodes to each phone from the Summit County Sheriff’s Office. Chervenak has no further questions. Defense attorney Alex Ramos asks Eng-Tow to walk the jury through the process of downloading the phone. Eng-Tow says you put in the passcode, unlock the phone, connect it to Graykey (a little computer) and the data is then downloaded. It’s not readable and not accessible. You need forensic software to download it. You then use Cellebrite, which takes the extraction and parses the data into various types of files – photos, messages, etc.
10:51 a.m. Eng-Tow knows how to use Cellebrite, a program that pulls data from cell phones. He performed downloads on two iPhones in connection with this case. Eng-Tow is employed by the Department of Public Safety Bureau of Forensic Services.
10:47 a.m. Next witness is Cheney Eng-Tow. He is a digital laboratory technician. I did a story with Eng-Tow about his job a few years ago.
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother of three boys, is accused of fatally poisoning her husband, Eric Richins, in 2022. She is on trial in Summit County, Utah, on charges of aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, insurance fraud and forgery. Today is the fourth day of the trial. It is scheduled...
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Gee, I wonder why? Duh because those items weren't really in his system and didn't kill him.
