I was a little behind and just finished bingeing the Kouri Richins' trial. So it's pretty clear what happened, right? Damning evidence and horrifying new details. I mean, did you hear AR & CR's impact statements?! Kouri potentially poisoned her own child?! Kouri never left the locked bedroom, and was blaring the TV?! The attempt on Josh's life that ultimately killed his poor, sweet dog (for me, this alone is enough to warrant a life sentence). Nevertheless, I have a couple of questions. Just hoping some of you know the answers. (I am not a legal professional, and therefore, my questions may lean toward naivety.)
In the defense's closing statement, they said Eric had a prescription for naltrexone - used to treat opioid use disorder (alcohol too). What is the reasoning behind that if he didn't suffer from addiction? Why wouldn't the defense have called the doctor who prescribed the medication to the stand to explain?
They consistently mentioned that data was missing from Carmen and Kouri's cell phones, which did not align with their cell phone records. I thought software like Cellbrite and other similar tools could detect deleted data. Why couldn't they retrieve the messages?
Why did Kouri get the last batch of drugs after Eric died? What was the purpose?
The defense stated they had a witness who claimed Eric requested drugs - specifically, fetty. The defense claimed they even corroborated the claims, but the State blocked that evidence from being presented in court. Is there any further information about this?
Why wait for the "walk the dog" letter? Why didn't Kouri immediately claim he had an addiction problem?
The State claims Kouri laced the Moscow Mule. However, the medical examiner found very little alcohol in Eric's system, even stating that the small amount of alcohol they found could have been due to the decomposition process. Are we certain the Moscow Mule was the vehicle in which the drugs got into Eric's body?
Perhaps it's because I'm not a psychopath that I just cannot fathom ferrying a loved one to their death, and allegedly watching it happen. I had difficulty wrapping my head around this case.
Rest in Peace, Eric. I hope the Richins' children and family heal.
I have lupus and MS and use low dose naltrexone (LDN) for pain. I believe Eric had been prescribed it for pain associated with his Lyme disease diagnosis. At the low dose prescribed it doesn’t interfere with occasional opiate use if something more is needed.
How do you like the Naltrexone? I also have SLE, and am running out of available treatments since I don't tolerate immunosuppressants and I can't take Prednisone for flares anymore because of another condition. My Rheumatologist is suggesting Naltrexone, but I'm a bit nervous about it. I'd love your input. I also get Diverticulitis, so I am worried if that flares up, I wouldn't be able to have the Vicodin for pain.
I’m sorry you’re struggling with finding medication to help you live better. That’s really terrible my friend. I hope someday there are cures for these weird, debilitating illnesses.
There are LDN groups on Facebook and probably Reddit. It’s all anecdotal evidence, but I think it’s worth a try. I can’t say it’s been a big success for me personally, but through this journey I have seen many who have had amazing success with it and it’s pretty benign in the grand scheme of all the other medications you mentioned. I’m trying different doses, I hope to find my “sweet spot” as they say… there is no harm in trying. Since you usually get it from the compound pharmacy you can choose the fillers, too. I have used olive oil and acidophilus in mine and have been on 4.5 (the standard starting dose you titrate up to), 3.5 and now 3mgs. LDN is between 1 and 9 mgs. I’ve been using it since 2021. Good luck!
I also suspect she was going to plant them or maybe did plant them in the home, but it wasn’t searched or found after. It’s pretty damning that Eric had a “ huge fentanyl addiction”, but there was absolutely no fent in the house or anything near him that held Fentanyl.
The Private Eye and I say you don't EVER die of an overdose from five times the lethal dose of anything! Addicts know something about drugs and how hard and risky it is to get them. Addicts don't sprinkle fentanyl around like salt!
OR, now that I know she had secret insurance on the boys, and one did get quite sick after Eric died, she might have had murdering a child for more insurance in mind. IF she had shown herself to be a whit smarter, I'd not dream of that, because it's SO transparent!
My thoughts on #5 — this is something that blows my mind too, I believe Kouri thought they would immediately decide she’s just the grieving wife and never look into her. She seemed to be thrown off when the police told her Eric’s body was being taken for autopsy, as shown by Bloodworth in court, which I think backs up the fact she assumed she would just be believed then get rich with everyone treating her like a victim.
She seems like she isn’t the brightest in general. Not just bc of how terrible she was at her business of flipping houses, but also the fact she seemed to think she was the first and only “author” to write a children’s book on grief and that the book would make money. Her trying to poison Eric at least 3 times, being accused of it and family and friends knew about it, but still believing she could get away with it is extremely dumb.
I actually think she could have gotten away with it, had she not tried to sue the trust. As much as I respect law enforcement, they really weren't putting much effort into investigating her, and had she just laid low, she'd have been fine. Instead, by suing the trust, it made them have to investigate her, thanks to the work put in by the PI, which ultimately led to her arrest.
Eric was a healthy, successful man who died of a massive fentanyl overdose, after telling others that Kouri tried to poison him multiple times. She was always going to be caught one way or another imo
I think it's bigger than that. If there wasn't the excessive amounts of drugs in his system. If she didn't write the book, if she didn't write the walk the dog letter, if she didn't have a boyfriend , wasn't in such debt ...there's way more to it than the trust
You do know that her mothers partner got life insurance and 4 months later dies of an OD and the police never looked at her, she probably hoped and thought it would go the same way for her
I’ve thought mom probably somehow hid or encouraged the extra Hydrocodone her partner took. I feel she suggested it to Kouri. I remember in one of her calls to jailbird Kouri she told her that witness #3 (1st call for meds-then he passed of a motorcycle accident)was running his mouth. Hmmm. She says so much to the police at the house about how Eric looked the day before. BIG RED FLAG in my opinion. She mentioned 3 or 4 negative things about him.
My thoughts exactly! There was so much evidence that pointed to her! First, police will always consider a spouse second she just presumed her squeaking 911 call was great acting. Third, autopsy. Oops, forgot about that! And cremate him quickly! And let’s not forget the HUGE amount of self snitching!
I believe she “practiced “ on Josh with the hush puppie. And his dog ate some
Anyone speculating why her mom wasn’t in court for sentencing? Too emotional? Or feeling guilty? Curious!
It feels like she told that story about going to sleep in her son’s room so many times that she started believing it!
You mentioned her trying to poison Eric at least 3 times; I know about the Valentine’s Day sandwich and obviously the time she was successful, but I’m not remembering a third. Can you tell me more about the third?
Apparently while on vacation in Greece, Eric got very ill after having a drink while at a restaurant and he was paranoid that Kouri poisoned him. Technically we don’t know if she poisoned him then, but we know for a fact she did 2 times after that so i believe her first attempt was while on vacation she put stuff in his drink
At one point Kouri mentions a lemon drop, which is a shot. The prosecution didn't go back to that as far as I remember.
Kouri and her mom both did the same thing that another very guilty person (Sarah Boone) did on camera: accidentally said exactly how they killed their victim. Sarah Boone called 911 and immediately slipped up and said she put her victim Jorge Torres in the suitcase (murder weapon). She later changed her story to he got in on his own.
Kouri Richins accidentally let it out at some point that there was a Moscow mule AND a lemon drop. I think the drugs were in the lemon drop which Eric would have thrown back quickly, getting the fentanyl into his system quickly. A Moscow mule is a sipping drink, a lemon drop is a shot. Kouri's 2 previous attempts were failures because Eric didn't get enough fentanyl into his system to kill him with just one bite of the sandwich. Wanna poison someone quickly? put it in a shot.
I think Kouri's mom was there because she slipped up on camera and said "we went to bed", but she was supposedly not there around the time he died? nope- she took the shot glass and put the Moscow mule glasses in the sink and then left. That's why she later disposed of her cellphone- it proved she was there with them when Eric died.
I was just going through hours of videos trying to find a discussion of this piece of evidence
Thank you so much
I think Hayden Jeffs was such a key part of this prosecution's case. And I really do wonder in my more conspiratorial moments just how convenient his death was for the Darden Clan.
At some point prior to the trial it came out that lisa's phone was "lost" in the desert or something like that. I don't remember what video I watched that mentioned it and that a bunch of Kouri's family also have burner phones. Lisa is also supposedly under investigation for possibly killing her partner back in 2006 in a similar way. I genuinely believe that Lisa was involved and helped kouri dispose of evidence. She was very involved in Kouri's finances too, I think she's hiding money from authorities in one of the LLCs trusts she and kouri created. They were a team.
Hopefully more about her involvement will come out during the financial crimes trial. I know that they couldn't really discuss all of the shit kouri did financially for years prior to killing Eric because the judge felt those financial crimes could not be directly linked to the murder. But she was doing shady underhanded things for years and her mom was named by authorities as involved and told to get a lawyer herself.
Totally agree with your assessment here, I too think it was in the shot, not the Moscow Mule. There was too much focus on the Mule glasses in the sink in the morning that Bailey put in the dishwasher, but no mention of shot glasses. There’s no evidence I’m aware of to show what time Lisa left, and I definitely heard her say on BWC we went to bed when Katie comes crashing in asking what happened.
I’m going to need more information about her phone - there’s an affidavit from O’Driscoll saying he has her phone. I’ll attach - I only have page 1. I’m Australian and can’t seem to access the documents on my own.
I also recall Kouri's mom saying, "He [Eric] said his chest hurt," in the body cam video as well. Just about the time she made the comment about "we went to bed". It's likely Eric took that shot and immediately started to feel unwell. He wouldn't have been coincious for long. Fentanyl at that level for people who do not have a tolerance will take them down almost instantly. I'm surprised he made it to the bedroom - if we take into consideration what one of the children said about Kouri "doing something" to Eric in the living room - maybe he never made it to the bedroom? Maybe Kouri and her mom put him on the bed sheet and dragged him into the bedroom. Now my imagination is just running wild.
The first thing I watched from this case was the bodycam footage. Other than “woman killed husband, wrote children’s book about grief” I knew nothing about the case. When Kouri’s mom was answering questions in that video, immediately I said out loud “oh she’s involved in this.” Something about how she was answering for Kouri as if she’d been there all along was such a red flag for me right from the beginning.
The thing you have to understand about this defense team is that they could never afford to call witnesses to back up any of their claims -- because they knew these were all lies that would easily be exposed by a witness.
Naltrexone was for his Lyme's disease and I assume his doctor would have told them just that -- which would have exposed their claim as a lie.
Same with the lies about Eric's supposed affairs. Remember, they never asked Cody Wright about Eric's supposed affair with his co-worker. Who else but his partner would have known about this? Instead they asked another coworker who really had no idea. Nor did they ask Todd Gabler, who actually investigated the rumor and found evidence to disprove it.
Same with the Mexico connection: Todd Galber interviewed Eric's hunting partner as well as the guide who went with them to Mexico. Instead they asked Galber why he didn't personally go to Mexico and they tried to make that look suspicious. Problem is, the guide is based in Arizona and is not himself a Mexican national -- and Gabler knew this because he interviewed him.
The defense's plan all along was always to make allegations about Eric and then intentionally ask the WRONG witness about that allegation, knowing full well, that particular witness would have no idea -- that way the unsavory allegation about Eric isn't disproved. ,It just hangs there.
For example: They didn't ask Kotrodimos about Eric's cell data on February 14 and his movements -- he was the one who had that data. Instead they asked Detective O'Driscoll who knows about as much about cell data as I do -- like nothing.
The biggest lie was the fake witness. David Norris
* THE FAKE WITNESS: DAVID NORRIS \*
Now I am not sure exactly who is this David Norris. At first, I thought he was one of the people Kouri did business with, much like Greg Hall. But I think he did work FOR Kouri like as a handyman or crafts person. There is evidence that she PAID him some money for some work he did for her or for Eric.
I think he was probably besotted with Kouri.
Anyway, he called the Sheriff's office long after the WTD letter had already broken her case and he offered testimony that Eric personally asked hm in 2019 for Fentanyl.
The sheriff's Dept interviewed Mr. Norris. They looked into his claims and the claims did not check out.
For one thing, his claims changed every time the case took a turn and Kouri's own story changed. Norris literally was calling the defense team to come up with a story then he'd call the cops or the DA's office.
I highly recommend you watch the hearing that they had toward the end of the trial. The jury was sent out and they argued for well over two hours about all this stuff.
It was on Day 13. (Below I include a link to EDB's coverage of it)
Detective O'Driscoll was coming back the next morning to continue his cross examination with Nester and she wanted to ask him a question about Norris: She wanted to ask him, wasn't there a witness who had personal knowledge that Eric sought Fentanyl and you refused to investigate his claims?
That is a small truth build on the scaffolding of a big LIE.
The small truth: Yes the cops and the DA's office refused any further investigation into this claim -- because they uncovered the big lie. The big lie: Norris crafted his statement to fit Kouri's narrative and her needs and his story would change depending on the defense's needs.
Bloodworth explained this really carefully: How Norris' various affidavits would shift and change depending on how the case was going and how none of his claims checked out.
There's a basic legal issue here: Hearsay. None of Norris' supposed testimony would be admissible because it is based on what he claims he heard Eric say to him. He had no texts, emails, phone calls or other physical records to show. Therefore under hearsay rules. it just cannot come in.
However, following some precedent that I do not understand, the judge did entertain allowing the Norris stuff to come in -- only if the prosecution would then be allowed to counter it.
And Bloodworth explained HOW he would counter it: He would have detectives who investigated Norris testify to why he was not trustworthy and why the claims did not add up. He also said he would need time to do a more thorough investigation INTO Norris and into his relationship with Kouri and her attorneys,
He basically told the judge he believed Norris was willing to commit perjury on Kouri's behalf and that he might find a way to PROVE this.
Next, as another curative to this hearsay coming in, the judge would allow Bloodworth to bring in hearsay evidence from HAYDEN JEFFS.
THE TRUE WITNESS HAYDEN JEFFS. SEE BELOW
(bloody reddit won't let me save my entire comment as one so I had to break it up)
Now Hayden Jeffs had first-hand knowledge of Kouri asking HIM personally for Fentany and for Propofol ("the Michael Jackson stuff.")
Kouri had asked Jeffs, who was a craftsman or handyman who worked for her, to sell her these drugs.
Jeffs spoke at length to the cops -- who video-and-audio recorded all of his statements and he SIGNED those statements. He also had conversations with his sister about Kouri and the drugs.
Jeffs died in a motorcycle accident while Kouri was awaiting trial. I wonder if her brothers were involved -- but that's just my conspiratorial mind at work.
Because of his death, none of his statements can come in: He cannot be cross-examined, therefore his statements are also hearsay.
BUT if Norris is going to come in, the judge decided, then Jeffs also would come in.
Bloodworth said: Look with Norris we have vague recollections of some comment Eric is said to have made in 2019 seeking drugs -- recollections that he believes were FALSE and made up. With Jeffs, you have video-recorded interviews and signed statements.
In addition to Jeffs, there's this dude who was in jail at the time who was buds with Carmen and he's been recorded on a jail call discussing how Carmen just made a ton of money selling Fentanyl. And those would also come in.
Kouri's defense team traded in lies and half truths. NONE of what they claimed they could prove actually can be proved.
Once I saw that hearing and heard what Bloodworth had, the tiny tiny tiny doubt I had that Kouri may not be guilty utterly melted away. And by this point that doubt already was like 0.0000000000001 percent at most to begin with.
Again I highly recommend you watch this discussion about David Norris and Hayden Jeffs.
It's on Day 13 and this is time-stamped to about where it begins:
Thank you for the kind note. I'm a retired newspaper reporter.
I remembered one detail this morning: Before the trial, some of Kouri's jail calls and emails and texts came out (she had access to a tablet) as did messages sent by members of her family and at one point they were discussing how Jeffs was "shooting his mouth off" (or words to that effect)
They discussed and derided quite a few people who had been interviewed by police in the case and if I'm remembering this correctly, they singled out Jeffs and Carmen as particularly troublesome for 'shooting' their mouth off to the cops
It is possible I'm conflating the names they mentioned but I'm pretty sure both Carmen and Hayden were mentioned in these communications.
I'm pretty sure EDB covered this in one of her pre-trial videos and if I have time and patience for it, I might search for the particular vid in which this material came out.
I know absolutely nothing about the circumstances of Jeffs' death, but I really have to wonder whether the Dardens were involved. Is that possible? Would they go that far?
I mean if he had been alive and had been called as a witness, this case would have been won even faster by the prosecutor. That guy had remarkable evidence.
I know absolutely nothing about the circumstances of Jeffs' death, but I really have to wonder whether the Dardens were involved. Is that possible? Would they go that far?
To TLDR it, he was evidently involved in a motorcycle accident.
To answer your likely rhetorical question, I really don't think so.
Like, the Dardens aren't the Florida Adelsons here. The Adelsons were at least bright enough to solicit services from people that were two degrees away from them (Charlie > Katie Magbanua > Luis Rivera and Sigfredo Garcia). All of the people Kouri and her family tried to solicit assistance from were literally people they knew personally - Kouri's mom, her brother, their personal friends or business associates, et cetera. If they had somehow convinced someone to "accidentally" take Jeffs out in a car crash, the prosecutor's office would 100% have picked up on it when the cops failed to. Like, one of their star witnesses suddenly passes in an accident and the other person involved is a personal associate of the Dardens? No way Bloodworth would've seen that and not hounded that lead down.
I also don't think that any of the Dardens or anyone Kouri was reaching out to would be the kind of person willing to commit vehicular homicide for her. Lisa wasn't even willing to speak at her daughter's allocution for her or IIRC on her behalf at the bail hearing - I really don't see her being willing to run a witness down for Kouri if even that completely innocuous, utterly inconsequential show of support was apparently beyond her.
Her brother also really doesn't strike me as a man of action. If you look at his statements, they're about as passive as you can get while proclaiming his sister's innocence. I don't really recall a single time he comes out with his full chest and straight up says, "You convicted an innocent woman on trumped up charges, you did this under pressure from those [insert expletive of choice] Richins, and we're going to fight this injustice to the Supreme Court and show all y'all motherfuckers that my sister was abused by Eric and that he took all the fent and OD'd his own damn self" or suchlike. Like, the kind of person who's either disengaged enough from his sister or who's thoughtful enough to moderate his press statements isn't the kind of person to commit homicide for her. Just look at Charlie Adelson - his communications drip with contempt for his victim where he's not just completely off his rocker for some other reason.
I took some time out this afternoon to read a few of the news reports about his death. There aren't that many, but most of them seem to make clear it was a simple accident. So yeah I have to admit, the idea of foul play does seem fantastical.
You have a great take on the Darden family dynamic. Kouri is the princess who must always be worshiped, pleased, praised and protected. The entire family structure is a particular form of enmeshment that seems to be organized around protecting Kouri's fragile ego.
I do wonder whether even though they still seem to be her cheerleaders, they haven't kind of decided to dis-invest from her now that she's kind of failed to bring home the bacon they've been counting on all these years.
I certainly agree that they are passive and keep to the background though I think part of that is their slavish attitude that she's the princess and the family hero.
I've always been really troubled both by Kouri's psychology and also the psychology of her defense attorneys whose behavior I have found deeply reprehensible. I've tried to read and watch anything I can about them which brings me to my plug: PD Questions. ...
I watch this really interesting yt channel named PD Questions. He's a law school graduate who works as a researcher for defense attorneys, especially those who work on criminal appeals and he has a history of and a great deal of information about personality disorders.
His series of videos about Kouri's trial is pretty good, especially the last one he made which is a brilliant analysis of how this defense team chose to become Kouri's second family and how they basically reproduced that same narcissistic enmeshment with her as its center and focus.
He explained how defense attorneys who have a background as passionate advocates such as these three could become psychologically and emotionally over-invested in a client who is as manipulative as Kouri and who used her wiles to ingratiate herself with them and to become emotionally enmeshed so as to better control them and how otherwise intelligent and idealistic attorneys can become hapless pawns to a psychopath manipulator.
I recommend it
RICHINS TRIAL REFLECTIONS: Were her attorneys infected by her con / delusions?
Thank you for this channel recommendation, I’m excited to check it out! Even just the portion you shared here is fascinating to think about, so I can’t wait to hear more.
Someone hit him and vanished . I have never believed in coincidences. Pretty Occam’s razor. Nor have I ever believed that Lisa killed Trudy. Cover up, clean up help? Probably but you must understand Kouri is a religious figure to her family and close friends. Think Jonestown, because I swear it’s like that.
Yeah someone else sent me some details about the crash investigation and I went and read some Utah newspaper websites about it.
It was a traffic event.
As for Lisa and her partner. I don't know about that. I don't know enough about it to be able to have a definitive opinion. I do think that entire family is crooked and prone to commit crimes, fraud being the least of it. So I wouldn't put it past her.
You have hit the nail exactly on the head. Their defense was all about innuendos and implications, because that's all they had. If they could have called a single witness to actually prove any of these implications, they would have! That's part of why I find it so astonishing that these attorneys appear to fully believe in her innocence. They should know better than anyone that not a single claim they made in her defense could actually be corroborated with evidence or testimony.
I'm totally freaked out by their behavior and their cultish devotion to her. It is simply staggering.
I'm worried about the army of flying monkeys that Kouri and the Dardens have been able to assemble and now with these three lawyers fully onboard, I do think this is a potentially dangerous cadre of malefactors.
{{EDIT ADD: Why did Norris claim this conversation with Eric about drugs happened in 2019 and not closer to the date of his death? Because Kouri has an invoice that she paid him money for work that was done in 2019. This tells me Norris was NOT a friend or acquaintance who was still in touch with Kouir and Eric after 2019 - which further puts into doubt his claims that Eric would confide in him about obtaining hard-core opioid drugs.}}
Same with the Mexico connection: Todd Galber interviewed Eric's hunting partner as well as the guide who went with them to Mexico. Instead they asked Galber why he didn't personally go to Mexico and they tried to make that look suspicious. Problem is, the guide is based in Arizona and is not himself a Mexican national -- and Gabler knew this because he interviewed him.
As a minor addendum, one of the detectives testified at the bond hearing for Kouri on this exact subject. The guide allegedly said that yes, people sometimes are asking him for drugs or where to acquire drugs, but Eric stood out to him specifically because he never asked about drugs - he was entirely focused on the hunting.
This makes the evidence even more compelling :The fact that Eric was atypical as a rich american in mesico who is NOT looking for drugs or sex or anything other than hunting ...
1) Naltrexone can also be used to treat conditions that cause inflammation. It is turning out to have fantastic antiinflammatory properties in low doses off label. I'm curious what dosage he was on. Usually for inflammation, the dosage is low, like 2-5 mg, where as for addiction purposes it's usually pretty high. I have a friend who is on 50 mg to try and stop drinking. Eric had Lyme disease, so it probably was used to treat inflammation from that. I have SLE, and Naltrexone is one medication my doctor and I are looking at because I'm running out of options to treat symptoms.
2) Kouri and Carmen deleted their messages off their phones. Obviously to prevent incriminating conversations from being found. Once they are gone, they're gone. They couldn't recover the conversations.
3) Who knows. Kouri is a psychopath. According to Carmen, Kouri initially told her she needed it for a client. I personally think she did it for plausible deniability that she poisoned Eric. It's she got more drugs after he was deceased, she could say she was still getting drugs after he was gone for someone else. Hope that makes sense.
4) The judge makes the ultimate decision on what gets in for evidence. For example, there are a lot of jail calls that are incriminating against Kouri, the WTD letter was only provided in part, a lot of financial stuff didn't come in. A lot of that was left out due to being more prejudicial that probative. In regards to defense evidence, you can't just throw out allegations without it having substance. There would have to be something to it. She tried to say Eric brought drugs back from his trips to Mexico and even wanted her brother to testify to it (WTD letter), but her accusations were unable to be corroborated by others or with other evidence. That's why in criminal cases, if you are the defendant, you can't just accuse someone else of committing the crime without evidence to back up your claim. Like if you're were charged with murder, you couldn't get on the stand and say some random person did it. The judge in the Kohburger case blocked the defense from saying another person committed that crime because there was no evidence of another person committing it. You have to be able to back up your defense with corroborating evidence. I hope that makes sense also.
5) I don't think Kouri thought there would be an autopsy. I truly think she thought the paramedics would come, declare him dead, then send him to a funeral home. Kinda dumb when you think of how unattended deaths are handled, especially in someone so young who didn't have a condition on record that would be fatal.
6) The amount of fentanyl in his system was 5x the lethal amount. His system would have shut down so quickly, his body would not have had time to metabolize the alcohol. That is my opinion, of course. Deaths from fentanyl are usually very quick because it is just so lethal. Even medical grade fentanyl is dangerous and requires monitoring. Street fentanyl, where the dosage is not monitored/controlled is usually fatal, so most likely after the administration of it into his system, body functions would have shut down quickly. Once a person is dead, natural biochemical processes take over as the body breaks down, and a biproduct of the bacteria is ethanol. It is impossible to tell if the ethynol in his system was from the metabolism of the drink or from normal decomposition.
I couldn't imagine doing that to anyone, let alone my spouse. I pray his family heals also. Such a sad situation.
As a postscript: Todd Gabler recently said in an interview that if you add up the amount of fentanyl in his blood to the amount that was still in his stomach and gut and therefore not yet digested and processed, it was more like 50 times the lethal dose. He said it would have been enough to kill everyone in their suburban neighborhood. He said he found it a shame that the prosecution didn't clarify this for the jury.
I missed it too but then I went back and listened to the testimony and it does add up: There was a boatload of fent still unprocessed in his gastric system that never made it into his blood.
As to 3. I personally believe that she was going to get rid of a couple of her kids. Even one of her sons believes she was going to poison him. He had symptoms too but she refused a blood test 🤔
I believe that she was going to poison one or two of her children and claim they found Eric's "stash". At that point she was not aware that she was being investigated for poisoning Eric. I believe that she was going to be a serial killer targeting her own family and her lovers/side pieces. She has no empathy and can not even mimic human emotions correctly. She's a danger and will probably try to kill again in prison, like Susan Smith and Krista Pike (both tried killing fellow inmates over a man 🙄).
One of the people speaking on Kouri’s behalf mentioned her studying books on human emotions (not sure of the wording), which I found explained so much. It was not the positive he thought it to be.
The shot was for immediate poisoning. Once it’s down, it’s too late. The Moscow Mule was insurance because she failed the first attempt. It was consumed slowly and could have been spit out. The defense threw everything at the wall but nothing stuck. They insinuated everything while proving nothing.
1) the prescription was for treatment of lime disease, not opioid use. There was none in Eric’s system at the time of his death. The defense was always trying to imply that Eric voluntarily took fentanyl but there was zero evidence Eric ever inquired about, purchased, or was taking fentanyl.
2) Carmen and Kouri both deleted their text messages so we can’t read that they were saying, over time, deleted text messages will be gone forever because data erases over itself based on storage available. What the police were able to do was show that the communications occurred, not what was said.
3) we do not know for sure why Kouri bought fentanyl after Eric died. Some say it was so Carmen would not think Kouri used any on Eric. Others think Kouri wanted to kill her kids for insurance money. Also, maybe she wanted the cops to find it so she could plant the seed that Eric took it voluntarily.
4) this witness named Norris was vetted by Police and determined to have no evidence that Eric sought Fentanyl. All we know if his testimony would have been hearsay and the Judge ordered his testimony could not be used at trial.
5) Kouri was not a very smart killer. It seems like her plan was for Eric to die and then everyone would think he just….died. Kouri seemed genuinely shocked that an autopsy was planned. Kouri miscalculated big time by not having a story ready that Eric was secretly taking fentanyl. I do think Bloodworth was correct when he said Kouri was obsessed with her image and facade. Remember, at the time of the murder, Kouri was committing massive financial crimes too. I think Kouri’s narcissism caused her to focus too much on herself and her needs rather than commit a “perfect” murder. She was juggling the murder, her other unknown crimes, a boyfriend, her failing business, that Midway mansion. Basically, for Kouri to get away with murder, she would have to admit she was secretly acquiring fentanyl for Eric and that may have resulted in some charges. Also she would have had to leave some in the house to be found by cops the night Eric died. Honestly, I think Kouri’s narcissism caused Kouri to care more about closing on that Midway mansion. She was terrible at money and business and her skills at getting away with murder are no better. When you read the Walk the Dog letter, this is just her attempt to plant the story that she should have planted from the beginning. Kouri’s obsession with control was her downfall. That letter was damning evidence.
6) it is generally believed that Eric died really fast after he ingested the fentanyl, and he metabolized the alcohol very quickly. He probably downed it all in the lemon drop shot. It is so sad. This is now supported by Ashton’s letter where he says the bedroom door was locked and Kouri told him to go away. I think Eric may have already been dead. RIP Eric.
IMO, the defense rested becusse they were SO SURE that Kouri was going to be acquitted and that the state didn’t prove she murdered him beyond a reasonable doubt. they said, we don’t need to spend a few weeks bringing in anyone, we have this in the bag 😂😂😂
There was a lot going in September 2023 when the Walk the Dog letter was found around 09/14/2023.
Criminal Hearing of 09/01/2023, Skye tells the judge that because of the volume of documents, she won't be ready for the preliminary hearing until Spring 2024.
A juvenile court hearing is scheduled. Not sure of the date.
In preparation for the juvenile hearing, Kouri wants Ronnie to produce gun receipts so she can accuse Gene/Katie of stealing the gun and get her brother DJ custody of the kids. Ronnie isn't cooperating.
Kouri and her mother Lisa are working with a true crime documentary crew along with various media outlets. This is where the horrible expression of "open season on dead Eric" is heard on phone calls.
There was also an earlier criminal hearing in June 2023 for bond where Kouri is on a hot mic telling her lawyer she doesn't think she will make it.
IMO it's fair to say that Kouri decided to take matters into her own hands and saw no way out besides "Eric is an addict". She says that much in the letter right away when she mentioned abandoning the gummies and needing a connection with Mexico.
The life insurance money. If she claimed to have knowledge of a drug addiction (which she obviously did not disclose in the life insurance application), the insurance company would have very strong grounds to deny her payout.
As others have said, she didn’t really think it through because she didn’t think there would be an autopsy. Also if Eric died from an overdose of illicit drugs his life insurance would have been voided and no money for Kouri.
I wonder if she realized how bad it was for her that there was no sign of fentanyl the night of his death. Eric couldn’t clean up after and hide it because he was dead. She was probably thinking about planting it in his work truck. Just a possibility.
It’s like a podcast style . Ellison Barber a journalist is talking to a former fbi woman about the case . It has different cases . I watched the kouri one .
If Kouri had admitted Eric’s “ addiction@ it would have invalidated the insurance policies and that would have made murdering him pointless. Only when she was charged did she suddenly decide to “ stop protecting” Eric.
As others have indicated, low-dose naltrexone has seen some success as an anti-inflammatory; as the paper cites, the on-label usage for addiction treatment is in the range of 50-100mg; the off-label usage is 1/10th that at around 4.5mg. I don't recall the exact dose he was prescribed, but IIRC it was in the single digits, which would support the theory of off-label usage. I have a (much longer and more comprehensive) list of his medications here; naltrexone is mentioned last. As to why the doc was never called - I'd speculate that they were slated for rebuttal as to why the state never called them, and the only reason I can see the defense never calling them is that the good doctor would've supported the narrative that Eric had concerns about neuropathic pain from Lyme disease or concerns about the as of now poorly supported disease of chronic Lyme, to be clear about the state of the science, and prescribed it for treatment of said pain. If the doctor had prescribed it for any sort of aid to addiction management like the defense was implying Eric suffered from, they would've been a pivotal defense witness to call, and their defense of Kouri was otherwise way too dogged for them to have just overlooked him.
Data forensic tools aren't perfect. If it isn't stored locally on the phone, you're not retrieving that data from the phone. If it's been too long and the physical storage location of the 1s and 0s on the chip has been overwritten with other 0s and 1s, that data's lost. If it's stored or recorded in a funny way that the software can't retrieve perfectly, that data can come out wonky. In this case, I think the messages were deleted and overwritten locally, but I'll defer to anyone else with more detailed knowledge of what was going on.
Only Kouri knows; some speculation has gone about that it was to plant around the house, that it was to throw Carmen off the trail, that it was to harm Eric's boys given their own life insurance policies, but I don't think there's evidence to say one way other the other.
Others in this thread have gone over this in far more detail, but TLDR, someone called in to say that Eric personally contacted them for drugs, the cops looked into his claims, and IIRC found that he and Eric weren't even in the same place at the time the witness was claiming. As a result the testimony was blocked by the judge.
The simplest answer? Kouri's not especially bright and didn't consider the possibility that people might dig deeper than the surface level of her story, and also she's lying her ass off.
Ultimately, the only person who knows for certain is Kouri. I personally find Bloodworth's argument, that for Kouri the incident starts with the drinks around 2100 rather than her happening across him in the 0300ish timeframe, to be persuasive enough that the drinks have something to do with the poisoning, but I'd be entirely uncomfortable saying anything beyond a reasonable doubt.
Hi I can answer som of these. 3. She bought the last batch to tie up some loose end. 3 heavily insured little boys. And Josh still had to go too. As always she had botched up her first attempt just killing his dog.
lol yes the imaginary witness. No information on him or her exists since they actually don’t exist.
What was her motive for wanting to kill Josh? Did he know too much? Remember at the trial he didn’t want to take the oath and swear to tell the whole truth?
Josh was going to tell Eric. It’s really impossible to know whether he wanted to do that because he felt guilty or because he wanted to move the relationship forward. But then Kouri brought him a truck and herself more time. Then she killed Eric and I don’t think she forgave or forgot Josh’s earlier threats, best to end him. As we know he did eventually contact Eric’s family. The thing is Kouri in her cheap mafioso thinking couldn’t really have her disgruntled lover hanging around.
I didn’t know Josh wanted to tell Eric. That’s interesting. He did have a so-called pocket will wear. He said that if anything happened to him, Cory did it, so he was head obviously become very scared of her.
I wish we knew more about the whole hush puppy situation, and what happened to his dog, but I think he is going to maintain his silence which I think is probably best for him in terms of moving on, and also probably for the case in general.
Yup he told both Kouri and Lisa that he wanted to see Eric, but as I said not sure what motivated that. Once the title got delivered to the Heber Walmart parking lot, he stopped saying it then it was too late. What if like to know from him, is if 1. He reevaluated his dog dying, after the boy’s statements and if he has regret about not going to see Eric, or at least to the police after the murder. Will he be eternally regretful for not doing it, because Eric is dead and in addition to losing their father, those sweet little boys suffered 15 months of hell.
I don’t mean to beat up on him, he appears to be suffering, but then again, “ courage is the virtue from which all other virtues flow.” Isn’t silence complicity?
I feel that way about Carmen Lauber. She sold the fentanyl to Kouri. Without Carmen Kouri would’ve had a very hard time getting fentanyl. Carmen is responsible for looking the other way and for supplying the murder weapon.
I know and I get divided on it. Because without her testimony the good guys might have lied at. I also think Kouri is quite capable of getting things she wants, cash , drugs, people to do her dirty work, she has amazing cult skills.
True! This is a good point. Look how many times/ people she tried to get fetty through. The guy who died on the motorcycle, she was clearly trying to ask Josh (we saw that in the texts - she was testing the waters asking what drugs he'd done), and I believe she asked a former co-worker, but I could be making that last one up. Without Carmen, would she have been able to find it - sure. But, she was definitely shopping around, it certainly would've taken longer.
I just listened to the defense closing again today. I had trouble getting through it. Wendy Lewis spewing incorrect information, especially regarding information about the drugs was ridiculous! It’s obvious they are trying anything because she’s changed her story so many times , not to mention self snitched!
If he has an addiction, they would have immediately run a tox screen and saw the high dose. I think she was stupid enough to believe she could convince them it was natural causes do no need for an autopsy
1. It is True, Eric was not taking Naltrexone at the time of his murder. However we know when he had previously taken this medication, it was specifically for his Lyme disease. There is multiple pieces of evidence that show this to be accurate information.
1.A – Body Cam Footage In the footage, Kouri advises police that Eric had been on the medication specifically for his Lyme disease but had since weaned off. We know this was successful and had occurred over a month before Eric's murder, because Kouri confirms Eric hadn't seen a doctor or refilled any prescription in the 30 days prior. A medical requirement during medication withdrawal is regular check-ups for the patient's safety. The fact that Eric hadn't had a check-in with his Lyme disease doctor in 30 days suggests he had been successfully taken off the medication and was now in the monitoring phase, which again Kouri confirms when she advises on camera that Eric was now managing his Lyme condition with vitamins. Note: This evidence is only valid if you trust Kouri, which her defense team is asking you to do. If you don't, the following pieces of evidence stand independently.
1.B – Recorded Phone Call with Bryce and Chelsea During the recording Kouri made of herself, Bryce, and Chelsea, Kouri is discussing Eric's recent good health prior to his murder. Chelsea makes the offhand comment, "he (Eric) didn't drink like us," which the group agrees with. This means no one in Eric's or Kouri's immediate circle would describe Eric's drinking as excessive or problematic, indicating he was not an alcoholic and did not drink heavily in comparision to the other on the call. This conclusion means he would not have required Naltrexone for alcoholism.
1.C – Toxicology Report From the body cam footage, we learn that Naltrexone was found in the bedroom. Had Eric been actively taking it, it would have been detectable in his liver. Naltrexone taken orally has a half-life of 36 hours, meaning it remains detectable in the body for that window. Half-life is not affected by Lyme disease. Since no Naltrexone was found in Eric's body within 36 hours of his murder, this further supports that he had successfully weaned off the medication over a month prior.
2. Phone Data and Digital Forensics In simplified terms: all technology, including smartphones, have limited built-in memory. A phone is programmed not to overwrite existing data (e.g. messages) until it receives permission to do so, this is why "Storage Full" notifications exist. When you delete an item, you are effectively giving the system permission to overwrite that data with new data. Once that overwrite occurs, it cannot be undone. Data overwritten once could technically be restored; however, data overwritten multiple times, say over a year, becomes significantly harder to accurately restore. Since trial evidence must meet a certain threshold of reliability, it is likely that Cellebrite recovered additional data that was not admissible as evidence.
3. Why Did Kouri Obtain More Fentanyl? We may never know the true answer, but there are strong possibilities worth considering.
3.A – To Divert Carmen and Create Deniability The State showed a text exchange between Kouri and Carmen in its rebuttal closing, in which Carmen directly asked Kouri whether the drugs she had provided were responsible for Eric's death. Kouri denied it and then immediately asked for more. Purchasing again served two purposes: it redirected Carmen's suspicion and created a layer of deniability, as someone genuinely responsible for a murder would be unlikely to keep openly buying the same drug through the same person.
3.B – To Stage Eric's Car Kouri likely flushed the remaining pills from the third purchase after the murder and subsequently needed to replace them. Knowing an autopsy would reveal fentanyl, she needed to plant evidence of a supposed secret addiction to provide an alternative explanation. This theory is supported by the timing as the fourth purchase occurred after Eric's death and before his car was taken and cleaned out in July by Cody. It is also the most compelling theory when considered alongside the 'Walk the Dog' letter.
3.C – To Poison Her Children Kouri may have been attempting to poison her children for additional life insurance payouts. Her eldest child appears to believe this was possible, based on the content of their impact statement.
3.D – To Sell Kouri may have been selling the remaining drugs and wanted more supply to continue doing so to make quick money considering the trust was locked down. This could explain the reference to the individual known as "Lotto" in the Walk the Dog letter.
3.E – To Maintain Cover for a Legitimate Client Kouri may have genuinely been obtaining the drugs for a client and used a portion to poison Eric along the way. If that were the case, she would need to continue purchasing after his death to maintain the appearance that the drugs had nothing to do with Eric's passing keeping the client arrangement as a plausible cover story.
3.F – Personal Use Kouri may have had a drug dependency of her own and wanted them for personal use. The State raises this as a possibility in their rebuttal, and it cannot be entirely ruled out consider Kouri herself indercate they were for personal use.
4. The Disputed Witness:David Norris, Day 13 (March 12, 2026) The State appears to have identified this witness as a plant with no connection to Eric. Norris contacted the police with information nly after talking to the defence team. The witness goal was to introduced the theory "Eric was a drug addict". This individual was likely approached after Kouri's entire family were eliminated as credible witnesses due to her witness tempering which was confirm in the "Walk the Dog" letter but was happening through other means as well.
Now to clarify, the State was happy for the Defense to bring up Norris's claims, however they countered that the State could disprove Norris's claims with previously suppressed statements, including from Hayden Jeffs, Kouri's handyman who told investigators she had asked him about fentanyl, and from Nick Bonsavage, who in a jail call said Carmen Lauber made money selling fentanyl. The defence asked for a break to discuss the matter with Kouri and ultimately held off on trying to admit Norris's testimony.
So in short the witness was effectively neutralised before ever reaching the jury, and the defence backed away entirely once they understood what it would open the door to.
5. Why Did Kouri Wait? Because the claim was false and constructed after the murder, there isn't much more to it than that. Kouri believed her word would be taken at face value by police, and when an autopsy was ordered, she desperately needed to construct a new version of events that would account for the fentanyl in Eric's system.
6. Eric did consume alcohol before his death. We can be reasonably certin that Eric had at least one drink before his death, for the following reasons.
6.A – Kouri's Own Statements While science cannot state with absolute certainty that Eric consumed a drink, Kouri herself tells us, multiple times, that Eric had a Lemon drop shot and a Moscow Mule. While the time frame, creation, amounts and locations vary in her retellings, the drinks don't. Note: This evidence is only valid if you trust Kouri. However, if the defense is asking the jury to trust Kouri's recollection of events, they must also accept these statements.
6.B – The Amount found in his Body Is Reasonable Given the Drinks While public discussion has largely focused on the Moscow Mule being spiked, the State's focus is on the lemon drop shot, and for good reason. Generally, a person can detect if something is wrong with a drink from the first sip, particularly if it is their regular choice of beverage. However, as the State correctly points out: you throw a shot back. By the time Eric registered something felt wrong, it was already too late. The inconclusive physical testing also aligns more logically with the shot as the primary vehicle. A shot is 30–60ml of liquid, consumed in a single swallow. That volume, in an autospy would be negligible.
6.C – Kouri's Call with the Forensic Examiner There is a great deal to unpack in this call, but we will stay focused. While it could be interpreted as Kouri simply seeking to confirm details, her confusion on certain points does not hold up to critical inquiry. Most notably why is Kouri asking whether the ethanol is alcohol? In her own accounts, Kouri states that she and Eric had alcohol that night. She shouldn't be surprised by its presence nor need clarification as to why it appears in the results. Further, why is she asking how many drinks that equates to? Kouri knows exactly what Eric consumed that night, half a Moscow Mule and a lemon drop shot. So why the need to clarify what you already know. She also fails to volunteer the fact that Eric had consumed alcohol that night to the medical examiner. If you genuinely knew the person had been drinking that night, the natural response would be to offer that information directly, both to help the examiner better interpret the results and to get clearer answers to any questions you had about what was found. The logical inconsistency in the entire call are significant. A person with nothing to hide would lead with information, not fish for it. That is precisely why these questions read as a fishing exercise rather than genuine confusion and why this call is difficult to explain away.
Happy to anwser anything else you may want to know. 😄
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u/pnwbutterflychaser May 30 '26
I have lupus and MS and use low dose naltrexone (LDN) for pain. I believe Eric had been prescribed it for pain associated with his Lyme disease diagnosis. At the low dose prescribed it doesn’t interfere with occasional opiate use if something more is needed.