Kouri Richins' Venue Fight Is Dead — What the Defense Is Really Building
Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary
True Crime Today
3.3 • 911 Ratings
🗓️ 13 February 2026
⏱️ 21 minutes
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Summary
The headlines said Kouri Richins was fighting to move her trial. What they didn't tell you is that fight was already over.
Judge Mrazik denied the defense's second venue change request on February 2nd — the same motion Fox News reported on five days later as though it were still pending. The defense argued 85 percent of prospective jurors recognized the case and the pool had shrunk to roughly 72 viable candidates. Prosecutors fired back with different numbers from the same data: 830 potential jurors who said they either hadn't heard of the case or hadn't followed it. The judge sided with the state. Again.
But the venue motion may never have been about winning. Look at the defense's broader pattern heading into trial — Crozier's fentanyl recantation, the witness intimidation allegations against Detective O'Driscoll and investigator Hopper, the timeline objections, and now a second failed venue bid. Each motion builds a paper trail. Each denial becomes a potential appellate issue. The question isn't whether the defense expected to move the trial. The question is whether they're already building the record for what comes after a conviction.
Meanwhile, the reason this case is famous isn't media hype. It's a children's grief book, a jailhouse letter prosecutors call witness tampering, nearly $2 million in alleged insurance fraud, and a drug chain that's falling apart on the witness stand before trial even begins.
Kouri Richins has pleaded not guilty and is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Jury selection begins February 10th.
#KouriRichins #EricRichins #HiddenKillers #VenueChangeDenied #WitnessIntimidation #JeffODriscoll #RobertCrozier #FentanylCase #SummitCounty #TrueCrimePodcast
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Hidden Killers with Tony Bruski. Here now, Tony Bruske. |
| 0:07.7 | Corey Richon's defense team wants you to believe that publicity has poisoned her murder trial. |
| 0:14.5 | That's the word they used. Poisoned. And in a case where a woman is accused of lacing her husband's cocktail with five times a lethal dose of fentanyl, you'd think someone on that legal team would have picked a different verb. |
| 0:29.2 | But here we are. |
| 0:31.8 | This last month, defense attorneys filed their second motion to move Corey's trial out of Summit County, Utah. They |
| 0:38.2 | argued that the case has become so well known locally that seating an impartial jury is |
| 0:43.5 | essentially impossible. And look, the numbers they cite aren't nothing. Out of 1,723 jury |
| 0:51.7 | questionnaires returned, roughly 85% of respondents said they recognize the case. |
| 0:57.5 | About 60% said they've been following it somewhat closely or very closely. |
| 1:01.8 | The defense did the math, or their version of the math, and said once you strip out everyone |
| 1:07.1 | who's familiar with the case, everyone with hardship claims, everyone with other disqualifying issues, you're left with about 72 viable jurors. |
| 1:15.5 | That's not enough, they argued, to reliably seat a jury of eight plus four alternatives. |
| 1:24.2 | I'm sorry, but eight plus four does not equal 72. |
| 1:28.1 | They even flagged a specific piece of evidence by name the walk the dog letter, |
| 1:33.1 | warning the judge that if it comes up during jury selection, |
| 1:36.7 | even more prospective jurors might suddenly realize they know the case, |
| 1:41.1 | shrinking the pool even further. |
| 1:43.6 | That's how famous this case has gotten, they said. |
| 1:48.4 | They can't even mention the evidence without tainting the room according to them. |
| 1:55.4 | Here's what the Fox News reporting on February 7th didn't mention. |
| 1:59.7 | Judge Richard Marzik had already ruled on this. |
| 2:03.0 | He denied the motion on February 2nd. |
... |
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