Corey Richens was convicted of the murder of her husband, Eric Richens. She was found guilty on all counts including aggravated murder, conspiracy to commit murder and attempted murder. She was also found guilty of fraudulently claiming insurance benefits after her husband's death.
00:01:00.480Corey Richens poisoned her husband and then wrote a children's book about grief that became wildly popular before police zeroed in on her as a suspect.
00:01:07.760Fox 31st, Talia Cunningham's been following the verdict that came down just a few hours ago. Talia.
00:01:11.920Well, Jeremy, Christine, those guilty verdicts handed down by a unanimous jury just this evening after deliberating for less than three hours.
00:01:19.160As you can see here, Corey Richens didn't show much emotion after the most serious charge.
00:01:24.060Aggravated murder was read aloud. She took a deep couple breaths, bowed her head, and that was about it.
00:01:29.040Eric Richens died back in March of 2022. He was found unresponsive at his home near City Park City, I should say.
00:01:36.400Thank you for the super chat, Phil Wood. I appreciate it.
00:01:39.740Prosecutors argued that his wife, Corey Richens, slipped five times the lethal dose of fentanyl into his cocktail, killing him.
00:01:47.300They also argued that Richens was $4.5 million in debt and thought if she killed her husband, she would inherit his estate that's worth more than $4 million.
00:01:55.540Adding Richens was having an affair and planning a new future with her new man.1.00
00:01:59.100The 35-year-old mother was found guilty of fraudulently claiming insurance benefits after her husband's death, and it doesn't stop there.
00:02:06.480Richens was also guilty of attempted murder in another alleged effort to poison her husband.
00:02:11.380According to court documents, on Valentine's Day, shortly before he was murdered, Richens gave her husband a sandwich that was laced with fentanyl, which made him break out in hives and black out.
00:02:20.860Body cam video was played after Richens called 911 and police arrived at the house.
00:02:34.920It was cold in there, so I put the blanket on him.
00:02:39.420After her husband's death, Corey Richens self-published a children's book about grief to help her sons and other kids cope with the loss of a parent.
00:02:46.500it is called are you with me and it's about a father with angel wings watching over his young
00:02:51.540son after passing away you can see here she appeared on local tv and radio stations promoting
00:02:56.220your book but does maintain her innocence now these are some of the online searches that were
00:03:00.680presented in court that include you can see the top and caps oh my god women are like we are just1.00
00:03:06.980the dumbest serious you know if women serial kill you know um if women serial kill we're just going0.98
00:03:13.980do it in the dumbest way possible can cops uncover deleted messages can deleted messages be retrieved0.99
00:03:20.460from an iphone that's so embarrassing one can cops uncover deleted messages iphone and how to0.92
00:03:26.140completely wipe an iphone clear remotely riches did not take the stand in her own murder trial1.00
00:03:31.100and a sentencing date has not been announced but the max for aggravated murder the highest charge
00:03:35.580alone 25 years in studio ty cunningham fox 31. all right let's keep going all right there's an
00:03:42.620article written about this a mom wrote a kid's book on grief she was just convicted of her
00:03:47.820husband's murder a year after her husband's sudden death in 2022 utah mom of three corey richens
00:03:55.100self-published a children's book about coping with grief called are you with me in promotional
00:04:01.660interviews with local media richen said she had written the book with her kids the oldest of whom
00:04:06.140was 10 and she told npr member station kpcw in april of 2023 that the process brought little
00:04:12.620peace to me and my boys it was a good distraction from the last year and going through the first
00:04:17.900holidays with my husband his birthday like her anniversary all these things and it gives us
00:04:22.700something to work towards weeks later richens was charged with killing her husband eric and on
00:04:28.940monday a jury in summit county utah convicted her of his murder prosecutors alleged that corey
00:04:35.420rich and spike eric richard's cocktail with fentanyl in march 2022 and several earlier
00:04:42.380attempts because she was millions of dollars in debt and believed she would inherit his estates0.99
00:04:47.260she did not know that eric had quietly cut her out of his will years earlier after discovering
00:04:51.580that some of the debt had been racked up in his name oh my god prosecutors also said she had taken0.99
00:04:58.140out multiple life insurance policies on her husband while having the affair she wanted to0.91
00:05:03.020leave eric richens but she did not want to leave his money summit count county chief prosecutor
00:05:08.780brad bloodworth said in his closing argument on monday corey richens had denied wrongdoing
00:05:14.380and pleaded not guilty to five charges against her in this case she declined to testify during
00:05:20.620the trial which lasted three weeks and featured testimony from 40 witnesses her defense attorney
00:05:26.620wendy lewis and eric had lyme disease and was addicted to painkillers and called the investigation
00:05:32.700into his death nothing but sloppy and driven by bias yeah because the yeah the justice system is
00:05:39.260it's biased against women shut the okay after three hours of deliberation the jury found
00:05:45.880riches aggregate riches guilty of aggregated murder aggregated murder punishable by 25 years
00:05:53.020to life in prison and the other four and four other charges which include forgery and fraud
00:05:58.480related to the opening of $2 million in life insurance policies for Eric without his knowledge.
00:06:04.160She bowed her head as the verdict was read. Richens is scheduled to return to court for
00:06:09.400sentencing May 13th, which would have been Eric's 44th birthday. That may not spell the end of
00:06:15.400Richens' legal troubles. She is facing 26 other felony charges of alleged financial wrongdoing
00:06:21.300in the years leading up to Eric's murder, including mortgage fraud, money laundering,
00:06:25.800and issuing bad checks in a separate case that prosecutors filed last year she's also litigating
00:06:31.600property issues with eric's family and civil court corey richens called 9-1-1 after 3 a.m and on
00:06:38.480march 4th 2022 to report that she had found her husband eric unresponsive according to prosecutors
00:06:44.660legal brief responders declared him dead at the scene their home in camas a mountain town about
00:06:52.04040 miles southeast of Salt Lake City. The medical examiner found five times the lethal level of
00:06:59.280fentanyl in Eric's blood and ruled his death and overdose. The medical examiner also determined
00:07:04.940that the drug was illicit and ingested orally. The only people home at the time were Richens
00:07:10.700and their three other kids. According to her arrest warrant, Corey told investigators that
00:07:15.160she had made Eric a Moscow mule the previous night to celebrate closing on a property for
00:07:20.400her house flipping business. She said he drank the cocktail in bed and she went to sleep with
00:07:24.740one of their kids who was having a nightmare only to return a few hours later to find her husband
00:07:28.720cold to touch in bed. Law enforcement said they found holes in her story. For example, she told
00:07:33.800them she had left her phone charging in the room while she went to comfort her son, but phone data
00:07:38.300showed it had been opened and messages sent and deleted during that time. The prompt search of
00:07:43.480the Richens' home and eventual seizure of Corey's electrical devices included a second iPhone
00:07:50.060found in her bedside drawer. Prosecutors said it contained a slew of incriminating online searches,
00:07:55.620including what's a lethal dose of fentanyl? Can cops uncover deleted messages? Women in Utah1.00
00:08:02.880prison, if someone is poisoned, what does it go down on the death certificate as? Death certificate
00:08:09.500saying, says pending, will life insurance still pay and luxury prisons for the rich in America?
00:08:15.160oh my gosh okay cory's other phone revealed a series of messages in which she asked someone
00:08:21.140identified as cl for help and obtaining prescription pain medication for what she said
00:08:27.040for an investor who has a back injury cl is the family's occasional housekeeper cameron luber who
00:08:32.980testified at trial under immunity for her cooperation that she had provided illicit drugs
00:08:38.740to Corey on four occasions between December 2021 and March 2022. The third time in early February
00:08:45.1602022, prosecutor says Corey asked specifically for fentanyl. She said that her investor wanted
00:08:52.400something stronger and asked for some of the Michael Jackson stuff. The singer's 2009 death
00:09:01.700was officially attributed to the legal and the legal aesthetic pro pro pro poful i don't know
00:09:11.360to say that um cory richens was a suburban mom real estate agent she does not know a lot about
00:09:16.980the illicit street drug world but she does know michael jackson died from taking illicit drugs
00:09:21.480bloodworth the prosecutor said in court she knows she wants it because it was lethal it's fatal it
00:09:26.660kills multiple court filings eric got sick after eating a sandwich that cory had left him alongside
00:09:32.680a love note days after valentine's day oh that's so oh my god do you know what at least when men1.00
00:09:40.020kill like they just get right to it they just take her and you know rape her and just kill her women1.00
00:09:45.300she oh she gave you death with a love note uh saying he broke out in hives and had trouble1.00
00:09:51.480breathing immediately he self-administered his son's epi pen and slept it off but later told
00:09:56.260a friend that he thought his wife was trying to poison him. Corey asked labor for more fentanyl
00:10:00.600pills about two weeks after that. Prosecutors say and picked them up from the drop-off location on
00:10:06.100February 6th. Eric died six days later. Prosecutors painted Corey as an intensely ambitious but
00:10:13.620incompetent business owner who projected affluence even though she fell deeper and deeper into debt.
00:10:19.560Corey was Eric's second wife when when the two were married in 2013 they signed a prenup
00:10:23.800establishing that they did not have the rights to each other's properties. And with one exception,
00:10:28.060if Eric died while the two were lawfully married, their prenup meant that if she left him, she would
00:10:33.520also have to leave most of the money. So Corey Richens took a quarter of a million dollars in
00:10:37.540equity out on Eric Richens' home without him knowing it so that she could start her own
00:10:41.760business and earn money to leave Eric Richens. Corey started a small business flipping houses
00:10:47.020in 2019, buying more and more of them amid mounting debt. That same year, prosecutors said
00:10:53.000she used the power of attorney to execute a $250,000 home equity line of credit on their0.99
00:10:59.140family home. Unbeknownst to Eric, even though it was his premarital property, she also began
00:11:04.780misappropriating monies distributed from Eric Richen's business that were intended for his
00:11:09.940quarterly tax payments. Yeah. Doug MPA, it's better to have loved and lost. And I'm actually
00:11:15.520kind of neutral, but we were having a convo the other day if it was better to have loved and lost
00:11:20.820or to never have loved it all i don't know some of these owls bruh this dude lost his life that's
00:11:26.460bruh this came to eric's attention in september of 2020 by which cory had charged more than 30
00:11:31.400000 on his credit card and withdrawn at least a hundred thousand dollars from his bank accounts
00:11:36.080when confronted she promised to repay him in the meantime eric quietly consulted both a divorce
00:11:41.760lawyer and an estate planning lawyer changing his will in 2020 to place his estate under the control
00:11:47.160of his sister for the benefit of the kids. Prosecutors said by the end of 2021, Corey's
00:11:51.880business bank account was overdrawn by $22,520 and she was paying thousands of dollars daily
00:11:58.340to service her debt. You know, it's crazy. She married rich. She didn't have to do all this.
00:12:02.280Why are you doing all this business stuff? She had seven phone calls with a money lender on the
00:12:07.820day of Eric's death, by which point Bloodworth said that her net worth was negative 1.6 million,
00:12:13.760but she named as the beneficiary on multiple life insurance policies belonging to Eric.
00:12:19.500According to prosecutors at the time of Eric's death, he was insured by at least six different
00:12:23.620policies. At least four of those totaling 1.9 million were unbeknownst to him purchased by
00:12:28.740Corey between 2015 and 2017. She also made herself a beneficiary of another policy held
00:12:34.340jointly with Eric and his business partner just months before his death, though he changed it
00:12:38.920once his insurance company alerted him. Corey found out that she'd been removed from Eric's
00:12:43.380estate plan days after his death court follow filings said she learned from his sister who then
00:12:49.220who she then punched in the neck in the face oh my god0.99