Kouri Richins Seeking Jail Release After Star Witness Recants Claim He Provided Fentanyl Used to Kill Husband By Chris Spargo

Kouri Richins is asking the judge overseeing her murder trial to reconsider her bail and the conditions of her release after the prosecution’s star witness recanted his statement about providing the fentanyl the Utah housewife allegedly used to kill her husband.

Prosecutors accuse Richins, 35, of fatally poisoning her husband, Eric Richins, 39, in March 2022 by spiking his drink with fentanyl she allegedly acquired from her housekeeper, Carmen Lauber.

The allegation was based off interviews with both Lauber and the man said to have supplied the drugs, Robert Crozier.

But now, Richins’ defense team claims that Crozier recanted the statement in April, and accuses prosecutors of knowingly withholding the info from the defense ahead of trial.

“If the state cannot place fentanyl in the hands of (Richins), the state has no case,” defense attorney Kathryn Nester writes in her motion for bail reconsideration, a copy of which was obtained by PEOPLE.

She goes on to write: “Mr. Crozier’s statement doesn’t just poke holes in their case, it throws a grenade into the middle of it leaving them nothing but speculation and conjecture, getting them nowhere near the realm of (proving their case) beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Included alongside the motion is an affidavit from Crozier, who states that while he did sell Laubert Oxycontin on two occasions, he never sold her fentanyl.

Crozier states in the affidavit that he does not recall ever making that claim and said that he first recanted his statement in April while speaking with “two people from the Summit County Attorney’s Office.”

Nester states in her motion requesting any additional exculpatory evidence from prosecutors that she only discovered the discrepancy when she herself interviewed Crozier ahead of the trial.

She writes that by not informing the defense about Crozier recanting his statement ,”the prosecution abandons its duty to seek justice and undermines the assurance of a fair trial.”

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“[T]his was not an oversight,” said Nester. “This was a continuing and knowing concealment. It is not a blemish on the fruit — it is rot at the core, poisoning the whole harvest of justice.”

Summit County Attorney Margaret Olson declined to comment on the filings, telling PEOPLE: “Under the Rules, the State has 14 days to respond to the defense motions.”

Richins’ trial is currently set to start in February.

She had become a local celebrity in the wake of her husband’s death when she published a children’s book about dealing with grief, “Are You With Me?”

In addition to the murder charge she is facing multiple counts of forgery, mortgage fraud and insurance fraud for alleged actions both before and after the death of her husband.