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.
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 just
00:03:06.980the dumbest serious you know if women serial kill you know um if women serial kill we're just going
00:03:13.980do it in the dumbest way possible can cops uncover deleted messages can deleted messages be retrieved
00:03:20.460from an iphone that's so embarrassing one can cops uncover deleted messages iphone and how to
00:03:26.140completely wipe an iphone clear remotely riches did not take the stand in her own murder trial
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 estates
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 taken
00:04:58.140out multiple life insurance policies on her husband while having the affair she wanted to
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 Utah
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 men
00:09:40.020kill like they just get right to it they just take her and you know rape her and just kill her women
00:09:45.300she oh she gave you death with a love note uh saying he broke out in hives and had trouble
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 their
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 god