Children's grief book author sentenced to life after murdering husband

Park City, Utah - A woman who made headlines by writing a children's book about grief after poisoning her husband was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole Wednesday.

Author Kouri Richins has been sentenced to life in prison over the murder of her husband.   © POOL / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP

Kouri Richins was found guilty of murder in March, and Judge Richard Mrazik ruled the mother of three is "too dangerous to ever be free," the Salt Lake City Tribune reported.

Prosecutors said Richins killed her husband, Eric Richins, in 2022 by serving him a cocktail laced with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl – allowing her to inherit $4 million and get another $2 million from life insurance policies she secretly took out on him.

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She had tried to lace his sandwich with the same powerful synthetic opioid a few weeks earlier, making him severely ill.

She said her children's book, titled Are You with Me? was penned after her husband's death, to help her three sons cope.

Kouri Richins (36) maintained her innocence throughout the proceedings.

"I'm broken, broken without your dad, broken without you boys," she said in court Wednesday, the Tribune reported.

She also acknowledged infidelity in their marriage.

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Kouri Richins convicted of murdering her husband

"Secrets diminish self-respect," she said, according to the Tribune. "I fell in love with someone who wasn't your dad. Your dad fell in love with someone who wasn't me."

In statements read by therapists in court, one of her sons said "I will not feel safe if you are out," the newspaper reported, and another child said she was "always drunk" and he did not miss her.

"I miss my dad, but I do not miss how my life used to be," the child's statement said.