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True Crime Today | Daily True Crime News & Interviews

Kouri Richins Trial Week 1: Defense Finds Massive Evidence Gaps

True Crime Today | Daily True Crime News & Interviews

Tony Brueski

True Crime, News Commentary, News

4.2 • 612 Ratings

🗓️ 27 February 2026

⏱️ 32 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Prosecutors say Kouri Richins murdered her husband Eric with a fentanyl-laced Moscow mule. But those copper mugs were never tested for fentanyl. The nanny washed them the next morning.

That's the kind of evidentiary gap that's emerging in week one of this Utah murder trial—and defense attorney Eric Faddis explains why it matters.

The crime scene wasn't properly secured. The kitchen where the drinks were made wasn't searched. White specks on Eric's nightstand—visible in photos—were never analyzed. The medical examiner testified the manner of death is still "undetermined" on the death certificate. Chelsea Gipson, the crime scene tech, found no drugs on her initial visit, but investigators kept searching the home over four years, finding more evidence each time.

The defense is building a case around what wasn't done, what wasn't tested, and what can't be proven. Faddis, who has worked as both prosecutor and defense attorney, breaks down why circumstantial evidence—even overwhelming circumstantial evidence—might not be enough when the physical proof is missing.

Can the prosecution's motive evidence survive these investigative failures?

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#KouriRichins #KouriRichinsTrial #EricRichins #TrueCrimeToday #FentanylPoisoning #UtahMurderTrial #EricFaddis #ReasonableDoubt #TrueCrime #ChainOfCustody

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is Hidden Killers with Tony Bruske.

0:03.2

Here now, Tony Bruske.

0:07.1

Four weeks into the Nancy Guthrie investigation and still no suspect, no person of interest, no body, but the evidence tells a story.

0:16.1

Was there prior visits to a home?

0:18.0

A suspect you didn't know about a doorbell camera until he was standing in

0:21.6

front of it, grabbing foliage, improvised attempts to cover the lens. This doesn't look like a

0:27.7

professional operation. It looks like someone who thought they knew what they were doing and didn't.

0:32.8

This was a burglary that went sideways and Nancy Guthrie died during a confrontation that a perpetrator

0:38.5

never intended to have happened. What does that person face legally right now if they come forward,

0:45.5

if they're ever caught? Former felony prosecutor and defense attorney Eric Fattis is with us to

0:51.1

break down what this all means.

0:54.9

Felony murder.

1:03.5

And getting caught and whether there's any path forward for someone sitting with this or whether that window has already closed.

1:06.3

Eric, as always, thank you for being here.

1:08.9

Arizona has felony murder.

1:10.7

If someone breaks into a home and a death occurs during that burglary, as always, thank you for being here. Arizona has felony murder.

1:16.0

If someone breaks into a home and a death occurs during that burglary, even if the death wasn't intended, what goes through what that charge means and why intent to kill doesn't

1:22.1

always matter under that statute.

1:25.2

Yeah, that is sort of a creative law that originated decades ago, whereby, you know, if

1:32.4

there was a commission of a felony and someone died during the course thereof, the states

1:37.9

decided, hey, we want to punish that just like we would punish murder because there were

1:41.5

so many casualties that were happening during these high-level felonies. And so, yeah, for example, if someone is in the commission of a felony and they didn't even

...

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