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About this Episode
The shocking story of Utah mom Kouri Richins, accused of poisoning her husband and then writing a children's book about grief. The verdict is in. Her closest friend and a jury foreperson speak out.
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Hosts & Guests
Transcript
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No matter if it's apparent as sibling or friend, talking about loss with kids can be a tricky
subject.
Joining us now is author of Are You With Me, Cory Richens, and Cory I want to start
with your story.
What happened in your personal life?
So my husband passed away unexpectedly last year.
He was 39.
It completely took us all by shock.
We have three little boys, 10, 9, and 6.
And it's only been a year.
How did you pull from processing death to I need to write a book and help others?
You know, I just watched the struggle that my kids were going through and trying to find
something that we could use to cope at nights.
So the hardest, it seems like for everybody when, you know, dealing with anything.
But I just wanted some story to read to my kids at night.
I was reading in it and I remember I just was in tears and I thought like this is perfect
for a family.
It just seemed perfect.
And so I just baffled it how she even had the time to do that.
And it's, you know, explaining to my kids just because he's not present here with us.
That doesn't mean his presence isn't here with us.
And he's doing these things with us.
Viewers at home, what they saw in that interview was this bereaved young woman who tragically
lost her husband.
Like Dad is still here.
It's just in a different way.
But this would be just the beginning of the story and boy was there a lot more coming
their way.
Yeah, we're clear.
And I could drive everyone.
Let's get ready for headlines.
Okay, tell me exactly what happened.
I don't know what's going on.
It's a little after three in the morning and Corey Richards calls 911 saying her husband
Eric is not breathing and is cold to the touch.
Okay, we're going to say can you do CPR?
You don't know.
I'm going to tell you how to are you willing to do CPR?
Yeah.
Okay.
One, two, three, four.
One, two, three, four.
Count on it.
I can hear you.
I'm counting with you.
One, one, two, three, four.
The first is a dispatch of the scene, paramedics and firefighters are already there when
they arrive.
In those first few moments of the police body-worn camera, you are watching this life or death
moment unfold, law enforcement is trying to make sense of it all.
Inside the bedroom, you can see law enforcement trying to help Eric Richards.
He is on his back on the ground.
He is no pulse.
He's not breathing.
And they're using a CPR machine so you can hear the sort of rhythmic sound.
Okay.
What's your first name?
Let me talk to you.
Let me talk to you.
Let them do their work in there.
What happened today?
You were just fine.
You were fine.
You were fine.
When you say we were fine, what time did you see him when he was there?
We had a dream together at night to celebrate something at work.
Hours earlier, they were celebrating a big financial win for her real estate business.
She mentions that had a cocktail before bad.
She mentions that her son has night terrors and that she'd been asleep with him.
But I slept with my kid, so I was like, wake up and I go back to my own bed.
Where are your children now?
Just sleep.
Get that room to her awake with their air to the door.
And go out and sleep.
Don't come out.
Okay.
At one point, the officer asked if she would like to call anybody and she mentioned she wants to call her mom.
Here, you can use my phone.
I got a call.
It was Corey.
He said, mom, you need to come up here.
Something's on the air.
It's the police.
I'm going to hear it.
I don't know what's happening.
I said, something's happened.
She said, Eric.
Does he have any medical conditions or anything like that?
We have lines disease.
Lines disease.
But nothing major.
So they're asking questions like, does he have any, you know, health ailments?
So no heart problems or anything like that?
No.
So while she's talking to the officer, she says that sometimes he takes a gummy to sleep.
But she also tells him she's not sure whether he took one that night.
It's like your gummy isn't like a THC gummy?
Okay.
Does he have any history of illicit drug use or anything?
No.
Never.
As I pull in the driveway, three cops come running at me, asking who I am.
They went running through the house to get to Corey.
And it was just devastating.
She was in total shock.
I had no idea not only as a mother what to do for her,
but as a person, how to help a person in shock.
I went and talked to the boys and they're just confused.
They're not crying because they don't know what's going on.
They just know a lot of cops are there.
Corey Richens' mother, Lisa Darden, says that he got weekly allergy shots.
And maybe that has something to do with his medical condition.
He didn't look at last night.
He looked pale last night.
And he just asked if you were okay.
Yeah, but he was saying there's a chance for us already.
I had seen him that day and I said, oh my God, what is wrong with you?
You look horrible.
For a moment, the deputy walks away from Corey Richens
and you can see a conversation between him, another officer and an ENT.
I don't even know when we get an ENT or something about the blood.
That's like, there's a lot of blood.
It's like no reason.
A little bit coming out as soon as we start to compress the blood.
Okay.
All right.
I don't know.
The amount of blood was sort of surprising to the paramedic.
And this leads to the initial hypothesis of an aneurysm.
As an actor, we didn't just die and it's sleep.
This is insane.
Eric was very athletic.
You would never expect an aneurysm.
But that's what they're telling us.
They don't know.
They're saying an aneurysm.
You just can't believe he's gone.
In the Body Camp footage, we actually hear Eric's sister Katie before you see her.
No!
No!
What happened?
We don't know.
She's moaning and she's screaming out.
And it's a raw, guttural pain that you hear when you've just learned that someone you love has died.
In the video, you see Katie take Korean, Eric's young boys upstairs and away from the turmoil.
But at one point, Katie even can hardly breathe.
It's natural, okay.
Take a deep breath.
Take a deep breath.
Okay, I got a breathe.
I got a breathe.
Oh my god, I got a breathe.
I just talked to him.
I can't come to aneurysm.
At 3.58 a.m., Eric Richens is officially declared dead.
It's also noted that he appears to have been dead for quite some time before they arrived at the residence.
The next thing is our detective in our medical exam.
We're going to respond to the location.
They're going to do their investigation and document everything.
And then most likely because of his age and his health and everything else, most likely.
The county corners office has an obligation, a legal requirement, really, to investigate forensically any unexpected death.
Whenever you have a young man like this who dies mysteriously, you can bet they're going to do an autopsy.
This is the night of a tragic end with the beginning of a mystery that will take years to unravel.
The night that Eric died.
Cory says that they were celebrating.
They were celebrating what was going to be her most ambitious purchase yet for her real estate business.
A distressed mansion in Midway, Utah that she hoped to buy for millions, lip it and sell it for millions more.
She was so excited about it and the possibilities for it.
This was a very big moment for Cory Richens.
Cory grew up working for her aunt's cleaning company, cleaning the toilets of the rich people who lived in mansions in Park City.
Cory would dream that one day she would be the one that owned the mansions and not the one cleaning the toilets.
This was Cory's moment to say, look, I did it.
I made something of myself and now I'm on the other side.
Cory grew up in a family that moved a lot.
My parents worked construction so we would move every two, three months growing up.
We weren't poor by any stretch but we weren't wealthy by any stretch either.
My parents did what they had to do to get by.
When she got to junior high, her family really made a home in Heber City, Utah.
It's also part of Summit County. It's a beautiful mountain town and there she finds a really close group of girlfriends.
We just had a really good core group of friends and I mean the text we'd get every weekend was, hey, where's the party at?
We also played sports and then we were in the same classes together and we just kind of evolved from there.
She's on the cheer team. In high school she's playing tennis and she seems to have really found a home and belonging.
She was a tough cookie.
If anybody said anything wrong about us, you could kind of always count on Cory to handle it.
Cory and Eric met when Cory was working at a home depot.
Home depot paid the best. It was brand new, it was in Park City and it paid really well for cashiers.
He was coming into the home depot a lot because it was still a masonry business and they headed off and started talking.
And people remember, you know, sparks flying and instant chemistry.
It was significantly older than her.
She just thought the world of Eric. Eric was it.
Eric grew up in Bountiful, Utah.
Went to high school, it would cross.
The Richens owned a cattle ranch in Summit County.
Then he grew up working on this ranch. His sisters rode horses, they had animals, they were outdoorsmen.
Eric was one of three children with two sisters, Amy and Katie.
And he was very close to his mother who had died in 2018.
Eric grew up a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormon Church.
His dad shares that it was one of the most important things that they wanted to instill in their children was faith and religion.
So much so that Eric went on a two-year mission for the Church to Mexico City and then came back and started his stone masonry business.
Eric was a very dynamic individual.
He worked hard, but he also played hard.
He had ATVs, he camped, he explored.
Eric was a big time hunter, go to Africa, big trophy hunting stuff.
They began dating, Cory became pregnant with their first child, and they married soon after.
The marriage is a backyard ceremony. Family and friends gather, Cory is about to walk down the aisle.
And Eric's mother present her with a supreme op.
And the supreme op says that his stone masonry business belongs to him, and the only way that she would benefit from that business would be if he were to die while they were married.
Cory was pretty distraught over it, but ultimately she signed it. She loved Eric, she wouldn't marry Eric, so she went along to get along, I guess.
I don't think it's a secret that Eric's family, or at least parts of Eric's family, didn't approve of Cory.
It was a rough start at the beginning, and once that got past, I mean they had a good wedding.
Cory and Eric ended up having three boys in four years.
She planned that, she was a planner, and that was her plan.
Cory was everything he'd probably want as a mom.
She loved her boys, her boys are her world, and when she wasn't working, she was with her kids.
From Boy Scout leader to soccer, you name it. She's involved in everything.
Eric really, he was a dedicated dad.
He was a soccer coach for the boys.
My last memory of Eric was me and their living room playing soccer with his son.
You know, and Eric was sitting in his chair like sitting back like this, giggling.
While his son kicked my ass and soccer, you know, and he was really proud of it.
Eric's business has become incredibly successful. It's a million dollar business, C and E Masonry.
And they have a very affluent life. They're taking trips together.
My first cruise is with them.
They would go out to fancy restaurants.
Yeah, they had money to spend.
At the beginning of all, Cory stayed home with the children.
But at some point, Cory wanted more.
And she started a real estate business.
In 2019, Cory starts Key Richens Realty, which is her home flipping business.
That first year, Cory buys and resells a property to a family that says they found their dream home.
As his homeowner's me and him and me and him and me.
We just bought a house!
Just two years later, Cory is managing 15 renovation projects.
Cory's making a very good living.
It's expanding quickly. She's buying a lot of properties.
And by all accounts, it is very successful.
This looks like the all-American perfect family.
A beautiful home, a beautiful family, beautiful children and two thriving businesses.
What's your first name?
Nobody ever thought Eric was going to die.
Of course, Eric Richens' dedicated father has provided for his children.
But this grieving widow is about to discover her future won't be quite what she thought.
Eric's sister Amy says this home isn't yours.
They're screaming back and forth.
I stepped in between the two of them.
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I learned the news about Eric passing on March 4th through phone call.
Why?
What happened?
What could have caused it?
It was surreal.
And just the day before, Corey says that she and Eric were toasting the purchase
of her dream property at $2.9 million dollar mansion.
And just hours later, Eric would be dead.
Eric has beloved in the community and many people calm and gather at the family home to sort of celebrate his life.
There are just constant people coming in and out of the house paying their condolences.
We are just, you know, reminiscing about Eric.
We're all just there to support Corey.
Keep the boys occupied.
Keep their minds sort of off of, you know, what happened.
We were literally talking about Eric the entire night and reason.
Dancing and listening to his favorite songs.
One of our friends is shotgunning a beer.
Richard.
Richard.
And it's not the way everybody else may.
It's celebrating, but that's how we did it.
Because that's what Eric would have done with us.
At one point, you know, they're playing music and Cody Johnson's
until you can't come on and this is Eric's favorite song.
I mean, it's an incredible song with a very obvious meaning.
Live until you can't, you know?
And to know that we just lost somebody so suddenly it put things in perspective.
Yeah, you're gonna just take it.
Corey's dancing with her three sons and Eric's sister Amy films the dance.
And that was this light that kind of projected around them
and she's like, I swear Eric's dancing with them right now.
Like she, it was special.
And it's this real moment of sort of solidarity between the two families.
But that solidarity appears to be short-lived.
The morning after that gathering, there is a dispute and argument between Corey and Eric's sister Amy.
Corey realizes that Eric's will isn't a safe.
She seemed a little adamant about getting that will.
And she was pretty positive that it was in the safe, but she had not the combination was.
Eric Richen's sister Amy is at the house and a locksmith shows up to access the safe.
You just hear like this blood-girtling scream as I ran out into the garage.
And Amy had seen a sign on a truck that said locksmith or something.
She flipped out and told Corey, you know, you're not supposed to be getting into the safe.
And Amy drops a bomb.
She tells Corey that Eric had secretly set up his trust and will and Corey was largely cut out.
They're screaming back and forth.
I stepped in between the two of them.
Eventually, the police showed up.
In the midst of all of this, Corey wants to fact check what's going on and they call the estate planner.
So the estate planner ends up confirming to Corey that right around 2020, Eric had created an estate.
And that his sister Katie was in charge of that and the executor.
He makes his sons the beneficiary of the trust. He puts the house in the trust.
And that's when those words of it's not your home came out and Corey's like,
it is my house. I've lived here for 10 years. You know, what are you talking about?
Amy told authorities that Corey punched her in the face and the neck.
Corey is then arrested and charged with assault.
She ends up pleading no contest, but she is found guilty of assault.
To think this is happening two days after Eric's death.
And then these two families have to see each other again at Eric's funeral.
The funeral itself, I think, went off very well.
But you could already see the animosity between the two families.
It's contentious.
Oh, the funeral was incredibly uncomfortable.
Corey stood in one and then her family has family stood in like another area.
Yeah, it was a very obvious divide immediately and they wouldn't talk to each other.
There really wasn't much reference to Corey.
There wasn't a lot of love going on.
Over the top lavish casket, it was like a horse and buggy.
It was grand. It was very country.
It was just the most uncomfortable funeral I've ever been at.
His 40th birthday was just a couple weeks after the funeral.
His clothes had already been taken down.
And she wasn't wearing a wedding ring and I thought that was a little odd.
I mean, it wasn't even a month.
As the months passed, Corey filed a civil lawsuit against Eric's sister Katie disputing the trust.
And Corey seems to continue to adjust a life as a single mother and a business woman.
Corey talks a lot about how important routine is to getting through the process of grief.
And so, you know, usually at nighttime this is when you read to your children
and she was saying that they looked for something to read.
They've been to answer some of these questions and she found nothing.
She said, I've looked everywhere and I can't find a book on grieving for children.
She said, I wonder if I could write one.
Corey Richens self-published a book called Are You With Me.
The first part of the book is actually written from the child's perspective,
the little boy who's wondering if his dad is with him.
Corey actually used a ghost writer in order to create this book.
Are you at my chocolate game when I scored that goal for you?
I looked for you in the crowd but you weren't there. Did you see it?
And then later on in the book, it switches to the deceased father's perspective
and he sort of starts saying, yes, I am with you.
I am with you when you scored that goal for me.
You couldn't hear me cheer for you, but I yelled and clapped as loud as I could, just like always.
Corey dedicates the book to my amazing husband and a wonderful father
and then there is a drawing of the family of five who see Corey and Eric together
with their three children and the dog.
I will forever love you, my sweet baby, until we see each other again.
Yes, I am with you.
In March 2023, Corey Richens goes on these local radio and TV stations talking about the book.
We got an email, wrote into the station.
It was Corey saying that she had just written what she believed to be was the first book for kids
about coping with grief and that she would love the chance to share that on good things Utah.
My kids and I kind of wrote this book on the different emotions and grieving processes
that we've experienced last year.
And to make sense and process, I'm sure.
Yes, exactly, exactly.
What a shock this must be for this poor woman.
My heart went out to her.
I'm new to all of this, so kind of doing all, you know, research and reading books and things to try and understand.
You know, not only how to grieve as a widow, as a wife, but also, you know, with my kids.
How to help them, how to help them understand what just happened.
But the big shock happened a couple of days later when we get an anonymous email.
And there's just one line.
And it's in all capital letters with many exclamation marks at the end.
And it says, you know she killed her husband.
Thank you, Corey.
Thank you.
While Corey is moved on with her life and is promoting her children's book about coping with grief, authorities have been digging into the circumstances surrounding Eric's death.
Were you first on the day?
We were second.
And there was blood, you were really good.
A little bit coming out as soon as we started compressions.
Originally it was one of the EMTs on scene who suggests that maybe Eric had an aneurysm.
And I think that made a lot of sense to the family on scene right then.
Because what else would it be that would make a healthy 39 year old man all the sudden stop breathing in the middle of the night?
So law enforcement says that there will be an autopsy.
They think it might have been an aneurysm, but they don't know.
For the people that knew Eric, the autopsy was absolutely shocking.
The initial autopsy report comes back.
And it's drug intoxication fentanyl as the cause of death.
Five times the anantefentanyl that could kill anyone.
Where did not do drugs?
Not to my understanding, you know, and Corey was saying the same thing.
So it was just baffling.
They also found that it was not medical grade fentanyl.
So this is nothing that was prescribed by a doctor.
This would have been, you know, drugs off the street.
The type of drugs that you would procure on a corner and don't necessarily know the origins of.
The autopsy report jump starts a criminal investigation because this is not a natural death.
This is either an accident or overdose or someone killed Eric.
Now police officers realize they have to find the origin of the drug.
Police get a search warrant to search the rich in's home for illegal drugs.
Investigators go in, they seize Corey's electronics, Eric's electronics,
and they search the house for anything that could possibly have traces of fentanyl.
But they don't find any fentanyl.
During this search, Corey has stopped by thenly detective Jamie Woody.
And at that moment, Corey says what everybody else is saying that Eric doesn't do drugs.
That she's shocked by the cause of death.
Corey Richens talks to the chief medical examiner and essentially has a bunch of questions
and she goes down a list of the various items that were found in the stomach contents.
The third one, the acetyl, acetyl, acetyl, acetyl, acetyl fentanyl.
That's just a variant of fentanyl that is usually only present in the setting of illicitly manufactured fentanyl.
Illicitly manufactured like a pharmacy?
No, no, no. I know that's manufactured by drug cartels as opposed to by pharmaceutical companies.
Oh, good lord.
It's pretty clear she's kind of reading from the report and asking individual questions about each part.
I was just trying to figure out, you know, if we found out anything new.
Definitely, you know, death from fentanyl intoxication.
And we still don't know how we got it into her.
Yeah, I mean, is that anything you could ever find out?
When the toxicology report comes back, Eric's family comes forward to law enforcement
and says, well, we have some concerns about the toxicology report. Eric didn't do drugs.
The Richens family was immediately suspicious that Corey had a role in Eric's death.
According to Eric's family, while it seemed like Corey and Eric were flying high,
when he died, it was a very different reality.
Eric discovered actually in 2020 that Corey had taken out a loan to help her business and did so without telling him.
Corey had taken out a $250,000 light of credit against the home, which Eric solely owned and had no idea about.
That made them all start to be very concerned with Corey's financial situation.
And that is actually what caused him to change the trust because he wanted to make sure his children were taking care of.
The family says that when Eric finds out, he visits a divorce attorney.
I think it's like, how can you deceive your spouse like that?
When you own a home, the idea that you're going to take out a line of credit that they're never going to realize this,
and you're somehow going to go out and spend $250,000 and they're just never going to get that that's what was going on behind the scenes, it's pretty shocking.
They end up going to counseling and they do not separate.
But there is this idea, you know, she's lied about their finances.
Even if there's the facade of things being good within the marriage, there's still a real permanent rift between the couple and the trust has been broken there.
But as it turns out, allegations of financial crimes are not the only evidence investigators are uncovering.
A year after Eric's death, Cory's finances are not looking good at all.
She thought she was going to be getting an inheritance and now the weight of her debt is bearing down on her.
She's in a lot of trouble here. She owes a lot of money, millions and millions of dollars.
It was hard for her that year, financially and emotionally.
Her kids, you know, were crying at night because their dad is gone.
And she has Eric's family who are blaming her for his death.
Emotionally, she kind of seemed like she's hanging on my thread. Cory was also trying to run this business that she was doing and she just seemed really stressed out.
One of Cory's biggest financial burdens was this mansion she had purchased.
A luxurious piece of property on the most beautiful land.
She buys it for close to $3 million. But at this point, the mansion is far from finished.
Cory Richens commissioned this YouTube video of the house construction.
It even included a virtual view of the planned lux amenities.
Cory had talked about turning the Midway mansion into an event space where people could have weddings.
It needed a lot of work, estimated to be a couple million.
Cory is allegedly making all of this work through hard money loans.
These are loans that are short term. They cost more. They tend to be riskier.
But Cory didn't have money from Eric's estate to help and eventually lost the mansion to foreclosure.
The fallout from Cory's financial strain allegedly ends up harming one of her best friends, a woman named Chelsea Barney.
Cory's been helping her best friend buy a home, her first home.
So she says, look, I'll get the loan. You'll sign the deed. The home will be yours and you can pay the mortgage each month.
She was a waitress and a manager at a restaurant and she had saved all of her tip money for years.
She gave Cory $45,000 as a down payment.
She was always on time with her payment.
And so when all of a sudden she was getting notices that her home might be in trouble, she called and asked for a copy of the deed.
Essentially, Chelsea had found out that the deed was never properly filed with the county. She never was the owner of the home.
The houses foreclosed on Chelsea and her family are evicted and to add insult to injury, all this money she saved up to buy this home, it's gone.
And there's another family who also say their dealings with Cory did not end well.
We just bought a house!
Terran and Alec Wright buy this home for their family. It's been remodeled. There's a view of the mountains. It has a great yard.
But once they were in that home, they discovered a major problem.
They claim they find mold in the walls and they say there was water coming in and that everyone in the family got sick.
Nose bleeds, asthma, really unpleasant stuff.
Cory denied that she had any knowledge of any problems with the home and that the home had been inspected prior to their closing on it.
The rights filed to lawsuit and told 2020 they lost their house to foreclosure, saying they've been financially ruined by the cost of a long-term, temporary rental while still paying for that home.
Meanwhile, there are people who are starting to say out loud what only a few knew that Eric had gotten ill in the past and he suspected Cory was behind it.
Eric and Cory were on a trip to Greece in 2019.
They're out having dinner one night and everyone is ordering drinks. Eric had just recently got Lyme's disease from a hunting trip.
He's taking medication for it. On that medication, you're not allowed to have alcohol. It would make you very, very sick.
Eric ordered a virgin drink. When they brought it over, he tasted it and said that he thought that there was alcohol.
He started not feeling well and they ran up to the hotel room.
He called his sister Katie and told her that he thought that Cory had tried to poison him.
I don't believe Eric said that. I don't believe he ever said that. They were in a restaurant when he got sick so the only one serving him was a waitress.
Then actually on Valentine's Day of 2022, so only weeks before his death, Cory had ordered a sandwich from a local diner.
The server entered the phone and it's a go order was placed. A bald mountain bagel sandwich, which is just a toasted bagel with bacon egg and cheese avocado and sliced tomato.
And 12 minutes later, Cory came in and picked it up and paid for it.
When she left the sandwich farm, she left a note basically to saying, Happy Valentine's Day, I love you.
After just a single bite, Eric seemed to believe he was having an allergic reaction.
He used his son's EpiPen, took some Benadryl and went to sleep. And when he woke up, he texted friends.
He almost lost me this time. I think she might have poisoned me.
And police are about to learn just where that poison could be coming from.
Cory came to me about a year after she said her husband had died.
All she had said was that he passed away and she was ready for some new family photos.
So she wanted to get her hair done to look cute in the pictures with her sons.
I was really impressed with how she was handling that situation with her little boys and how much she was doing with her life.
Cory spent five or six hours in my chair. We did a full color on her and then we did her extension install after that.
I think she ended up spending around $2,900.
It's been a year since Eric Richens death and Cory is moving on with life.
But Eric's family, however, is frustrated. They say they're not seeing progress in the investigation
and they're dealing with the back and forth lawsuits over the estate.
So they decide to hire a private investigator.
This PI pulse phone records looks at thousands of text messages, pulse electronics, gets cell phone data.
So when the private investigator gets into these phone records, he discovers that there are essentially three people that Cory is communicating with all the time.
One is Eric, the other is her mother, and the third person is a woman named Carmen Lover.
This is between the months right before and right after Eric Richens dies.
So why is Cory talking to Carmen Lover so much?
Carmen worked for my sister at cleaning houses and cleaning the fakes and flips.
Cory would call her and say, hey, I need you to go to this address, clean this house.
This woman has a checkered past, including a whole bunch of drug stuff.
With the information that the private investigators gathered, he's forwarding all of that to the Summit County Sheriff's Office.
A new lead detective is put on the case, Detective Jeff O'Driskel, and his theory is to start over, start fresh.
Carmen is in a court-ordered drug program and Detective O'Driskel takes the opportunity to search her trash.
He finds drug paraphernalia, and that's a violation now he's got probable cause to search her home.
Not only do they find enough evidence to bring drug charges, they find a gun, and she's not allowed to have one since she's a convicted felon.
And they notice something that stops them in their tracks.
They're looking at a wall full of inspirational sayings that she's posted, and they see taped to a mirror a copy of Eric's obituary.
At this point, they've really zeroed in on Quarry as being, you know, the prime suspect to Eric's passing, and they need somebody to kind of connect those dots.
Without Carmen, police really didn't have much of a case.
So can Carmen tell them if Quarry had any connection to the fentanyl?
Write down something as far as you remember it right now, and then we can work on the details as we continue to talk about it as we check from records as we, you know, do all of our part, our side to corroborate what you're saying.
Right?
Hey, no, I already had you told that part where I'm going to tell you is.
It's okay, and that's fine, because, you know what, we want to make sure we get the right story, and so the way you're remembering it is, you know, because all you can give us,
we can't make something else that you don't remember, right?
She tells police that not only has Quarry asked her to get fentanyl, but she did so on two separate occasions, and she even said things like the first batch wasn't strong enough.
The problem with them is that she wanted you to get something that somebody could die from.
I know one thing that when we got one, it wasn't dark in that. I mean, I didn't know how fentanyl really goes.
Carmen explained she got one set of drugs sometime in February, and then was asked to get stronger stuff, and then got another dose of drugs a second time around.
So Carmen's facing prosecution and years of prison time.
The only exception is to step, and the only thing that they're willing to kind of help you out with is if you can help us out with this.
And by so, he means, like, give up the detail that will ensure Quarry is convicted of murder.
Oh my god. This is a serious case. Oh my god.
That is way more of my life.
You got Carmen who's looking at 25 years to life for drug charges and gun charges.
She's going to tell the cops about whatever they want to hear, and they're making a plea deal.
The goal is to commit Quarry for an aggravated murder. These parallel drug investigations that aren't strong.
Carmen says her dealer was Robert Crozier. He's already in custody for other drug crimes,
and he's also detoxing.
He says that he and Carmen would meet at a gas station where he would sell her the drugs.
Carmen says she would hide the drugs at one of the houses Quarry was trying to flip.
Crozier says it wasn't a regular thing.
Yeah, I met her just the two times. I think I talked to one another a couple more times after that.
But just to see, you know what I mean, hey, you know, if there's somebody spinning, you know what I mean?
You know, five, six hundred bucks.
Because I was 30, I would run about five or six hundred bucks.
Yeah, that's how I met them.
It's not just the drug sales themselves. It's the timing.
There were, you know, 30 text messages exchanged between Carmen and Quarry on Valentine's Day 2022,
the day of that infamous sandwich.
And the other day is February 26, which is right before Eric's death.
Now law enforcement has the drug link through Carmen and they have the financial information.
Quarry Richardson was in massive debt.
She was trying to funnel money back into her own real estate and house flipping business.
You have this all up and it's finally enough for police to make their move.
A woman who wrote a children's book about grief after the death of her husband now faces charges for his murder.
Quarry Richardson's charged with one count of aggravated murder and three counts of possession of narcotics with intention to distribute.
I woke up in the morning to headlines of Utah mom and children's grief book author arrested and charged with murder.
It was shocking. It was unbelievable.
It just couldn't fathom it, like not not Quarry, you know why? Why her?
It just became this huge story because she wrote that children's book.
They are trying to ruin and convict an innocent mother.
The simplest answer is often the correct one is most likely an accidental overdose.
I will take it to my grave that Quarry did not do this.
I too believe it's an accidental overdose.
For Quarry Richardson's, she's either victim or killer.
There is nothing in between.
Is she a widow who had lost her husband and the father of her children tragically?
Or did she plan this all out to get from under some massive debt?
In my experience, money and love are two of the most powerful motivators for a murder.
Now, police know about the money and there may be a romantic angle as well.
If Quarry wasn't with Eric on Valentine's Day and she wasn't, who was she with?
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My kids and I kind of wrote this book on the different emotions and grieving processes that we've experienced last year.
And to make sense and process, I'm sure.
Right now we have the arrest of a Utah mom who wrote a children's book about grief after her husband's death.
She has now been charged with killing him.
I'm new to all of this as a widow, as a wife, but also, you know, with my kids.
I'm thinking she's just powering through.
She's trying her best, maybe not to cry, maybe not to get too emotional.
Toxicology report found five times a lethal dosage, a fentanyl in his system.
This last page, particularly poignant, I will forever love you, my sweet baby, until we see each other again.
Yes, I am with you.
Written as though it's in the father's words for their boys.
You are an amazing woman and we thank you for being vulnerable and sharing this and touching the lives of others.
Thank you, I really appreciate being here.
Thank you, Cory.
Thank you.
All right, GT, it was back with you.
State prosecutors say they do have enough evidence against Cory Richards to proceed with a trial.
The imminent charge of murder allegedly at this point, but still, naturally, you're thinking, can I believe what she said?
On May 23, Cory is arrested and charged with aggravated murder of her husband, as well as several counts of possession of illicit drugs with the intent to distribute.
Finding that out was such a shock. I mean, talking about this now, it still blows my mind.
This could all very well be the perfect crime, a storybook ending where she thought she couldn't get caught.
It's a story that resonates because it's sort of this idea that she is two very different people, a juggling hide situation.
She was so empathetic at first glance and then the story becomes much more sinister.
In a June 2023 hearing where Cory is going to find out if she makes bail or not, she appears in street clothes, but she isn't shackles.
And she has this look of confidence on her face, almost as if she thinks this is still going to go her way.
Prosecutors call three witnesses to testify as to why Cory Richards should not be released pending prosecution.
The defendant came to the door and wrote a check from her business for $1,300 for the purchase of the fentanyl.
The initial bail hearing had a forensic accountant going into her finances.
It went over the phone records and some of her searches on her phone after her husband's death.
During the bail hearing, the cell phone expert presented evidence that prosecutors said was a sign of consciousness of guilt.
Consciousness of guilt can be virtually anything that a criminal defendant does that is consistent with them understanding their guilty.
Some of the more interesting internet searches included luxury prisons for the rich in America can cops uncovered deleted messages, iPhone.
If someone is poisoned, what does it go down on the death certificate as and finally what is a lethal dose of fentanyl?
Those internet searches did not come until after Cory had been given a search warrant that was executed on her home.
That search warrant laid out that they believed the Eric had died from a lethal dose of fentanyl that she had murdered him with it.
And so, you know, did now say, well, she searched it so it's a consciousness of guilt.
I think it's human nature. Someone hands you something and says, hey, we think you poisoned them with fentanyl and you're like, I don't even know what a lethal dose of fentanyl is.
What do we do? We Google search.
Prosecutors argue that the motivation behind Eric Richens' death is that Cory Richens was in massive debt.
Being bad with money does not make you a murderer.
The defense makes the argument that the prosecution has no case because they have no way of showing how the drugs ultimately got into Eric's system.
They went through the home and they found absolutely no forensic evidence to substantiate their allegation that she must have given Eric fentanyl in this drink.
But perhaps the most compelling argument was made by Eric's sister, Amy Richens, during her victim's impact statement.
Eric was a family man who always strove to be the absolute best father and husband.
I go through the terrible sequence of events. I wonder when he realized he was in mortal danger.
This last year has been a living hell for our family.
We have watched as Cory has paraded around portraying herself as a grieving widow and victim while trying to profit from the death of my brother.
But the circumstances of this case weigh soundly against granting pretrial release of any kind.
Since Cory was arrested, she's been held in the summit county jail.
Cory not only has been separated from her children at this point, she lost custody of her children.
The state of Utah takes her kids away even though she's presumed innocent because Utah has a law that allows the court to do that when one spouse is suspected of causing the death of the other spouse.
And it's while she's in jail that authorities make when it appears to be a stunning discovery.
The Epidies did what's called tossing herself where they go and they essentially perform a search.
They found a letter that the prosecution believed to be very, very significant in the case.
Since her arrest, Cory Richens, the aspiring writer, is being held in Utah summit county jail and she's added again.
During a sweep of Cory's cell, an officer uncovers a four-page letter at the top of the first page.
That's walk the dog with an exclamation point.
And prosecutors argue that this letter is a message for Cory's mother to relay to her brother Ronnie what he needs to say to help get her off.
It reads in part, here's what I'm thinking, but you have to talk to Ronnie.
He would probably have to testify to this.
Eric told Ronnie he gets pain pills and fentanyl from Mexico, from the workers at the ranch.
Reward this however he needs to make the point with Mexico and drugs.
Prosecutors say this is evidence of witness tampering, of influencing a person's testimony that could potentially take the stand in her case,
and providing a story that is alternative to how Eric had gone to Mexico and possibly obtained drugs while there.
Of course, that's hugely significant from the perspective of detectives and the prosecution.
Let me just explain to me that it was some fairy tale book that was loosely based on what's going on, but there's a whole bunch of stuff in there that makes it very obvious that it's not true.
Cory is always maintained that the walk the dog letter was part of a greater manuscript.
Not only was it attorney-client communication, it was also attorney-work product.
Is this damaging to she admit that she committed murder in it? Absolutely not.
So the question becomes whether a jury will see this as Cory insists as a fictional manuscript or further evidence of her guilt.
First with the death of her husband and this children's book, are you with me?
And now with this four page letter, you see Cory writing herself into the plot.
It is Cory's own written word that prosecutors keep coming back to his evidence that she isn't that at the center of this.
The camera's mom accused of killing her husband and then writing a children's book about grief is facing more criminal charges.
So in March of 2024, the prosecution amended their complaint to include an allegation of attempted murder.
This is the attempted murder charge for the Poisoned Valentine's Day sandwich that Eric ate just weeks before his death.
Eric supposedly saying that he thinks his wife is trying to poison him. It's absolutely absurd.
And the heat is about to be turned up even higher on Cory. With all the media coverage on her case, someone was watching.
And that someone reached out to Eric Richards' family wanting to clear a guilty conscience.
That someone is 41-year-old Josh Grossman who Cory had hired as a handyman at a home that she was renovating.
Authorities learned that Grossman and Cory had been carrying on a year's long affair.
According to investigators, the lover is texted almost daily.
I want you today, every day, not just sexually but physically, mentally, every day, when I wake up, I do want a future together.
So in addition to the financial motive here, we also have a totally separate motive and that is she's having an affair where she's repeatedly communicating with this man, talking about how much she wants to be with him and how much she loves him.
Among the frequent text exchanges, in February of 2022, Cory wrote,
if he could just go away and you could just be here, life would be so perfect. I love you.
You know, I'll acknowledge the timing of the texts are not ideal.
You know, is this evidence of murder? No.
But is it one of those things that may weigh in the back of a juror's mind when they're thinking about how to weigh all this other evidence?
I think that absolutely becomes the case.
We're following breaking news out of Summit County for you. The judge granted a request from the defense team to withdraw from her case.
Suddenly, defense attorney Sky Lazaro withdraws from the case, signing a conflict of interest involving her law firm.
And this preliminary hearing is a critical break that every single...
Replacing Lazaro is public defender Kathy Nester and co-counsel Wendy Lewis together that defense attorneys have more than 30 years of experience.
Whenever legal counsel changes in a case, this will heavily stall any sort of outcome because now a new attorney has to come on, build a rapport with Cory and learn the case inside out.
In May 2024, just days after her new lawyers are appointed, Cory makes her first public statement in an audio recording released to ABC News.
And Cory Richens will have that chance in court.
While the narcotics charges were dropped, she has pleaded not guilty to the remaining charges, including two counts of insurance fraud.
One of those charges alleges that Cory took out a life insurance policy on Eric without his knowledge.
When you throw in a financial motive, that's big. That's huge. That she needed Eric Richens dead.
That financial motive is massive. It's big. But then you throw in an affair.
You throw in a love story. Now you're talking multiple motives.
The state first has to prove that he was murdered.
You know, that's step one. And they've got to be able, from the jury. I mean, I want to know how.
You know, you can't just say he died. She was there. It must have been her. You know, because she had an affair.
They're going to have a hard time connecting those dots.
All eyes on Utah this morning as the Cory Richens murder trial began.
The murder trial of Cory Richens is now underway. Nearly three years after her arrest, Cory Richens is in court right now for day one of that trial.
We'll be inside of that courtroom all week, bringing you the latest.
I knew that this trial would be big. I didn't know it was going to be this big.
This story just in a quiet community that doesn't have things like this happening is obviously a pretty big deal.
This is a small courthouse sort of off the beaten path in the beautiful mountains of Utah, near Park City, Utah.
Most people expect that there will be 12 people on a jury. But in this case, there were eight jury members, six men, two women.
My name is Laura, and I was the jury four person in the Cory Richens murder trial.
Before being selected as a juror, I had heard a red just a couple headlines, but I never really looked at stories.
I really knew nothing about the case.
Cory looks nervous. She's worried. She doesn't have that same confident she did a few years ago.
While the situation appears tough for Cory, she still has her supporters.
I'll be in the courtroom right there with her, with her family, supporter. Every second, every minute, every day.
So long as it takes, she will beat this. Work my words.
All right, we'll now proceed with opening statements.
The prosecutor, Brad Bloodworth, is very direct. He gets right to business.
In opening statements, the prosecutor had a laundry list of motives as to why Cory would have killed her husband.
The evidence will prove that on the day that Eric died, Cory Richens owed over four and a half million dollars to over 20 different lenders.
That Cory Richens was chronically unhappy in her marriage. That Cory Richens murdered Eric for his money and to get a fresh start at life.
On the defense side, they start with someone else's voice. Cory's voice, the 9-1-1 call she made, the night Eric died.
When we run, we're ready for the emergency.
So sad, I'm so pretty. He's cold.
He's not breathing.
Those were the sounds of a wife becoming a widow.
The defense urged the jurors to focus on the six hours leading up to Eric's death and not six years prior.
So those six hours, somewhere in that time, Eric Richens died.
Somewhere in that time, he ingested a fatal dose of phantom.
What you're never going to hear is how that phantom got inside of him because there was zero evidence back.
The witnesses of the state started with were powerful.
Your Honor, the state calls Katie Richens, Benson.
They called Eric's sister Katie to the stand.
They received their phone call about Eric.
Yes. Who is early in the morning?
Who called you?
My dad did.
What did he say?
It's not easy.
He was screaming and crying.
It said, Eric's not breathing. Eric's not breathing.
I'm sorry, guys.
I was supposed to burst into my life.
I'm sorry.
The state needs to convince the jury that Corey purchased that lethal dose of fentanyl with the intention to kill.
When Carmen takes the stand, all eyes are on her.
She makes her breaks this case for the state.
Please proceed.
Thanks, sir.
Remember, Carmen Lover was facing a lot of trouble with the law, but now she's testifying with immunity.
She made a deal with prosecutors if she tells the truth about how Corey Richens purchased fentanyl from her.
She's pretty much getting out of jail free pass for her testimony.
She comes clean.
The first part of her testimony is essentially Carmen Lover laying out all of her sins
for the entire world.
Have you ever sold drugs?
Yes.
Do you have a criminal history involving drugs?
Yes.
Carmen became very emotional on the stand.
And yes, she was given a deal for her testimony.
But if you believe her, she insists that isn't the only reason that she's doing this.
She says she's trying to write a wrong for her role in all of this.
Did you ask Corey Richens about Eric's death?
Yes, I did.
What did you ask?
I said, please tell me these pills were not for him.
When they had mentioned that it was from an overdose, that hit hard.
Only for the fact that if that's what happened, I need to just step up and take accountability.
Of my part in this still happened.
Or what I was asked for.
Defensive attorneys love witnesses like Carmen because she has a criminal record.
They are going to go after her on her credibility, especially about the drug charges.
And you lied about it?
Yes.
All right.
That's what addicts do when you're using.
That's true, addicts lie.
All right.
Next, the state calls the person they say put those drugs in Carmen's hands, Robert Crozier.
Remember, he's the one prosecutors say sold her the fentanyl that killed Eric.
We selling pills in late 2021 and early 2022?
I'm selling brushes then, yes.
But on cross examination, the defense points out that he had changed his story
and is now saying those pills weren't fentanyl.
When you initially agreed with detectives that you might have sold fentanyl,
you were high, you were coming down and you don't.
Remember saying that specifically.
That's correct, yes.
All this testimony was crucial for attempting to piece together the how.
But what was really mind-blowing was the why.
And that testimony came from Corey's longtime friends.
Becky Lloyd is someone that was a friend of Corey and Eric
and someone that ended up working at C&E Masonry.
Becky testifies that there was in evening in December during Christmas time
that Corey and Becky started talking and having a bit of a heart to heart.
She talked about how she was feeling trapped.
She was feeling like there wasn't an easy way forward out of the marriage.
And she said it in many ways it would be better if he were dead.
Corey's lawyer's pounds challenging Becky's memory.
A couple of weeks after Eric died, you gave an interview about this conversation you and Corey had.
Yes.
And isn't it fair that in that first interview you never mentioned anything about saying
it would be better off if Eric was dead.
Did you?
I don't recall.
You don't recall.
I don't recall.
Okay.
You're on a state call as Ali.
Stakeings.
Ali Stakeing is called to the stand.
This is Corey's best friend.
Someone she's known since middle school.
I've known I was going to take the stand for four years now.
And it's been a nightmare.
There was a lot of emotions in walking in the courtroom.
And then seeing Corey.
It felt like I was about to betray her going on the stand.
And I didn't like that feeling.
Are you one of her best friends?
Yes.
Yeah.
It was.
Yeah.
When I was asked on the stand if she was my best friend or not.
It's...
I don't know.
Because I'm now learning a completely different side of this person that I knew and loved for the last 20 years.
Ali should be a strong witness for the prosecution.
They want her to tell the jury about a conversation.
She had with Eric about that infamous Valentine's Day sandwich.
But it's sort of backfires on them.
He said that he thought that Corey had tried to poison him.
But it was more of a funny story.
It was a second allergic reaction.
Is what we had thought it was.
We were all laughing.
And that past laughter has now turned to loss.
I wish I could say it was nice to see my friend.
But I miss my friend.
But that's...
Things are different now.
Having your best friend take the stand is one thing.
You're on a state called Robert Josh Grossman.
But when your ex lover walks into the courtroom, well that's just a whole other level.
Mr. Grossman, you need a minute or two.
I don't know what I mean.
Please have a seat.
Mr. Bloodworth, the state's next witness, please.
The most anticipated witness, the state is about to call.
It's a bombshell.
You're on a state called Robert Josh Grossman.
Josh Grossman is the man that Corey was having an affair with.
She said she was in love with him.
And he's the one who wrote those text messages to Corey.
Do you solemnly swear the testimony you're about to give in the matter before the court?
The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth subject to the pains and penalties of her dream.
The swearing in of a witness is usually a pretty routine thing in a courtroom, but not this one.
While he's being sworn in, they're asking if he's going to be honest.
He doesn't know how to answer it.
Sir, have a seat.
I've never seen this moment before.
Where the judge has to explain what he needs to do.
Mr. Grossman, do you understand the difference between what's true and what's not true?
I do.
And then Josh says, okay, I understand.
Yes, I'm going to be honest in my answers.
And right away, Josh has our attention.
Sir, do you know Corey Rich?
I do.
And why did you move to Utah?
To work with her and help her flip houses.
Josh is quiet.
He has this southern accent.
He's a red head, like Eric.
He served in the military, including combat in Iraq.
Eric came from an affluent ranching family and Josh was a man from South Carolina who was essentially couch surfing.
She took care of me, you know?
I lived for free.
She gave me money whenever I needed it.
I just, you know, I liked her, so I'd work for free.
His body is slouched. He fidgets.
During that time that you were romantically involved with Miss Richens, did you love her?
Yes.
During that time, did you feel that she loved you?
I think she did.
So this, of course, gives prosecutors more than just a financial incentive for Eric's staff.
The prosecution introduced a series of text messages between Josh and Corey.
They put them up on the screen for a painfully long period of quiet time, allowing everybody to read them.
They were sad.
They were very corny at times.
He said, you know, I tend to fall, head over heels and love with someone.
Corey seemed a little less authentic.
Like, she was kind of leading a month.
I want to know everything about you.
It's part of being in love.
There's something specific you want to know.
I will be up all night wondering, babe.
The text ranged from poetic confessions of love.
It almost had like a middle school feeling about it.
I love you.
I love talking to you, being with you.
I don't have that in my marriage.
And I really enjoy my relationship and love for you.
But you're right.
We both know this love triangle can't go on forever.
He looks so uncomfortable as the world reads his private text messages.
I love you.
K. Kind.
Oh, outgoing.
You unique.
Are romantic.
I, inches away from signing her divorce papers and falling madly in love with her soulmate.
Too late.
I have already fallen.
Night.
There's this moment where he starts crying.
I'm watching this and wondering, what is the jury thinking right now?
We couldn't talk about it.
You could see in people's faces and their eyes like, ugh.
That was, that was heartbreaking.
I wish presented himself as very sincere and genuine, sad, brokenhearted.
It was kind of devastating to watch him on the stand.
The court, I think, was very patient with him.
You need a minute or two.
I don't know what I mean.
Let's just start with that.
How do we take it?
I have five.
I have five.
The text between Josh and Corey evolved.
Corey sort of suggesting to Josh her dream life
which would be to live with him in the guest home of the Midway Mansion
and run a event center together and raise children together.
I have a crazy dream.
I divorce and come up with millions and millions.
We buy Midway and live in guest house
and rent out the huge house as a big event center.
$15,000 a day.
Raise some kids, have a little farm.
Deal?
You see all of these exchanges
and they contextualize what that relationship was.
And then Corey sends her boyfriend a plea in the form of a text
and that's less than 48 hours before Eric is found dead.
She texts roughly, hang in until Friday.
Well, what was Friday?
Friday?
Was the day Eric Richens died.
Life is going to be different, I promise.
Can I try Friday?
Give me a few days.
Hang in there until then please.
The relationship between Josh and Corey just fizzled out.
It was in the weeks after Eric passed away.
He testifies that he and Corey take a drive, they stop,
and they sit in her car and talk.
Josh testified that Corey asked him a very important question,
perhaps a very revealing question.
What's her did she ask?
She asked if I had ever killed anybody.
Was that specific to kill anybody while serving in Iraq?
Right.
Did you respond?
I did.
Did she ask a follow-up question?
Yes.
Sir, what was that follow-up question?
Did she ask me how it made me feel or something along those lines?
Grossman's dramatic and emotional testimony comes to a close,
and then something utterly mind-blowing unfolds in the courtroom
with the defense team as they are about to present their case.
Ms. Lewis, Ms. Nester, what's the plan?
Ready to go.
Who's defense counsels first witness?
We have a couple of options.
Understood.
The prosecution's case took 13 days,
and the defense's case was expected to go 7 to 10 days.
Corey's defense attorneys are whispering to each other back and forth,
and it seems like they're trying to decide who to call first,
but that is not what we got.
You are actually at this time that the defense attempts to arrest you.
They said they were calling no one and also arrested.
It was an absolute shock.
It was very surprising there was no defense.
So when the defense rested without presenting any witnesses,
my mouth, I think, dropped open.
There has to be another side of the story,
and we can fill in the little holes,
and then when they didn't call anyone, that was shocked.
Why would Corey Richens' defense rest without calling anyone?
They may believe the prosecution didn't make out their case,
that having any witness on the stand would make sense,
because they've already won their case.
Do you understand that you have the right to testify at Trump?
Yes, they do.
Are you following your attorney's advice
and awaiting your right to testify at Trump?
Yes, I am.
Prosecution and the defense have presented their closing arguments,
Judge Merazik instructs the jury, and courts dismiss.
Then, on the same day that the trial ends,
and just within a few hours, there's word from the court.
Okay, I just received some news that a verdict isn't.
No way.
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I told my kids early on that Eric had died.
And my kids were devastated.
I said along the way, sometimes it looks like Cory might have done it.
But you know, and then my kids would say,
well did she and I'd say, I don't think so.
But it sometimes looks like it.
There's absolutely no doubt in my mind that Cory is innocent.
I know my little sister.
She loves her.
Her boys way too much to take their father away from them.
Instead of Utah versus Cory Richens,
Ms. Richens is present.
After deliberating for just under three hours,
the jury informs the court they've come to an agreement.
The court has informed that the jury has reached a verdict.
Would you please hand the verdict form to the deputy?
Ms. Richens, please stand.
Ms. Richens, please stand.
Count one, aggravated murder.
We the jury unanimously find that the defendant Cory Richens is guilty of aggravated murder.
Cory Richens is found guilty on all counts.
The entire three hours was constant, robust, electrifying discussion.
There were some people who were sort of on the fence with some of the elements.
Like they felt that she was guilty, but maybe the state didn't meet the burden.
And so we focused on what some of those issues were that gave them pause.
And then we all discussed at length.
And that helped us kind of come to the conclusion
and help people jump off the fence.
To convict a woman of murder was absolutely heartbreaking.
Cory's friend, Ali Staking, watched the verdict live online.
Eric was my friend too.
I didn't choose Cory over Eric, but now I've lost both of them.
And she was somebody that meant a lot to me.
Her family meant a lot to me, and they meant a lot to me.
I should forgive.
And that's, it's a loss.
Nobody wins in this.
After the verdict is read, Eric's family and friends gather outside of the court.
And embrace each other.
Four years ago, our family lost the brightest light.
Eric is deeply loved and missed every single day.
We are grateful to everyone who was worked tirelessly to bring justice for Eric.
Our focus is now on honoring Eric's life and supporting his voice
as we all continue to heal.
Thank you all for being here.
In a statement to ABC News, the Richens family wrote
that the justice system has now fairly run its course.
And we believe the jury's verdict was just and accurate.
There is a hole in our family that cannot be filled.
But now, at least we have definitive closure.
Cory Richens will return to that courtroom
to learn her sentence on May 13th, which is no ordinary day.
That would have been Eric Richens' 44th birthday.
She faces up to life in prison.
And her legal troubles are far from over.
She's facing a whole other criminal indictment
with multiple counts of mortgage fraud, money laundering,
forgery, bad checks.
These are serious allegations.
One of the real tragedies in this case is Eric and Cory's kids.
Their father tragically passed away.
Their mother's parental rights have been terminated.
She has forever lost her children.
Those children have been adopted by one of Eric's sisters.
There are three little boys at the heart of this.
They have a lot of love surrounding them.
They're their great boys and they're going to...
They're going to be funny.
He was an amazing father, brother, son, person.
Have you, person, friend?
He was an amazing person.
The most contagious laugh out there.
I'll remember Eric's laugh.
If I can hear it in my head, he needs to be remembered as just a loving dad.
He had so much more life to live.
And he wanted so much for his boys.
I'm going to remember just how much he loved him.
And that's our program for tonight.
Thanks for watching. I'm David Muir.
And I'm Deborah Roberts from all of us here at 2020 and ABC News.
Good night.
You
From 30 for 30 podcasts.
I'm in heaven!
Brian Pada, senior defensive lineman from Miami.
Gunned down.
The key to this case, it's Brian.
What are you?
It's a rip, man.
A hour before he died, he was on a phone arguing what's about...
This might be a hit.
You want the truth.
They just want a conviction.
Press your wrist.
We had a killer mockstus.
Murder at the U.
Listen now.
