Kouri Richins’ criminal trial has been rescheduled to begin almost a year after it was set to start.
The jury trial is expected to last about seven weeks, beginning with six days of jury selection on Feb. 10. Then, witness testimony and evidence would start being presented on Feb. 23.
Third District Court Judge Richard Mrazik hoped to wrap up the proceedings by March 26 so the jury could deliberate, and potentially, reach a verdict by April.
The high-profile case was originally scheduled to start in late April, but it was delayed the same month after defense attorneys for the Kamas mother of three, Wendy Lewis and Kathy Nester, asked the judge to pause all pretrial proceedings until an appellant court could determine whether a fair and impartial trial could be seated in Summit County.
The Utah Supreme Court on June 6 declined to hear the appeal, allowing the criminal case to proceed in Summit County.
Nester and Lewis on Friday informed the judge they wanted to add an extra week to jury selection to review the prospective pool and to the trial because of the amount of evidence and testimony, increasing it to about seven weeks.
Mrazik agreed to extend jury selection to about six days. The judge was adamant that prosecutors and defense attorneys would be able to narrow down the field of candidates based on the case-specific jury questionnaire, which will be distributed to about 2,000 eligible residents. He agreed to extend the trial length by a week.
Each side would be able to strike people based on their responses — such as whether an individual is very familiar with the case because of media coverage — reducing the pool to about 240 jurors who will be called.
About 20 jurors would be summoned in the morning, with another 20 in the afternoon, to speak with the lawyers about their responses. It’s possible the voir dire would be conducted one-on-one to protect the confidentiality of jurors and avoid potentially tainting the pool.
Ultimately, eight jurors and four alternates would be selected. Then the trial would commence.
Nester expected there to be multiple witnesses called to the stand, including key witnesses who could testify for at least half a day. Medical testimony as well as video and audio tapes will be presented as evidence, too.
Kouri may also choose to take the stand, which would be a lengthy testimony.
“After two years in jail, we are relieved Kouri has a trial date. She is ready for the truth to come out — and for the false narratives that have defined this case to be confronted in a court of law. We are confident that once the facts are heard, it will be clear to all that Kouri is innocent,” Nester and Lewis said in a statement.
The Summit County Attorney’s Office also has a “massive” witness list of more than 100 people, as well as profiling and domestic violence experts. Not everyone would be called, but each person may take a few hours to be questioned and cross-examined.
Several pending motions are before the Third District Court, including a motion to exclude a witness and to determine the admissibility of the “Walk the Dog” letter, that would need to be addressed before the trial starts next year. Mrazik expected those to take place in November or January.
The next pretrial conference was scheduled for 3:30 p.m. on Aug. 1.
Kouri faces nine felony charges stemming from the death of her 39-year-old husband in March 2022, including aggravated murder and attempted criminal homicide.
Eric died of a fentanyl overdose in March 2022. Prosecutors allege Kouri poisoned him, and that she attempted to do it a month earlier with a drug-laced sandwich on Valentine’s Day. The County Attorney’s Office said Kouri felt trapped in her marriage and had a financial motive to kill her husband.
Kouri Richins and her family have maintained her innocence. She has been held in the Summit County Jail without bail since her arrest in May 2023.