Did the Summit County Sheriff’s Office illegally obtain evidence while investigating Kouri Richins in connection to the death of her husband, Eric Richins?
Defense attorneys Kathy Nester and Wendy Lewis laid the foundation for several claims during a Third District Court hearing on Thursday alleging detectives violated the Kamas mother of three’s constitutional rights granted to a defendant. The lawyers then argued for specific material, such as electronic data and the notorious “Walk the Dog” letter, to be inadmissible during the murder trial against the Kamas mother of three because of how it was obtained.
Third District Court Judge Richard Mrazik considered three motions to suppress statements Kouri made before her arrest, data from her phone and Apple accounts, and the controversial letter recovered from her Summit County Jail cell. Mrazik didn’t rule after the seven-hour-long hearing, but he’s expected to do so once each side files its memo.
Detailed testimony from sheriff’s detectives, corrections officers and Eric Richins’ brother-in-law about the investigation, such as how searches unfolded and who had access to the Richins’ home following Kouri’s arrest, will be cited in the arguments made by Summit County prosecutors and the defense.
Detective Eric Maynard and Deputy Jayme Woody were questioned about their experiences during the initial investigation, describing how they detained Kouri before executing search warrants for her home and person. Her defense attorneys argued investigators took Kouri’s phone without a proper warrant and accused them of not informing her of her rights: her right to remain silent, her right to ask for a lawyer and her right to refuse questioning.
Maynard and Woody affirmed that Kouri was not under arrest at that point and that she voluntarily gave investigators her phone, granting them access to it. However, both stated they never explicitly informed Kouri of her rights or asked if she wanted her attorney present.
Nester also questioned Detective Jeff O’Driscoll about whether he interviewed Kouri without a lawyer, a violation of her Sixth Amendment right. O’Driscoll took over as lead investigator on the case around April 2023, and said he met with Kouri at her home to introduce himself rather than conduct an interview.
The detective described Kouri as “cheery” and open to speaking with law enforcement, noting that after the three-hour meeting, Kouri sent a follow-up email with additional information related to the investigation.
Nester questioned whether the detective had identified Kouri as a primary suspect in her husband’s death at that point. O’Driscoll said he did not have definitive information that she was a suspect, and was investigating the case as an accident, suicide or homicide.
“If she had said, ‘Hey, I killed my husband,’ would you have used that against her?” Nester asked.
“Likely,” O’Driscoll replied.
“OK, so you didn’t Mirandize her at that point. You knew she had a lawyer. You knew you were looking for information about her involvement in her husband’s death and you did not Mirandize her, correct?” Nester argued.
Prosecutors did concede that an orange notebook was illegally obtained during a search of the Richins home a few weeks later, on May 8, 2023, the same day Kouri was arrested outside of a Salt Lake City business and charged with aggravated murder. The County Attorney’s Office alleges she poisoned Eric with a fentanyl-laced Moscow Mule on March 4, 2022.
Chief Prosecutor Brad Bloodworth said law enforcement did not have a warrant to seize the notebook at the time but that it would have inevitably been discovered. Its contents remains unknown, but the defense said it was intended for Kouri’s therapist and is “privileged.”
Nester said deputies opened the notebook and sought a new warrant with the authority to take it after reading the contents. She pointed to the “fruit of the poisonous tree,” a legal argument based on the idea that evidence illegally obtained is tainted and therefore inadmissible.
Lewis made similar arguments in support of the defense’s motion to suppress the six-page “Walk the Dog” letter, which may have been obtained through a potentially illegal search.
Prosecutors alleged the letter was written by Kouri to her mother, Lisa Darden, requesting that Darden ask Kouri’s brother, Ronald Darden, to provide false testimony. However, the defense has maintained its part of a manuscript from a fictional mystery book she’s writing about drugs and a Mexican prison.
Sheriff’s Sgt. Braxton Barrett, a corrections officer at the Summit County Jail, and Sgt. Jeremy Thomas, a jail administrator, provided testimony about searches of Kouri’s cell on Sept. 13 and 14. The defense played video footage from the jail showing the search when the letter was found.
Lewis asserted the pages were inside a manila envelope addressed to Skye Lazaro, Kouri’s former lawyer, and labeled as attorney-client privilege. However, jail staff said the letter was found in an LSAT prep book.
Barrett and Thomas described looking at hundreds of pages in Kouri’s cell to confirm there wasn’t contraband. They affirmed they did not read privileged documents.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys will submit written arguments citing the evidence and testimony. They’ll have about two weeks to do so. Then, Mrazik will make a ruling on what evidence will be suppressed during the upcoming four-week trial set to start in late April.
The next hearing date was set for Feb. 3 to go over the draft jury questionnaire.