Kouri Richins Trial Preview: What the Defense Doesn't Want You to Overlook
Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary
True Crime Today
3.3 • 907 Ratings
🗓️ 20 February 2026
⏱️ 21 minutes
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Summary
The Kouri Richins murder trial starts February 23rd — and the defense has been quietly dismantling the prosecution's case for months. A recanting drug source who now says it wasn't fentanyl. A lead detective accused of threatening witnesses. Two excluded prosecution experts. And 26 financial crime charges the judge refused to let the jury hear.
Defense attorney and former felony prosecutor Eric Faddis breaks down the defense's strongest arguments heading into trial. Robert Crozier, the man prosecutors called their key link in the fentanyl supply chain, has signed a sworn affidavit saying he sold OxyContin — not fentanyl. The pills were never recovered. Never tested. Prosecutors dropped the drug distribution charges after that recantation, and for the defense, that's a gap in the murder weapon theory that may never close.
Faddis explains how Detective Jeff O'Driscoll's alleged witness intimidation could infect the credibility of the entire investigation, why losing both expert witnesses strips the prosecution's narrative of a calculated killer, and how the severed financial charges give the defense room to keep the jury focused on one question: can the state prove poisoning beyond a reasonable doubt? With rapid jury selection in a media-saturated county and the defense holding cards they've been building for years, Faddis reveals what he believes is their single strongest play heading into opening statements.
#KouriRichins #RichinsTrial #EricRichins #FentanylMurder #DefenseStrategy #SummitCountyUtah #RobertCrozier #EricFaddis #HiddenKillers #TrueCrime
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Hidden Killers Live with Tony Brewski, Stacey Cole, and Todd Michaels. |
| 0:09.8 | There is a big trial that is about to get underway. |
| 0:13.7 | We've been talking about it for roughly three years now, the Corey Richens murder trial. |
| 0:19.1 | If all holds out, here we are. |
| 0:21.8 | Jury has been seated. |
| 0:23.5 | February 23rd in Summit County, nearly four years after Eric Richens was found dead from a fentanyl |
| 0:31.0 | overdose. |
| 0:32.1 | But heading into opening statements, the defense has landed some real pre-trial blows, recanting, drug source, witness |
| 0:41.8 | intimidation allegations against the lead detective, excluded experts, and severed financial |
| 0:48.3 | charges. Defense attorney and former prosecutor Eric Fattis is with us to help us break all |
| 0:54.1 | this down. |
| 0:55.0 | Eric, welcome. |
| 0:56.5 | The man, prosecutors say supplied the fentanyl, Robert Crozer. |
| 1:01.2 | He's the big one for the defense here. |
| 1:04.3 | He has signed a sworn affidavit saying he sold oxy, not fentanyl, to the housekeeper, Carmen Lauber. |
| 1:13.3 | He says he was detoxing and out of it during his 2023 police interview and the pills were never |
| 1:19.6 | recovered or tested as a former prosecutor. I got to ask you, how dangerous is it for the state? |
| 1:26.4 | When the alleged murder weapon, the pills was never forensically confirmed, |
| 1:30.7 | and the one person in the supply chain who knew the pills what they were now says that that's not true. |
| 1:38.2 | You know, Johnny, I think it's a real significant problem. |
| 1:41.4 | Look, the jury's going to want to see substantiation of these allegations. |
| 1:46.4 | You know, they're saying it was fentanyl. Okay, well, where is the fentanyl? Was it ever found in her house? |
... |
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