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Before her sentencing, Richins read aloud a lengthy statement that she addressed to her three young sons.
“As much as you’ve been influenced into thinking that dad was murdered, that I took your dad from you, that is completely wrong. An absolute lie,” Richins said as she sniffled and wiped her nose with tissues. “And the thought of that is still as absurd today as it was four years ago.”
Statements written by the couple’s three boys were read aloud by therapists during the hours-long sentencing hearing. Each one said they would fear for their safety if their mother were ever released from prison.
“You took away everything from me and my brothers. I don’t want you out of jail because I will not feel safe if you are out,” the couple’s middle child, identified as ‘A.R.,’ wrote. “You have never said sorry for anything that you have done to me or my brothers. I don’t want you to hurt anyone again.”
Other members of Eric Richins’ tight-knit family tearfully addressed the court Wednesday as they urged the judge to hand their in-law a life sentence without parole.
“Please do not leave those boys to wonder whether Kouri might track them or their children down in the future,” his sister, Katie Richins-Benson, said. “Please do not create a possibility for Kouri to endanger Eric’s boys, my daughters, my family, or anybody else ever again.”
Kouri Richins’ attorneys argued the judge should impose a lesser sentence, raising the possibility that her children may one day want a relationship with her.
“A life without the possibility of parole, the sentence cannot be changed,” defense attorney Wendy Lewis said. “If Kouri and Eric’s boys someday change their mind and it is too late to say something different than what they’ve said today, this day will become one more day that haunts them.”
Kouri Richins’ loved ones also urged the judge to issue a less severe sentence, describing her as a devoted mother and generous neighbor – with some insisting she had been wrongfully convicted.
“We don’t with 100% certainty know what happened to Eric – no one does,” her brother, Ronney Darden, said. “But we do know with 100% certainty that it wasn’t caused by you.”
Richins’ defense attorneys told the court they plan on appealing the sentence and filing a motion for a new trial.
The judge noted the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole has the authority to release Richins if it determines “by clear and convincing evidence at some future point that she is permanently incapable of being a threat to the safety of society.”