KAMAS, UTAH — A Summit County, Utah jury found Kouri Richins guilty of murdering her husband by poisoning him with a fentanyl-laced drink in March 2022. The jury deliberated for about three hours before reaching its verdict.

Richins was also found guilty of fraudulently claiming insurance benefits after her husband's death and attempted murder over an earlier poisoning incident. She had pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Prosecutors called more than 40 witnesses during the trial, while Richins' defense team did not call any witnesses and rested their case without her testifying. An aggravated murder conviction carries a sentence of 25 years to life in prison.

The court heard that Richins had racked up millions of dollars in debt and had taken out life insurance policies on her husband. Prosecutors said she was having an extramarital affair and falsely believed she would inherit her husband's estate worth more than $4 million after he died.

"She wanted to leave Eric Richins but did not want to leave his money," said Summit County prosecutor Brad Bloodworth.

Officials said Richins poisoned her husband's sandwich in an earlier incident, nearly killing him, before later increasing the dosage until he died. Between December 2021 and February 2022, she texted a person previously arrested on drug charges asking for prescription pain medication, according to court documents.

Richins received hydrocodone pills before requesting fentanyl, according to court documents. Three days after obtaining the drugs in February 2022, Richins and her husband had a Valentine's Day dinner after which he fell ill.

On March 4, 2022, Richins called the police in the middle of the night to say she had found her husband unresponsive at their home outside Park City, Utah. She told authorities she had served her husband a mixed vodka drink in bed and then went to sleep with one of her young children who was having a night terror.

A medical examiner found that Eric Richins died from a fentanyl overdose with five times the lethal dosage of the drug in his system. Richins was arrested in March 2023, exactly one year after her husband's death.

Two months before her arrest in 2023, Richins published the picture book "Are You With Me?" which she dedicated to her husband. "We wrote this book and we're really hoping that it provides some comfort for not just obviously, our family, but other families that are going through the same thing," Richins said. The couple had three children together.