Kouri Richins' Murder Trial: Opening Statements

[00:00:00] Cody Thomas: Welcome back. This is Corey TV live. I'm Cody Thomas in today for Ted Rowlands. Now we begin this hour in Utah where it is day one of the grief author murder trial for defendant Corey Richens. Richens faces a potential life sentence if she's convicted of murdering her husband Eric who died from a lethal dose of fentanyl back in 2022. And when the months after Eric's death Corey authored a children's book titled Are You With Me? Featuring a father with angel wings watching over his young son. Corey and Eric shared three children together and prosecutors point to Corey's alleged affair at the time of Eric's death and accuse her of masterminding Eric's murder for financial gain. Now before we go into the courtroom let's get some more background on the case against Corey Richens and for that here's Court TV anchor Julie Grant. [00:00:50] Julie Grant: Like I said I'll just let the detectives me when they get here okay. April 13th 2022 [00:00:56] Speaker 3: Corey Richens is detained by Summit County police as they execute a search warrant of her home. Richens is the Utah mother who wrote a children's book about grief after the sudden death of her [00:01:09] Julie Grant: husband Eric. Can you just call my mom? I just need to I just need to sit with you here until they get [00:01:17] Speaker 3: here. Investigators had just determined that Eric Richens died from a fentanyl overdose the month before and they were looking for the source of the illicit drug. Need some air? No I'm wearing in front of my neighbor's house like this is so embarrassing I don't want any air. Eric Richens was 39 years old when he died. Prosecutors say that Corey his wife poisoned him by putting the drug in his drink. She denies the allegations and claims that Eric had a drug problem and accidentally ingested the fatal dose himself. You understand you have the right to testify at this [00:01:55] Speaker 4: preliminary hearing correct? Correct. Are you following your attorney's advice and waiving that? Yes that's [00:02:02] Speaker 3: correct. Okay. Corey and Eric were married in 2013. They were married for almost nine years and had three young sons together. Corey was working at a Home Depot when they met but after they married Eric helped her start a real estate agency. Eric was the co-owner of a stone masonry firm. It was a good business. They [00:02:23] Speaker 5: were very well respected in the community and he was very well off. He had done quite well. The day [00:02:29] Speaker 3: of their wedding they signed a pre-nuptial agreement that stipulated that Corey would have no claim to Eric's business if they divorced. But if he died while they were still married she could claim half of the [00:02:41] Speaker 5: company. It was clear from their prenup and from other contracts and wills and things that they found that he was unfortunately worth much more to her dead than divorced. Eric was a Mormon and a graduate of the [00:02:55] Speaker 3: University of Utah. He was an avid outdoorsman who loved hunting and fishing. Eric was a family man who [00:03:03] Speaker 6: always strove to be the absolute best father and husband. He was an attentive and loving father to his three sons and a devoted husband to his wife of almost nine years, Corey, the defendant. Investigators [00:03:15] Speaker 3: say there's evidence that Corey and Eric's marriage was in trouble during the years before Eric's death. According to court documents, he had met with a divorce attorney and set up a trust in order to protect his assets from Corey and she allegedly was having an affair. Corey Richen's family stands behind her and they say there's no way she had anything to do with her husband Eric's death. [00:03:40] Speaker 7: My sister, she can't even squash a spider. She loved Eric. She loved her family more than anything. [00:03:47] Cody Thomas: All right, let's get you into the courtroom now. We're listening to the judge instruct the jury ahead of opening statements. [00:03:54] Speaker 4: As jurors, you'll decide whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty and you must base your decision based only on the evidence. Evidence usually consists of the testimony and exhibits presented at trial. Testimony is what witnesses say under oath. Exhibits are things like documents, photographs or other physical objects. The fact that the defendant has been accused of a crime and brought to trial is not evidence. What the lawyers say is not evidence. For example, their opening statements and closing arguments are not evidence. You must keep an open mind throughout the trial. Evidence can only be presented one piece at a time. Do not form or express an opinion about this case while the trial is going on. You must not decide on a verdict until after you have heard all the evidence and have discussed it thoroughly with your fellow jurors in your deliberations. Rules govern what evidence may be presented to you. On the basis of these rules, the lawyers may object to proposed evidence. If they do, I'll rule in one of two ways. If I sustain the objection, the proposed evidence will not be allowed. If I overrule the objection, the proposed evidence will be allowed. Please do not evaluate the evidence on the basis of whether objections are made. Regarding the order of the trial. The prosecution will give its opening statement. An opening statement gives an overview of the case from one point of view and summarizes what that lawyer thinks the evidence will show. Defense counsel may choose to make an opening statement right after the prosecutor or wait until after all of the prosecution's evidence has been presented or not make one at all. You will then hear the prosecution's evidence. Evidence is usually presented by calling and questioning witnesses. What they say is called testimony. A witness is questioned first by the lawyer who called that witness and then by the opposing lawyer. Please consider all testimony, whether from direct or cross-examination, regardless of who calls the witness. After the prosecution has presented all of its evidence, the defendant may present evidence though the defendant has no duty to do so. If the defendant does present evidence, the prosecution may then present additional evidence. After both sides have presented all of their evidence, I'll give you final instructions on the law that you must follow in reaching a verdict. You will then hear closing arguments from the lawyers. The prosecutor will speak first, followed by defense counsel. Then the prosecutor speaks last because the government has the burden of proof. Finally, you will deliberate in the jury room. You may take your notes with you. You will discuss the case and reach a verdict. From time to time, we'll call a recess. It may be for a few minutes or longer. During recesses, please do not talk about this case with anyone. Not family, not friends, and not even with each other. Until the trial is over, do not mingle or talk with the lawyers, parties, witnesses, or anyone else connected with the case. Court clerks or bailiffs can answer general questions, such as the length of breaks or the location of restrooms, but they cannot comment about the case or anyone involved. The goal is to avoid the impression that anyone is trying to influence you improperly. So if people involved in the case seem to ignore you outside of court, they're not being rude. They're just following this instruction. Until the trial is over, please do not read or listen to any news reports or other reports about this case. Please don't do any research or visit any locations related to this case. And if you observe anything that seems to violate this instruction, please report it immediately to a clerk or bailiff. In the past, jurors have caused serious problems during trials by using electronic devices such as their phones or their tablets or their computers to research issues or share information about a case. You may be tempted to use your devices to investigate the case or to share your thoughts about the trial with others. Please don't do that. While you are serving as a juror, you must not use electronic devices for any of these purposes, just as you must not read or listen to any sources outside the courtroom about the case or talk to others about it. You'd violate your oath as a juror if you conduct your own investigation or if you communicate about this trial with others. And you can face personal consequences if you do. So please don't Google the parties, the witnesses, issues, or counsel. Please don't post any updates about the trial on social media. Please don't perform any internet searches at all about anything related to this case. Even using something as seemingly innocent as Google Maps to look up a location or an online dictionary to look up a term or word that you hear in the courtroom can result in a mistrial. Please understand that the rules of evidence and procedure have developed over hundreds of years in order to ensure the fair resolution of disputes. The fairness of the entire system depends on you reaching your decisions based only on evidence presented to you in the courtroom and not on other sources of information. Post-trial investigations do occur and if improper activities are discovered at any time, they'll be brought to the court's attention and the entire case may have to be retried. So please be careful. Regarding note-taking, please remember that we do not have transcripts of trial testimony. So when deliberating at the end of the case, you will need to rely on your memory of each witness's testimony. So please feel free to take notes during the trial to help you remember the evidence, but please don't let your note-taking distract you. Your notes are not evident in and of themselves and they may be incomplete. All right, we'll now proceed with opening statements. Mr. Bloodworth, let me make sure you have what you need. You have what you need here. Okay. [00:10:43] Speaker 8: It is the evening of March the 3rd, 2022. The defendant, Corey Richens, her husband, Eric Richens, and their three children, nine-year-old Carter, seven-year-old Ashton and five-year-old Weston are at their home in Camas. Eric Richens live for his three boys. At 7:22 PM, Corey Richens' boyfriend, Robert Josh Grossman, texts Corey Richens an image of two people romantically kissing. The image is captioned, "Love you." At 8:36 PM, Corey Richens replies, "Love you." The boys go to bed. Corey Richens makes Eric drink and takes it to him in their bedroom. He drinks on the bed. She departs the bedroom. Corey Richens returns to the bedroom at about 3:00 AM. She feels that Eric is cold. She nudges him. He does not respond. She sees that he is stiff and pale. His mouth is wide open. At 3:06 AM, Corey Richens unlocks her cell phone. She travels 243 feet beginning at 3:08 AM. She unlocks her cell phone again at 3:10, 3:15, and twice at 3:19. At 3:21, Corey Richens unlocks her cell phone and calls 9-1-1. Paramedics respond, but they are unable to revive Eric. He has no pulse. He is cold. They pronounce him dead at 3:58 AM on March the 4th. But they think he has been dead a while. My name again is Brad Bloodworth. I am one of Summit County's criminal prosecutors, who along with Lindsey Shervinak and Fred Burmester will present to you the state of Utah's aggravated murder case against Corey Darden Richens for causing the poisoning death of her husband and the father of her three children, Eric Richens. The state will also prove to you that two weeks before murdering Eric Richens, Corey Richens attempted to murder him. And two weeks before that, by fraud and forgery, she took out an insurance policy on his life. [00:14:21] Speaker 9: Objection, can we approach? [00:14:31] Cody Thomas: All right, we've got opening statements starting up there. We hear him talking about the other alleged attempt on Eric Richens' life at the hands of Corey. But we'll get more of those opening statements on the other side of this break. Keep it right here on CORE TV. [00:14:45] Speaker 10: This is the story of the Richens. Eric, a father of three, met an untimely end. And Corey, his widow, wrote a children's book on grief. [00:14:59] Speaker 11: She's also charged now with his murder. He was faced with betrayal and terror. [00:15:03] Speaker 12: I know her in this sense. Is their story a tragic romance? [00:15:07] Speaker 13: Or a twisted tale of grief? The truth will come out. [00:15:11] Julie Grant: The Grief Author Murder Trial. Live coverage weekday mornings, 8/7 central on CORE TV. [00:15:23] Cody Thomas: Back to court in just a minute. But first, here's a quick look at some of the other cases we're tracking here at CORE TV. Now, in Utah, it's day one of the long-anticipated murder trial for Corey Richens. She's accused of poisoning her husband with fentanyl, then writing a children's book on grief in the wake of his death. And in Georgia, it's day six of the Gave My Son a Gun Murder Trial for Colin Gray. The father of accused school shooter Colt Gray is standing trial for his alleged role in the shooting that killed two teachers and two students at Appalachia High School. Right now, Marcy Gray, Colt Gray's mother, is on the witness stand. And in California, Nick Reiner is expected to be arraigned later this hour. He is accused of murdering his parents, Hollywood director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michelle. Now, of course, we'll keep you updated on all these trials throughout the day. But for now, let's head back to Utah and the trial for Corey Richens. We're listening to the prosecution's opening statement. [00:16:13] Speaker 8: Weeks before attempting to murder Eric Richens, Corey Richens took out an insurance policy by fraud and forgery. on Eric's life. And two weeks after Eric died, she submitted a fraudulent claim on yet another insurance policy. In this opening statement, I will summarize for you some of the evidence that the state will present over the next few days, perhaps weeks. So that you have a framework to assemble and analyze all of the evidence. The evidence will prove that Corey Richens murdered Eric for his money and to get a fresh start at life. More than anything, she wanted his money to perpetuate her facade of privilege, affluence, and success. Corey Richens owned a house flipping business. She would purchase, rehab, and resell homes. She presented herself to friends and business associates as remarkably successful. The evidence will prove that on the day that Eric died, Corey Richens owed over $4.5 million to over 20 different lenders. And she did not have the ability to service that debt because her bank accounts were exhausted and her credit was exhausted. She had been taking out new loans to include payday loans to service existing loans, but her new credit was drying up. In the five months leading to Eric Richens' death, Corey Richens overdrafted over 200 transactions, totaling over $300,000. And on the day that Eric died, Corey Richens was scheduled to close on an unfinished and derelict mansion in Midway. And thus take on an additional $3.2 million in debt. She did not have the financial ability to service that debt, to rehab the mansion, or to hold onto it long enough to resell it. The mansion may appear impressive from a distance, but upon close inspection, it is just a facade. On the other hand, on the day that Eric died, his estate was worth over $4 million. And the evidence will prove that Corey Richens believed she would inherit it all. She believed she would inherit Eric's $2 million interest in a stone masonry business, an interest that a prenuptial agreement prevented her from getting any part of if they divorced, but permitted her to get all of if Eric died while they were married. She believed she believed that she would inherit the $2 million or so dollar home that they lived in, but that Eric owned separate and apart from her. And she believed that she believed that she believed that she would benefit from nearly $2 million in insurance on Eric's life, to include the $100,000 policy that she took out a few weeks before he died. Now, for Corey Richens' fresh start at life motive. This motive overlaps with her money motive. She needed Eric Richens' money to get her fresh start at life. The evidence will prove that Corey Richens was chronically unhappy in her marriage. She thought that having children would make her happier, but it did not. She consulted with a divorce attorney in the months leading up to Eric's death. Three months before Eric's death, Corey Richens booked a $4,000, five-night, all-inclusive vacation for her and her boyfriend, Robert Josh Grossman, at the Secrets St. Martin's Resort and Spa in the Caribbean. They were to check in the month after Eric died. Three weeks before Eric's death, 15 days before Eric's death, one day before the charge attempted murder, Corey Richens text messaged Josh Grossman, If I was divorced right now and asked you to marry me tomorrow, you would? I just want to lay on the couch and cuddle you. Watch a murder documentary and snuggle. Five days after the charged attempted murder and 11 days before the charged murder, Corey Richens text messaged Josh Grossman, "Babe, I miss you. I want you today, every day. Not just sexually, but physically, mentally. Every day when I wake up. I do want a future together. I do want you. Figure life out together." "If he could just go away. And you could just be here. Life would be so perfect. I love you. I don't know what my deal is today. I'm sorry." Nine days after the charged attempted murder, one week, one week before the charged murder, Corey Richens text messaged her boyfriend, "I have a crazy dream. You quit your job. I divorce and come up with millions and millions. We buy Midway and live in the guest house and rent out the huge house as a big event center. $15,000 a day like they charge down the road. Maybe $12,000 to stay competitive. And we will just run the event center as our daily job. And hang out every day. Raise some kids. Have a little farm. Deal?" "Just over two weeks after Eric Richens' death, Corey Richens text messaged her boyfriend a link to the secret St. Martin's resort and spa in the Caribbean and asked, 'Are we there yet?'" One month and five days after Eric Richens' death, Corey Richens texted, "I think I want you to be my husband one day." Now, for the attempted murder charge. Carmen Lauber was a house cleaner who worked for Corey Richens' aunt's house cleaning company. She cleaned Corey Richens' house. She knew Corey Richens for nearly nine years. "Corey Richens knew that Carmen Lauber had a criminal history involving drugs." "The evidence will prove that on February the 11th, 2022, three days before the charged attempted murder, Carmen Lauber, Carmen Lauber, at Corey Richens' request, purchased illicit pills from a street drug dealer who was a friend of a friend. And she gave those pills to Corey Richens. "That street dealer's name is Robert Prozier, and he sold Carmen Lauber the pills at a Draper in Maverick." "Three days later, on Valentine's Day, Corey Richens purchased a sandwich from the Mirror Lake Diner, and left it for Eric Richens." "She then departed Kamas, and met up with Josh Grossman an hour away." "At 11:33..." [00:26:52] Cody Thomas: All right, let me bring in criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor Jack Rice. Jack Rice here in the flesh, in person. "Great to see you, brother." "It's so good to be with you." "Always, always. Now, listening to this opening statement, man, I want to get your general thoughts on it so far. We talked here as we were listening to it. He said the prosecutor's kind of cutting her up right now." [00:27:08] Speaker 14: "Oh, he absolutely is, and he's aggressive. In fact, when you saw that objection from the defense, that really gives you the hint. Because, generally speaking, there's an unwritten rule out there that you don't object during opening arguments, opening statements. And remember, one of the reasons is because it's called an opening statement versus a closing argument. There's a difference. What you're arguing during closings is that it's not just what the evidence is. It's what it means. The problem is what the prosecutor is doing during openings is they're actually arguing what the evidence means. And they shouldn't be able to do that. They should be arguing what it is. So it's a very aggressive approach. It's actually working very well, too, because you're getting this laundry list. And he's even saying not quite what it means, but he's certainly alluding to it. So that's extraordinarily aggressive. And he has a lot to say. And he's coming at her with both fists. Both fists. [00:27:59] Cody Thomas: And he does have a lot to say. And we're going to listen to more of it coming up on the other side of this break. So, folks, stick around. Coming up, more opening statements here in the trial against Corey Richards. Welcome back. [00:28:07] Speaker ?: You're watching Corey TV. [00:28:07] Cody Thomas: I'm Cody Thomas. [00:28:08] Speaker ?: In today for Ted Rollins. Now, we're back in Utah for the Corey Richards murder trial. The children's book author is accused of poisoning her husband with a lethal dose of fentanyl. [00:28:21] Cody Thomas: Now, her trial started this morning, and she faces a potential life sentence if convicted of aggravated murder, attempted criminal homicide, and financial crimes in the death of Eric Richards, who died again from a lethal dose of fentanyl in 2022. Corey has pleaded not guilty to all of those charges, but let's head back in now where the prosecutor is continuing his opening statement. [00:28:53] Speaker 8: At 11:33 that morning, Eric texted Corey Richards, I'm going to lay down for a bit. If I don't start getting better, I'm going to head to the hospital soon. Shortly thereafter, all activity on Eric's cell phone ceased. For nearly 90 minutes in the middle of a busy work day. Once activity resumed, Eric Richards called his two best friends. They sounded to him scared, somber, confused, and bewildered. A few days after that, Corey Richards asked Carmen Lauber if she could get something stronger. The evidence will prove that on February the 26th, five or six days before Eric's death, Carmen Lauber, again at Corey Richards' request, purchased pills from the same street dealer at the same Maverick in Draper. And she left those pills at a home that Corey Richards was just finishing up a rehab on. The evidence will prove that those illicit pills contained fentanyl. The autopsy and toxicology report shows that Eric Richards died of fentanyl poisoning. He had several times a lethal amount of fentanyl in his blood and more in his stomach. And that extraordinary amount of fentanyl was intentional, not accidental. The evidence will prove that time and again, Corey Richards tried to cover up her attempted murder and ultimate murder of Eric Richards. When confronted with Eric's reaction on Valentine's Day, Corey Richards text messaged her friend. It was Valentine's Day and Eric and I were both working from home that day and I ordered lunch from Mirror Lake. He never broke out in hives or used an EpiPen. No, no, no, no, no EpiPen. Corey Richards was an hour away from Eric Richards with her boyfriend. Now, regarding the morning of Eric Richards' death, Corey Richards wrote in a notebook that she entered their room at 3:20 a.m. She saw that when she nudged Eric, nothing happened. She grabbed her phone and called 911. She first grabbed her phone at at least 3:06 a.m. And delayed calling 911 at least 15 minutes. The evidence will also prove that Corey Richards had a guilty conscience. The morning that Eric died, his family came over. Corey Richards could not face her children or Eric's dad, Eric Richards. She didn't speak to him. The day after Eric's death, Corey Richards and her boyfriend, Josh, they drove into the Uintas and talked about Eric's death for the first time. Corey Richards asked Josh, "While serving in Iraq, did you ever kill anyone?" When he responded, she asked, "How did that make you feel?" Along the lines of both cover-up and guilty conscience, Corey Richards, text messages and other data from Corey Richards' phone for the two months leading up to Eric Richards' death and a week or two after have all been deleted. Police seized that phone. She got a new phone. And on that new phone, there were the following internet searches. Can cops uncover deleted messages iPhone? Can you delete everything off an old iPhone without actually having it? Can deleted text messages be retrieved from an iPhone? How to completely wipe an iPhone clear remotely? How to permanently delete information from an iPhone remotely? [00:35:35] Speaker ?: How to be retrieved from an iPhone? How to be retrieved from an iPhone? How to be retrieved from an iPhone? How to be retrieved from an iPhone? How to be retrieved from an iPhone? How to be retrieved from an iPhone? How to be retrieved from an iPhone? How to be retrieved from an iPhone? [00:35:43] Speaker 8: How to be retrieved from an iPhone? How to be retrieved from an iPhone? How to be retrieved from an iPhone? How to be retrieved from an iPhone? How to be retrieved from an iPhone? How to be retrieved from an iPhone? How to be retrieved from an iPhone? [00:35:50] Speaker ?: How to be retrieved from an iPhone? How to be retrieved from an iPhone? [00:35:52] Speaker 8: How to be retrieved from an iPhone? How to be retrieved from an iPhone? How to be retrieved from an iPhone? [00:36:05] Speaker ?: How to be retrieved from an iPhone? [00:36:06] Speaker 8: How to be retrieved from an iPhone? How to be retrieved from an iPhone? How to be retrieved from an iPhone? How to be retrieved from an iPhone? [00:36:10] Speaker ?: How to be retrieved from an iPhone? How to be retrieved from an iPhone? How to be retrieved from an iPhone? How to be retrieved from an iPhone? [00:36:14] Cody Thomas: How to be retrieved from an iPhone? How to be retrieved from an iPhone? How to be retrieved from an iPhone? How to be retrieved from an iPhone? How to be retrieved from an iPhone? How to be retrieved from an iPhone? How to be retrieved from an iPhone? How to be retrieved from an iPhone? How to be retrieved from an iPhone? How to be retrieved from an iPhone? How to be retrieved from an iPhone? [00:36:35] Speaker 10: And Corey, his widow, wrote a children's book on grief. [00:36:39] Speaker 11: She's also charged now with his murder. [00:36:42] Speaker 12: He was faced with betrayal and terror. I know her in this sense. Is their story a tragic romance? [00:36:47] Speaker 13: Or a twisted tale of grief? The truth will come out. [00:36:51] Julie Grant: The Grief Author Murder Trial. Live coverage weekday mornings 8/7c on Court TV. [00:37:05] Cody Thomas: We'll be right back. Welcome back. Let's head back now to Utah, where the trial for Corey Richens is underway. She's the mom who wrote a children's book on grief for her children after her husband's death. The prosecutors say Richens killed her spouse, Eric, with a deadly dose of fentanyl added in his Moscow mule. Let's head back in now for more opening statements. [00:37:28] Speaker 8: If someone is poisoned, poisoned, what does it go down on the death certificate as? Can cops force you to do a lie detector test? Women, Utah prison, luxury prisons for the rich in America. Almost a year after Eric Richens' death, when Corey Richens knew the police were investigating her for his death, Corey Richens published a children's book on how to deal with the loss of a parent. And she promoted that children's book on local television and local radio. The state will present to you this evidence and more through a series of fact witnesses, expert witnesses, documents, and Corey Richens' own words. As you evaluate the evidence and you consider it and you weigh it, let me offer four recommendations. The first is the evidence will prove that Corey Richens murdered Eric Richens. But also consider the evidence that proves that Eric Richens did not kill himself or die accidentally. The evidence will prove that Corey Richens had the means, motive, and opportunity to murder Eric Richens. But please consider the evidence that proves no one else did. Consider the evidence leading up to Eric Richens' death that proves that Corey Richens murdered him. But also consider the evidence after Eric's death that also proves it. As you evaluate Corey Richens' conduct, consider the evidence that proves that she richly values and trades on her perceived appearance, affluence, privilege, and success. Let me please highlight two of the judge's instructions that he just provided. The first is stay focused on the evidence. [00:40:46] Speaker ?: What the attorneys say. [00:40:47] Speaker 8: What the attorneys say, how they say it, their voice inflection, none of that is evidence. Please stay focused on the evidence. Please take notes. As he said, you will probably only hear from a witness one time, and that is when the witness testifies. At the end of the trial, I'll stand back up here. And in closing argument, we will analyze the evidence. We will apply it to the elements that the judge instructed you on. And the state of Utah will ask you to find Corey Darden Richens guilty of the aggravated murder of Eric Richens, the attempted aggravated murder of Eric Richens, two counts of insurance fraud, and forgery. Back for a moment to the morning of March the 4th, 2022. It is 8:30. Medical examiners place Eric's body in a body bag onto a stretcher, and they wheel him out of his home for the last time. His boys are upstairs with their uncle. Corey Richens has not yet told them that Eric is dead. And she won't for a few more hours. The last of the sheriff's deputies leave, crime scene techs, medical examiners. And on Corey Richens' phone, the following three images are accessed. [00:43:03] Cody Thomas: All right, let's bring back in criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor Jack Rice. Jack, powerful opening statement. You know, he's walking through the money. He's walking through her boyfriend on the side. And there he's walking through evidence that he says will prove that Corey murdered Eric. But do you see any hurdles that the prosecution might have to jump through? Because, you know, the jury can see some of this evidence and think it might be a sure shot to convict her. So will the prosecution have to do some hula hoops, jump through some hoops to... [00:43:30] Speaker 14: Oh, without question, but let's think about how openings work here. Primacy and recency. What that means is the first thing you say is what they're going to remember. The last thing that you say is they're going to remember. How did they start? They started by talking about her boyfriend. They started talking about this relationship that she had despite her husband. Then you run through all of the evidence that they're going to present, right? How did they finish? He's in a body bag. He's in a body bag as they walk him out as his kids are upstairs and she hasn't even told him. And then she gets something on her phone. Primacy, recency. Do you want that jury to go with that? Absolutely. [00:44:07] Cody Thomas: And we heard from the prosecution now, Jack. And coming up, the defense's opening statement in the trial against Corey Richardson. We're going to see what they have to say. Keep it right here on your front row seat to justice. We're going to see what they have to say. We'll see what they have to say. [00:44:17] Speaker ?: We'll see what they have to say. We'll see what they have to say. We'll see what they have to say. We'll see what they have to say. We'll see what they have to say. We'll see what they have to say. We'll see what they have to say. We'll see what they have to say. We'll see what they have to say. We'll see what they have to say. We'll see what they have to say. We'll see what they have to say. We'll see what they have to say. [00:44:30] Cody Thomas: We'll see what they have to say. We'll see what they have to say. We'll see what they have to say. We'll see what they have to say. We'll see what they have to say. We'll see what they have to say. We'll see what they have to say. We'll see what they have to say. We'll see what they have to say. We'll see what they have to say. We'll see what they have to say. We'll see what they have to say. We'll see what they have to say. We'll see what they have to say. We'll see what they have to say. We'll see what they have to say. Let's go back into the courtroom now. It's time for the defense's opening statement. Number one, what's the address of the emergency? [00:45:02] Speaker 15: My address is not breathing. It's cold. Okay, what's the address? 282 Willow Court. 282 Willow Court? [00:45:20] Speaker 16: Uh-huh. Okay, what's the address number in case we get disconnected? 435-671-4987. Okay, is this going to be in Francis? I don't know. Okay, tell me exactly what happened. [00:45:38] Speaker 15: I don't know what this came in. [00:45:42] Speaker 16: I was sleeping with my kids. Okay, I can understand you. I need you to take a deep breath. What's going on? [00:45:48] Speaker 15: I don't know. I don't know. I just, I was sleeping in with my kids. I just came in the bed, in our bed, and I turned over. And his fridge is just cold. He's just cold. Who's cold? And he's not breathing? [00:46:13] Speaker 16: He's not breathing? [00:46:14] Speaker 15: No. He's not breathing? [00:46:16] Speaker ?: No. [00:46:17] Speaker 16: I need you to confirm it for me. Is he not breathing? No. Okay, we're going to, can you do CPR? No. [00:46:23] Speaker ?: No. [00:46:24] Speaker 15: I don't know. I don't know. You don't know. [00:46:27] Speaker 16: I'm going to tell you how to. Are you willing to do CPR? Yeah. Okay. Okay. [00:46:33] Speaker 9: Those were the sounds of a wife becoming a widow. Six and a half hours before that terrible phone call, Eric and Corey Richens were in that same bedroom, and they were celebrating. They were celebrating because Corey was about to close on the biggest real estate deal that her company had ever done. She was about to close on something called the Midway Mansion. Slide two, please. A sprawling multi-million dollar home in Midway that had been abandoned before construction was completed. And the plan was to fix it up just enough to resell it. In other words, repair the windows, make it look nice, there had been vandalism inside, clean it all out, get it ready to flip and sell. And the concept is to sell it for millions more than the bargain basement price they got because it was just a dilapidated, falling apart, abandoned property. And the plan was to flip it for so much that she was going to make millions of dollars of profit, at least $2 million for her and for all of her investors. And Eric was a part of this. Eric had been out at the property that very day, the day that he died, spreading gravel to make it look nice for open houses. And so it would be ready as soon as they closed. These two had other things to celebrate on March 3rd, besides this big deal that was going to make them a lot of money. One of the things they had to celebrate was that Eric's business was doing great. Can we have slide three? Eric worked as a stonemason. And you're going to see, this is 2020. This isn't even the year before he died. So this, his income kept going up and up, but he made, he declared to the IRS that he made over $750,000 that year. That was just in one year of what Eric was bringing in to their marriage and their family. They also lived in a beautiful home, slide four. It was a beautiful home. They got married in that home. That home was half Cory's. That's how it works in marriage. You get half of a home as soon as you live in it. They also had a two-story garage that you can kind of see in that picture a little bit back from the house. And it was filled, slide four, I mean slide five. It was filled with exotic animals. Eric was a huge hunter. He went on trips all over the world. They had the kind of money that they were blessed with. He could travel to Africa and travel to Mexico, which he did two weeks before he died. He was in Mexico hunting an exotic sheep, actually. They had four-wheelers. They had lots of vehicles. They had snowmobiles and ATVs and ski equipment. They were very blessed. They had a lot to celebrate. They also had a wonderful family. Slide six. The one thing that I don't think anybody in this core room is ever going to challenge, us included, is that Eric and Cory adored their boys. They were their world. They were in that place that those of us who've had kids have all been in where you spend your days driving them around to soccer and all their activities. And they're just the center of your world. And that's how both of these parents felt about their kids. They loved them a lot. And what's more important is that the boys adored their father, adored them, adored him. And Cory knew that about her sons and about her family. Their marriage had survived through some rough times, and you're going to hear about that. Like any marriage, it wasn't a perfect marriage. They'd gone through a really bad year where they'd both contemplated divorce, and they did what a lot of couples do. They went to marriage counseling. They worked it out, and they decided to stick it out. And they did. You're going to hear testimony from one of Eric's closest friends that in the few weeks before Eric died, he and Cory were the happiest together that he'd ever seen them. And you're going to hear that from one of Eric's closest friends. Now, on March 3rd, Eric started sending excited texts before their celebration to Cory, saying, Hey, let's get together. Let's have some celebratory shots. Slide 7, please. Oh, I'm sorry. You guys aren't going to be able to read that. It's really small. But it basically says, you want it? Thank you. You want to grab lunch today with a celebratory shot? That was Cory saying she can't, that she has other plans. But he's excited. He wants to celebrate about the big closing. When Eric got home the evening of March 3rd, after he'd been out at the property spreading the gravel, he got home and they all had dinner together as a family. Cory's mom dropped by. They visited with her mom. Her mom had actually been out at the property the same day with a carpenter trying to get some bids and get it ready to start getting it fixed up. Cory's mom left. They tucked their boys into bed. And around 9 o'clock, they decided to have their celebratory shot. A friend had given them a gift of some of those, I'm sure you guys have seen them, those copper mule, Moscow mule cups that you make like in breweries and in bars. And they decided to try out their new cups. So Cory made what's called a Moscow mule. And they also had a little shot, which is Eric's idea, of a little lemon drop. They had their drinks. They actually didn't finish them and set the cups in the sink at the house right there. Around 9:30, they were getting ready to go to bed and they heard one of the children who suffered from something called night terrors, where they scream out, they have nightmares. One of the children was crying out. So Cory went to sleep with her son around 9:30 that night. You're going to hear the police. Cory also told the police the day that they came to the house that she believed Eric might have had what we call a marijuana gummy. You're going to hear Eric loved marijuana gummies. He used them a lot. And the police found a whole bunch of them in the house in his things, in his clothes, in his closet. You know, he was a marijuana gummy user. Slide 8. These are all gummies that the police found in Eric's things. Some of them, you can tell, had commercial bags where he bought them from dispensaries. Some were in clear bags that he bought from somewhere else, the location unknown. So you can take it down. So as they're getting ready to go to bed, oh, you're going to hear that after Cory left the room, Eric was on his phone. And he was talking to a friend named Scott Wagner. And you're going to hear that Scott Wagner talked to him at 10 o'clock that night. That when Scott Wagner talked to him, he did not sound drunk. He did not sound high. He did not sound like he was on fentanyl or anything else. That there was no sound of the wife or children in the background. That he was alert. That he was having a totally normal conversation with Scott. And this was at 10:00 p.m. Shortly after 10:00 p.m., you're going to hear, forgot to mention, when Cory left the bedroom, she has always maintained from beginning to end that she left her phone in the room, in the charger next to her bed, which we all do at night. When we're about to go to bed, we charge our phones. Nothing unusual there. After 10:00 p.m., around 10:30 p.m., so this is an hour after Cory's left the bedroom and is in with her son, Cory's phone is unlocked and moves just a few feet. Now you're going to hear Cory's friends in this trial and some other people testify that Eric was always checking Cory's phone and you can kind of see why he probably was doing that based on what you've already heard from the state. Maybe he had good reasons, but he checked her phone a lot. So we know we did that at about 10:30 p.m., because we have proof that the phone opened and closed. Moved a short distance, like maybe walking around the bedroom, and then closed again. Moved a short distance, and that is the last thing we know for sure that Eric did the night that he died. Sometime after that, we don't know exactly when Eric died. Slide 9. When Eric died, his Apple Watch was hanging on a charger, nice and neat. His phone was in a charger on the nightstand. He was lying in his underwear, like when you go to bed. He was on his back on his side of the bed. So it appears pretty clear that Eric went to bed and fell asleep and died in his sleep. You're also going to hear, slide 10, that there was an empty pill bottle right next to him in his nightstand. And I want you to pay careful attention to this. The empty pill bottle expired in 2016. Made out to him for pain pills. [00:56:59] Cody Thomas: All right, the defense starting their opening statement, trying to evoke a little emotion with that 911 call. And then we also heard her talking about marijuana gummies that Eric enjoyed, but those are a little different than fentanyl. All right, coming up after the break, we're going to hear more of the defense's opening statements in the Corey Rickens murder trial. Keep it right here on Court TV. You know the drill. [00:57:17] Speaker ?: Be there when it pops. Get to it. We'll get this guy. Like we always do. This is going to be fun. [00:57:22] Julie Grant: Then let's get it on. I love this team. Find Ion on your channel guide of favorite streaming service. [00:57:38] Speaker 13: Welcome back. [00:57:54] Cody Thomas: We've been watching opening statements out of Utah, where it is day one of the murder trial for defendant Corey Rickens. Now, Rickens faces multiple charges, including aggravated murder, as prosecutors accuse her of scheming to kill her husband with a lethal dose of fentanyl. But Rickens denies the charges, and her defense team says, quote, "What the public has been told bears little resemblance to the truth." Now, she faces a potential life sentence if convicted. But let's go back to the courtroom now, right where we left off. We're listening to the defense's opening statement. [00:58:24] Speaker 9: That's going to become important later. Sometime after 3:00 a.m., Corey wakes up and comes back into a dark bedroom. You're going to hear she unlocked her phone. Probably, we're not going to dispute the times that the state just mentioned. The phone gets unlocked shortly after 3:00 a.m., which is what time Corey says from day one that she got up. She always tells the police I got up at 3:00. The phone verifies that. The phone moved around the house a little bit. You're going to hear the distances in the house. There's going to be investigators that are going to tell you how many feet from the master bedroom to the bathroom to the kitchen. They're going to tell you about how many feet are in that house if you're walking around the house. It appears clear she walked around the house just a little bit for a few minutes. And then the phone stops being active, which is indicative of being back in the charger, indicative of not moving anymore. And a few minutes later, you hear the 911 call that you guys just heard. So that gives her enough time to crawl into the bed, touch her husband, and realize he's cold. Just about three minutes. That's all it took. And she picks her phone up, calls 911. You're going to see that the phone records prove all of this. At that time, I believe everyone's going to agree, and I think the state even admitted it in their opening. It's pretty clear he'd been dead for several hours. And you're going to actually see a photo when we pass our blood pools in the position that we lay in. It's not circulating anymore because our heart's not working. And you're going to see a picture of his back, and you're going to see that the blood had -- he had been dead long enough for the blood to pool on his back because he was laying on his back. So that usually indicates he'd been dead for several hours, and the medical examiner's going to tell you that. So those six hours, ladies and gentlemen, between 9:00 p.m. and 3:00 a.m., somewhere in that time, Eric Richens died. Somewhere in that time, he ingested a fatal dose of fentanyl. What you will never hear after four years of investigation, where as recently as two weeks ago they were back searching that house. After four years of investigation and five weeks of this trial, you know what you're never going to hear? Is how that fentanyl got inside of him because there is zero evidence of that. To this day -- slide 11, please -- you're going to see that his death certificate -- oh, that's the wrong thing, Katie. Just take it down. Sorry about that, that's the wrong thing. His death certificate reads, "But the manner of his death is still unknown to this day." You're going to hear testimony that a medical examiner has the ability to declare the manner of someone's death. It can be homicide, it can be suicide, it can be accidental overdose, it can be murder, it can be anything. To this day, the medical examiner, the professional that's the head of declaring how people die in the state of Utah, has never been able to determine the manner of Eric Richens' death. Now, you're going to hear first responders and law enforcement tell you that no fentanyl was found in the bedroom the night of his death. But you're also going to hear them that they didn't search for it. You know, we've all seen the TV shows, the crime shows, what do you do if there's a murder, right? If you think there's a murder, tape it off. No one gets in or out. It becomes a crime scene. You search everything. You search the closet, you search the bathroom, you search the vehicles, you search the house, you search the office. They didn't do that. All kinds of friends and family -- and you're going to see video of all the people that were in the house that day. There was no restrictions on anybody. And guess what was sitting in the sink? The cups. They were sitting there. They were never taken. They were never tested. Nothing. The nanny ended up putting them in the dishwasher the next morning and they still had fluid in them. You're going to hear the day after Eric died, Cory -- or I'm sorry, not day after, day of -- they started interviewing Cory over and over and over again about what happened that night. You're going to hear for yourselves that her explanation of what happened that night has never changed from that call you just listened to. As far as the timing, as far as what happened -- never. You're going to hear that. [01:03:25] Speaker ?: You're going to hear it. [01:03:25] Speaker 9: You're going to hear that before Eric's body was even taken out of their bedroom, Cory was told the body was going to a morgue for an autopsy. So within an hour of the cops getting there, she knew there was going to be an autopsy of his body. And what happens when you have an autopsy? You figure out how someone died. That's what doctors do. They test your blood. They test your bodily tissues. So she knew that. But did she tell the police or the medical responders or the EMS, "Hey, guys, you might want to check for fentanyl. My husband used it all the time." Did she do that? Because with one sentence, she could have taken all suspicion off her and made this about a drug overdose. But she didn't. As a matter of fact, she could have staged a whole drug overdose scene with fentanyl pills on his stomach and everything all over the place and say, "Gosh, you know, I tried to get him in rehab for years and I couldn't." But she didn't. And you know why? Because she told her truth. She told her truth over and over again and it's exactly what she told that 911 operator that you just heard and you're going to hear over and over at trial. I don't know what happened. Now you're going to hear that Eric Richardson's family simply could not accept that. They needed someone or something to blame for losing someone they loved that wasn't Eric himself. And that's totally understandable. No family ever wants to believe that behind closed doors, someone they love is using drugs. No one wants to believe that. But the family's need to make sense of Eric's death went way beyond what you would expect a normal grieving family to go through. You will hear that as the detective arrived at the house, Eric's sisters spoke with the detective in the driveway. This is before anyone in the house knows how Eric died. If he had a heart attack, if he had an aneurysm, a lot of people were talking about aneurysms at the scene and you're going to hear that. Nobody knew yet how he died. The sisters were telling the police Corey probably did this. Corey probably did this day one. His sister Katie tells the police, and you're going to hear her testify about this, that Corey had recently found out that Eric had put all their assets in a trust and that Katie was in charge of the trust. She's going to say I'm in charge and that Corey didn't like that. She told that to the police at the scene. So Corey already knew before Eric ever died that his assets were protected in a trust and didn't automatically come to her if he died, that there were legal things you had to go through. So you're going to hear that it didn't stop there. The Richens family hired a private investigator and you're going to see how much they paid that private investigator and it's almost $100,000 and they paid that investigator to spend every waking minute digging up as much dirt as he possibly could. from Corey Richens to try to implicate her in Eric's death, even though the state already had all the evidence from the scene that night that would show what happened in those six hours, right? The investigator goes looking for skeletons in the closet and boy, did he find some. You're going to hear that after an exhaustive private investigation into every single thing about Corey Richens' life, he uncovered plenty of things. But I'm quite sure she's not proud of. She's not. [01:07:36] Cody Thomas: All right, defense opening statement there. We're going to hear more of that on the other side of the break and Corey Richens' murder trial. Keep it right here on CORE TV. Welcome back to CORE TV live. I'm Cody Thomas in today for Ted Rollins. Now, we're in Utah this hour for the trial against defendant Corey Richens. Now, Richens wrote a children's book to help her sons grieve the death of their father, but now she's standing trial for his murder. She has pleaded not guilty to murdering Eric Richens, but prosecutors have accused Corey of killing Eric by dosing his Moscow mule with fentanyl. Now, they insist she was having an affair and needed him out of the way for financial gain. Let's head back in now where the defense is still in its opening statement. [01:08:31] Speaker 9: She's not a perfect person. She's a flawed person. I would submit we all are. But the prosecutor just turned some of her most intimate, personal correspondence into entertainment with bubbles and slides. And they're going to continue to assassinate her character throughout this trial. So get ready. The judge has instructed you not to prejudge this case and to wait until you hear all of the evidence before you make up your mind. So let me assure you, no marriage is what it appears on the surface. What happens when we close our bedroom door is very private and is not always known by family or friends. And I think you're going to learn a lot about Corey and Eric's relationship in this trial. And I would ask you to wait before you go rush to judgment like they have about her sexual morality, her personal decisions about her marriage and about her family. The prosecution is going to spend days and weeks telling you all about arguments Corey's had with her husband in years past problems in their marriage. Yeah, they had them. Disagreements, infidelities, ups and downs in their marriage. All true. They're also going to tell you all about Corey's business. They tore it apart. They examined every bank account, every real estate deal she ever did, her taxes, when she made money, when she lost money, if she paid her taxes on time, if she bounced checks, if she borrowed too much, if she didn't borrow enough. If she borrowed wisely, if she was too risky in her business. You're going to hear all of that. None of that has anything to do with those six hours, but you're going to sit through it and you're going to listen to all of it. And you're going to hear testimony about her most intimate personal and business affairs going back years before Eric died. That's the evidence you're going to hear. That's the evidence you're going to hear about Valentine's Day. You're going to hear that he had discussed with Corey that he was going to drive the kids to soccer. So they're asking you to believe that she secretly put narcotics in her husband's food right before he's going to drive the three things that matter the most to her in the world to soccer. You're going to hear that Eric didn't even, that this incident wasn't even a blip to Eric. He had a professional allergy doctor that he saw very shortly after this incident. He never even brought this up. He never even talked about it with his doctor. You're going to hear that he laughed about it with one of Corey's friends who visited shortly after. He thought it was funny. You're going to hear that people who use oxycodone or hydrocodone like that bottle said also tend to have allergic reactions. They can have very similar symptoms if you use pain pills to the symptoms described of what Eric experienced on Valentine's Day. Here's what you're not going to see in this trial. You're not going to see one single bit of evidence showing what was in that sandwich, if he went to a doctor, if he had any tests run because he didn't. No evidence at all. Now the family's investigator regularly updated law enforcement on his investigation. He sent them everything he found. He sent them witnesses to interview. He sent them interviews he did of the witnesses first. You're going to hear this very same private investigator took Eric's computer before the police got it and had it for a long time in his possession. Looking through all of Eric's computer. You're also going to hear Eric's family went and hired experts. They hired experts in toxicology, in finances, in handwriting analysis, paid them all a bunch of money. And now those same people that the family hired are going to appear here as witnesses for the state to testify against Corey. You're going to hear that the family had constant communications with the prosecution team right up until they decided to charge Corey a year later. Now as you've already heard from this prosecutor, they're going to spend weeks in this trial trying to convince you that Corey had reasons to kill her husband. Because they can't show you that she did for her husband. You're not going to hear a single one of Eric's family, Corey's investors, Corey's friends, her lover, her accountant, her broker, her lawyer, her marriage counselor, her accountants, her husband's friends, her husband's co-workers. Not one of those people is ever going to be able to tell you what happened in those six hours. Not one of them. You're going to hear me ask each one of them in this trial. Do you know whether or not Eric Richens knowingly ingested fentanyl? Do you know whether he accidentally ingested fentanyl thinking he was taking another kind of pill and it had fentanyl in it and he took it and accidentally ingested it? Do you know whether he mixed fentanyl with alcohol after Corey went to sleep? The answer every single time from every single one of these witnesses is going to be no. Now here's what you will hear. You will hear that Eric suffered from pain. A lot. That he suffered from knee and back pain related to his work. He did hard work. He was a stonemason lifting heavy stones and he also was a huge outdoorsman. He was hiking, snowmobiling, skiing, hunting and he had pain in his back and his knees from that kind of activity. He also had been diagnosed with Lyme disease. He believed he had it and he claimed to people that were very close to him that he suffered with intense bouts of pain that he believed was related to Lyme disease. But this is a man's man, this guy. He's a hunter. He's a macho guy, right? He didn't want to show weakness. He didn't want people to know he was suffering. He didn't share that with a lot of people. You're going to hear that Eric was so dependent on the drugs like the gummies that gave him relief from his pain that he would even take it and smuggle it in his luggage when he went on trips out of the country and out of the continental United States when you've got to go through TSA. That's how much he needed that relief. Now you're going to hear on one of the calls that they were recording when Corey was talking to her family, she tells her family that she purchased pain pills for Eric at his request. She purchased them from a woman named Carmen that she knew who cleaned her properties for her and she knew Carmen had access to people that have drugs. You will hear that she asked Carmen to get oxycodone. Oxycodone, which is very similar to the hydrocodone that you saw in that pill bottle right there. [01:16:14] Speaker 8: Your Honors, I apologize. [01:16:16] Speaker 9: May we approach. [01:16:21] Cody Thomas: All right, let's bring back in criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor Jack Rice. Jack, they brought up that pill bottle. The defense brought up that pill bottle that was found right next to where Eric Richen's body was found. I don't think they sat on it long enough. [01:16:33] Speaker 14: Oh, you're absolutely right. I mean, that is what this case is going to be about in my mind. As I listen to this, as I think about this, the problem is that some pieces of evidence never go away. Now, from the state's perspective, this isn't about anything else. This is all about her killing him. And I appreciate that's the approach. And yet at the same time, let's think about what that pill bottle is. It goes back to 2016. And yet he keeps filling it up. Filling it up with what? It certainly wasn't what was supposed to be in that pill bottle. And yet he continues to do so. You can't dismiss that. And the problem is that the state would love to have that dismissed. I'm thinking of it from the perspective of the defense. And if what you do is you place everything right at the foot of that bottle, you talk about the physicality of what his job is, the brutality of what he's dealing with, the pain that he's dealing with. And the problem is, is the longer you take anything, the less it works. And so what happens, and I can say this, having done this for 30 years, is that I see clients, they get stronger and stronger and stronger. And people who start with prescriptions start buying stuff on the street because they can't get it from docs anymore. Now you can't control what's in it. You may not even know what's in it. And at a certain point, you can't control how much you take. And it doesn't take much fentanyl or almost none sometimes, and you can overdose. And that's where I think the defense has to go. If they don't do this well, they could absolutely lose this case. [01:18:01] Cody Thomas: Absolutely. And Jack, that kind of goes to what you and I were talking about in one of the earlier commercial breaks about building this world around Eric Richens. Because, you know, when people die, they're always labeled as this is the perfect person. They couldn't hurt a fly. They were this, they were that. But there are sometimes some skeletons in the closet when it comes to people. Is that the world that the defense is probably trying to build here? [01:18:20] Speaker 14: You're absolutely right again. That is exactly what can happen. When we think about how when you have death cases, when you have somebody who died, you have a tendency of sort of rising them almost into immortality. And the problem is that's not how any of us are. And I think one of the challenges that the defense is going to have is they're going to have to be able to describe the darkness of this relationship. The darkness that Eric carried, all that he carried and what he was willing to do to keep going at this. The problem is, is that you risk something. If you can create the darkness that Eric is, you also may be creating the motive for what he would use to kill him. And so it's this very, very, very, very thin line. It's this scene that you're trying to run. I mean, as you were talking, you and I were talking off the air. So much of what we do is not about law. This is about human beings and about world views and how we see the world and what people deserve and what people don't deserve and why we do it and how it works. And that has nothing to do with what a statute says or what the elements of a charge are. And that's the, dare I say it, the art of what it is to be a trial lawyer. [01:19:38] Cody Thomas: Absolutely. And Jack, you know, you're mentioning you're dealing with human beings, world views, moral compasses. Now, let me ask you this to play a little bit on the other side. At what point, because this, this, this case is kind of built a little bit on circumstantials. At what point does, you know, circumstantial but compelling quietly become not enough? Because you, the prosecution might be asking the jury to fill in some gaps or to make up some own assumptions for themselves. Or they're going to have to. [01:20:05] Speaker 14: That's what circumstantial evidence is about. I mean, remember the bottom line is circumstantial evidence is still evidence. And it is. And what can happen is a jury can take it and say, with all of this circumstantial evidence, that was enough to prove that they did it. Or, and by the way, they did this twice. What the, the prosecution did was they basically said, not only do we have enough to prove that she did it, who else but her could have done it? So in other words, they're actually looking at it two different ways. They're coming at you from two different directions. And so that's what they're going to try to do. What the defense has to be able to do is bring up that pill bottle again. They got to bring it up again. It has to come back. And again. That's it. You got to be sitting with that and say, this is a, this is a terrible tragedy. It's a terrible tragedy. And this is a man who struggled and nobody knew about it. Mm-hmm. And that pill bottle, you cannot ignore. Absolutely. [01:21:01] Cody Thomas: Jack Rice, always appreciate your insight and appreciate it even more sitting across from here in person, sir. Thanks, brother. We're going to come back. We're going to get back to more opening statements from the defense and Corey Richards' murder trial right here after the break. Keep it right here on Court TV. [01:21:17] Speaker 10: This is the story of the Richards. Eric, a father of three, met an untimely end. And Corey, his widow, wrote a children's book on grief. [01:21:27] Speaker 11: She's also charged now with his murder. He was faced with betrayal and terror. [01:21:32] Speaker 12: I know her in this sense. Is their story a tragic romance? [01:21:36] Speaker 13: Or a twisted tale of grief? The truth will come out. [01:21:40] Julie Grant: The Grief Father Murder Trial. Live coverage weekday mornings 8/7c on Court TV. [01:21:59] Cody Thomas: Welcome back to Court TV Live. I'm Cody Thomas in today for Ted Rollins. Now we're back in one of Utah's highest profile murder trials. The murder trial for Corey Richards, who prosecutors say schemed to kill her husband, Eric Richards, with a lethal dose of fentanyl. Now the year following his death, Corey even wrote a children's book about grief. But the state of Utah says this was all a ruse just to hide her murder. If she's found guilty, she faces a potential life sentence. Corey Richards has pled not guilty to all of those charges. But let's head back in now where the defense is still in its opening statement. [01:22:31] Speaker 9: It's going to happen a lot over the next five weeks, so get ready. You're going to hear that oxycodone is a fairly low dose pain pill that you can get prescriptions for. Most prescriptions for oxycodone are around the range of about 10 milligrams per pill. That's about, if your doctor gives you oxycodone, that's about what you usually get it for. If you want stronger oxycodone, like up to 30 milligrams, you generally either have to have a special prescription from a doctor or you're going to hear that you can get it on the street. Right. And the state has talked about this gentleman, Robert Crozier. Robert Crozier sold higher strength oxys up to 30 milligrams. He's going to testify that back in 2022, when before Eric died, that's all he sold was oxy that he didn't sell fentanyl at that time. It hadn't really got into the country yet like it is now, right where it's everywhere. It hadn't really happened yet. He was just selling oxys and he sold the stronger dose. So you're going to hear and you're going to see evidence that Corey asked Carmen for something stronger. And that Carmen, you're going to hear from Mr. Crozier, purchased 30 milligram oxys from Crozier. Crozier is going to say that is what he sold. Carmen Lauber was 30 milligram oxy pills. You're also going to hear that in Eric's autopsy, there's no oxy in his system. So the pills that were purchased by Carmen Lauber could not have been the cause of Eric's death. The fentanyl had to come from somewhere else. You're going to hear Carmen testify now that Corey asked her for fentanyl. But what you're going to hear is that that was not Carmen's original story. That when Carmen was originally interviewed, she said no mention of fentanyl. It was all about oxy. There was no fentanyl. Carmen talks like she doesn't even know what fentanyl is, right? Guess when she changes her testimony. She changes her testimony. She changes her testimony when the police say, hey, you know what? We caught you. We caught you with drugs. We caught you with guns. And if you don't say what we want you to say, you're going to jail for a really, really long time, federal and state. But we're going to give you a ticket. We're going to give you a free ticket to get out of all the trouble you're in. But you've got to say Corey said fentanyl. And she changes her story. You're going to get to evaluate her credibility and what you think of her. You're going to hear that just a few weeks before Eric died, guess where he was? Mexico. Guess where the fentanyl comes into this country from? Mexico. Now, after you've listened to all the evidence in this case, after you've looked at all the exhibits, you're going to be asked to determine what happened in that six hours. Not the three years before, not the two years before, not the one year before. In those six hours, you're going to have to decide if Corey Richens intentionally and knowingly poisoned secretly her husband, ending the life of the father of her kids, knowing that she was going to cause those little boys to feel pain every day for the rest of their life for the loss of their father. And that she did it for money and that she did it for money that was less than what she was about to make on one of her own deals for way less than what Eric Richens would have earned over the next two years, three years, four years. Way less than you knew she was guaranteed to get because she knew about the existence of the trust. She knew there's no guarantee on the assets or the home. Right. Finally, you're going to be asked to determine whether or not the sandwich incident was an attempt to commit a murder. That's going to be an easy one for you. You're going to be asked to whether she lied to the life insurance companies. And I presume the state's going to argue that the lie was that she didn't cause his death, because if you cause someone's death, you can't get the life insurance. So I guess that's what they're saying the fraud is. And then there's a little flyer that she got in the mail that we've all gotten in the mail that if you're a credit union member about once or twice a year, you get this little thing in the mail that says, Hey, we'll give you $100,000 free life insurance. Just sign here because we are so glad you're our credit union member. And so she signed that little while before Eric died for $100,000, $100,000. That's Eric Richens made that in two months, right? Three months. And they're saying she forged his name on that little flyer when she mailed it in in order to prove that. [01:27:50] Cody Thomas: All right. Coming up, more opening statements in the Corey Richens murder trial. Plus, Nick Reiner just appeared in court for his arraignment as he is charged with killing his parents. The latest on that hearing after the break. This is Court TV, your front row seat to justice. All right. Welcome back to Court TV Live. I'm Cody Thomas in today for Ted Rollins. Now, before we head back into that Utah courtroom, let's check in on some breaking news out of California, where Nick Reiner was arraigned in court just moments ago. And he has officially pleaded not guilty in the killing of his parents, Rob Reiner and Michelle Singer Reiner. Now, Reiner sat in the glass box and only spoke to the court to agree to waive his rights to a speedy trial. He was not wearing the suicide prevention smock that he was seen wearing during his first court appearance back in December. Now, Nick has been held without bail since his arrest hours after the actor director and his wife of 36 years were found dead with stab wounds back in December of last year at their home in Los Angeles. Let me bring in my guest for this hour to discuss criminal defense attorney, former prosecutor Jack Rice. Jack, are you surprised at this? Not guilty. [01:29:01] Speaker 14: Yeah, I'm not. But you've got to remember everything that's going on underneath this. They just took this before the grand jury. They just came back with first degree premeditated murder charges. So we're looking at those seriously right now as well. Now, you have to look backward and realize there's some mental health issues. He was under conservatorship earlier. There may be issues of that in this case. So even if they have him, even if they have evidence in this case, if those charges are there, there's no benefit, frankly, for him to plead guilty at this point, because the likely could be if he pleads guilty, he goes to prison for the rest of his life. My response is, why would anybody do that? And I think that's really where we sit. But I think this really highlights what's coming next, which is enormous changes. That's what I mean. [01:29:45] Cody Thomas: You know, the evidence is so overwhelming. And I'm just sitting here thinking if and when this goes to trial, it's almost like that scene in Rocky IV where Adrian tells Rocky, you can't win. It seems like he won't be able to win with all this evidence. [01:29:57] Speaker 14: Trust me, I've been Rocky in that case. Right, right. You know what I mean? You can't do it. So that's exactly where we sit with this. But think about it this way. And I think people will watch trials, including the one we're dealing with right now. There is years of a tale before this. And remember, it's not just first appearances. We have omnibus appearances and pretrials and contested pretrials. And you're dealing with emotions and limiting to try to exclude pieces of evidence. There's also competency issues. And remember, competency, and I don't have to go back to his conservatorship. My response is, what was his competency at the time of the murders themselves and the deaths, the homicides of his parents? What about his competency throughout this process? Because competency cuts two ways. It's going to also be what's going on right now. Does he have the ability to understand what he's being charged with and help in his defense right now? Let alone his competency at the time of the incidents themselves. Think about that. This is a year, two years in the making. This is an enormous fight. I've done these myself. And I can tell you, they take years off of my life every time I do them. [01:31:08] Cody Thomas: And mental health is going to be paramount. [01:31:10] Speaker 14: Yeah, mine, too. [01:31:12] Cody Thomas: Stop laughing at me. No, no, no. Come on. Trying to keep it hidden now. Jack Rice is the big one, man. We're going to have to keep our eyes on him. And of course, to our viewers, we'll keep you updated with all the updates as we get them to our newsroom. Now, back to Utah, where it is day one of the murder trial for defendant Corey Richens, where Richens faces a potential life sentence if she's convicted of murdering her husband, Eric, who died from a lethal dose of fentanyl back in 2022. Now, in the months after Eric's death, Corey authored a children's book titled Are You With Me?, featuring a father with angel wings watching over his young son. Now, Corey and Eric shared three children together. Prosecutors point to Corey's alleged affair at the time of Eric's death and accused her of masterminding Eric's murder for financial gain. Let's get you right back to the courtroom now for the remainder of the defense's opening statements. [01:31:58] Speaker 9: In order to prove that, they have to prove that Eric didn't allow her to do it. Now, I'm telling you right now, wives everywhere sign their husbands' names on a lot of things. You've got to find that she did it without his knowledge, and I don't know how they're going to prove that. Now, there is one piece of good news as you evaluate this evidence and the facts in this case. There is some good news for you. There are going to be a lot of facts that we actually agree on that we're not even going to challenge. We'll just be like, yeah, yeah, that happened. Hopefully that's going to help the case move a little faster for you guys. But interestingly, even though we're not going to dispute the facts, we sure are going to dispute what the facts mean. Sometimes you can look at the same facts and see two very different results. Let me show you what I mean. Katie, can you put up slide 12? [01:33:01] Speaker 17: Is it up on your screen, Katie? One second, please. [01:33:03] Speaker 9: The judge has to give us the pass to get into the screen. [01:33:07] Speaker 17: This happens from time to time. Okay. [01:33:09] Speaker ?: Ah, Brittany. Can you do me a favor? Disconnect from table one. [01:33:12] Speaker 17: Plug back in. [01:33:14] Speaker ?: Okay, one moment. There it is. So, look at this picture of a young woman in a fur coat. See it? Yes. [01:33:17] Speaker 4: There it is. Now look again. [01:33:19] Speaker ?: Do you see a witch? There it is. There it is. There it is. There it is. [01:33:20] Speaker 4: So, look at this picture of a young woman in a fur coat. See it? [01:33:26] Speaker ?: Now look again. [01:33:26] Speaker 4: Do you see a witch? [01:33:27] Speaker ?: Who knows? No. There's going to be times in this case. where the state is going to discuss facts with certain witnesses. [01:33:31] Speaker 17: And they're going to be talking to the police. And they're going to be talking to the police. [01:33:33] Speaker ?: And they're going to be talking to the police. And they're going to be talking to the police. [01:33:35] Speaker 9: And they're going to be talking to the police. And they're going to be talking to the police. And they're going to be talking to the police. And they're going to be talking to the police. And they're going to be talking to the police. And they're going to be talking to the police. And they're going to be talking to the police. And they're going to be talking to the police. [01:33:43] Speaker ?: And they're going to be talking to the police. [01:33:44] Speaker 9: And they're going to be talking to the police. [01:33:45] Speaker ?: And they're going to be talking to the police. [01:33:46] Speaker 9: And they're going to be talking to the police. And they're going to be talking to the police. And they're going to be talking to the police. And they're going to be talking to the police. And they're going to be talking to the police. [01:33:51] Speaker ?: And they're going to be talking to the police. [01:33:52] Speaker 9: And they're going to be talking to the police. And they're going to be talking to the police. And they're going to be talking to the police. And they're going to be talking to the police. And they're going to be talking to the police. And they're going to be talking to the police. And they're going to be talking to the police. And they're going to be talking to the police. And they're going to be talking to the police. And they're going to be talking to the police. And I'm going to take those same facts. And those same witnesses. And I'm going to show you a widow. At the end of the trial, if you can still see both faces, that's reasonable doubt. The judge has instructed you that the burden of proof in this case lies with this table. Katie, can you put up slide 13? Can you make it a little bigger, please? The law presumes the defendant is not guilty of the crime charge. She's innocent right now. And you have to accept that to do your job. The presumption persists unless the prosecution's evidence convinces you beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty. Katie, can you put up slide 14? This burden, this is a heavy burden for the state. We know that. And our Constitution gives them that burden. Our Constitution, that same Constitution, promises Corey Richens a fair trial by a jury of her peers. And that's you. Her fellow citizens who took an oath to swear that you will stand between Corey and the government and make them meet their duty before they can get through you. And they've got to meet it by proof beyond a reasonable doubt. More powerful than just more likely or not that she did it. It has to be firmly convincing you. There are very few things we know with absolute certainty. The criminal case doesn't require proof that overcomes every possible doubt. But if you think there is a real possibility that she is not guilty, you must give her the benefit of the doubt and find her not guilty. And that's the burden that's on your table. When you go back into that jury room, that's going to be on y'all's table. I want you to be courageous, to pay attention, to stand strong, and to hold the government to that burden that's on their table. Hold them to it. And at the end of this case, you will see Corey Richens is innocent. She is counting on you to do your job. And the only proper verdict to return in this case, which we are going to ask you to return at the end of this case, is to find her not guilty on all charges. Thank you.