Kouri Richins is serving life without parole, yet the next fight over her murder conviction reaches beyond her own defense team. Two sheriffs have been indicted on allegations of interfering with the prosecution. Her lawyers pointed to the related investigation when they sought to delay a ruling on a new trial.

In September, Richins filed a sealed motion seeking a pause. She argued that an ongoing obstruction inquiry could shed light on whether her trial had been fair. Prosecutor Brad Bloodworth disputed the connection, saying the later filing introduced alleged problems in a closed pretrial hearing even though the existing new-trial argument had challenged the judge’s treatment of the defense at trial.

At the center of the related inquiry is Eric Mainord, a detective who investigated the death of Eric Richins. An anonymous letter containing allegations about Mainord reached prosecutors weeks before Kouri’s trial. Accounts drawn from search warrant affidavits describe an alleged effort to damage Mainord’s candidacy against Wasatch County Sheriff Jared Rigby. Investigators also looked at a recorded jail conversation with a man prosecutors characterized as a supporter and media adviser of Kouri Richins.

Rigby and former Summit County Sheriff Dave Edmunds have pleaded not guilty to felony obstruction charges. Rigby also faces a false-statement misdemeanor charge. Their public charging documents were redacted as a judge prepared to consider releasing them on November 4. None of those charges is itself a finding that Richins received an unfair trial.

Richins was convicted of Eric’s murder and related offenses in March 2026. Her bid to pause the new-trial case was denied and withdrawn. Tony Brueski examines the unusual path from an election-season letter to a convicted murderer’s courtroom strategy, and what the defense still has to prove to get a new trial.

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Kouri Richins' own marketing manager told her on a recorded jail call that he was helping a sheriff's reelection campaign because the lead detective on her case had 'helped create this problem' for her. That call sits inside the obstruction case that produced indictments against two Utah sheriffs, unsealed October 7, and it complicates the story her lawyers want to tell.

Wasatch County Sheriff Jared Rigby and former Summit County Sheriff Dave Edmunds pleaded not guilty to obstructing justice in State v. Kouri Richins. Investigators allege Rigby tried to force Detective Eric Mainord out of the sheriff's race by circulating thirteen allegations about him, allegations that would have forced prosecutors to disclose them and weakened Mainord as a witness against Kouri. The envelope, the anonymous letter that Rigby's lawyer says the charges accuse him of sending, the records request in Edmunds' name: all of it is in sworn affidavits and court filings, none of it is proven.

Greg Hall met with Rigby for twenty minutes in January and says he offered campaign help for free. Prosecutors seized his phone on day seven of the trial to learn whether he helped use the allegations to hinder it. He has not been charged. Mainord was dropped from the state's witness list, never testified, and appeared only on a video the jury watched of his interview with Carmen Lauber.

Kouri's lawyers argue the sheriffs' case supports a new trial whether the allegations are true or false. Prosecutors answer that the witness never testified and the judge screened the material before trial. Her last filing is due October 16, and a November 4 hearing decides whether the blacked-out indictments become public. Tony Brueski weighs whether any of this can touch a conviction built on fentanyl toxicology, a housekeeper's testimony, and a forged insurance policy.

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A recorded jail call connects the pieces of Kouri Richins’ latest post-conviction move — and the trail leads back to someone who sat in her corner at sentencing. Prosecutors are calling her sealed court filing ‘a misleading pretext,’ and the investigation she’s trying to use as ammunition may involve her own associate.

Kouri Richins was convicted of aggravated murder for poisoning her husband Eric with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl. She attempted it first on Valentine’s Day with a fentanyl-laced sandwich. Two weeks later, she mixed it into a cocktail. Eric didn’t survive. The jury found her guilty on every count, and she’s now serving life without parole.

After conviction, Kouri’s defense filed a motion for a new trial, arguing the judge was biased. When a different judge rejected the bid to disqualify him, the defense owed prosecutors a response on the new trial motion itself. Instead, they filed a sealed motion to pause everything — citing an ongoing obstruction investigation into a local sheriff who allegedly tried to use anonymous allegations against the detective who helped build the murder case.

Prosecutors responded publicly. What they revealed: the sealed motion introduces completely new judicial bias claims that have nothing to do with the original new trial arguments. The new claims involve a closed pre-trial hearing — not the conduct the jury saw.

Greg Hall — the man prosecutors describe as Kouri’s admirer and media advisor — spoke at her sentencing and told the court she volunteered at soup kitchens. On a recorded jail call, Hall said he helped the sheriff’s reelection campaign ‘primarily because Mr. Mainord helped create this problem with Ms. Richins by investigating her.’ The detective Hall targeted never testified at Kouri’s trial. His credibility was never before the jury.

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