Kouri Richins: When the State's Star Witnesses All Have Deals
True Crime Today | Daily True Crime News & Interviews
Tony Brueski
4.2 • 612 Ratings
🗓️ 13 March 2026
⏱️ 14 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In true crime cases, immunity deals are common. But the Kouri Richins murder trial has a problem that goes beyond any single witness — the prosecution's entire drug supply chain is made up of people who traded their testimony for their freedom.
Carmen Lauber, the housekeeper at the center of the case, had her story expand to include fentanyl after detectives told her she was facing serious federal charges. Robert Crozier, the alleged drug supplier, told investigators he sold fentanyl — then told a different story on the stand. A detective's recorded statements, played for the jury by the defense, raised questions about whether investigators shaped the testimony they needed.
True Crime Today examines what happens when a murder case depends on witnesses whose motivations are anything but clean. Tony Brueski sits down with Eric Faddis — a former prosecutor who now defends the accused — to break down how immunity deals actually function, what the Richins prosecution is facing in closing arguments, and whether a jury can trust a drug chain where every link had something to gain.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Hidden Killers Live with Tony Brewski and Robin Dree. |
| 0:07.7 | The prosecution's case rests on a three-person drug chain in the trial of Corey Richens, |
| 0:12.8 | a supplier, a middleman, and Corey. The problem is that the supplier and the middleman both have immunity deals. |
| 0:20.1 | One of them changed his story. |
| 0:22.1 | The other changed hers when serious prison time entered the picture. |
| 0:27.1 | Eric Fattis, defense attorney, former prosecutor here with us to help break all this down. |
| 0:33.5 | Eric, let's make sure everyone understands what an immunity deal actually means, because I think some people assume it means someone is telling the truth because they have nothing left to gain. |
| 0:44.0 | Or it might be interpreted as they're spinning a story to protect themselves. |
| 0:49.8 | Because if they don't tell a story this way, well, there's going to be some negative repercussions for not doing that. |
| 0:56.4 | That's how the defense is trying to position it. |
| 0:59.6 | And it's really kind of a somewhat true statement. |
| 1:03.9 | It's not like that's not true. |
| 1:06.6 | How do juries typically interpret this sort of a situation where you got folks who are telling a specific version of the story? |
| 1:15.3 | Because, yeah, they got immunity. |
| 1:17.4 | Had they not agreed to testify, they'd be in jail. |
| 1:21.2 | There's clear incentive to tell a version of a story there. |
| 1:25.4 | True or not? |
| 1:27.7 | You know, I think it's a really important question because I think prosecutors and even |
| 1:33.9 | defense attorneys see it a lot differently than like a normal juror. |
| 1:37.0 | I think a normal juror is going to look at that. |
| 1:39.5 | And on, you know, not all of them, but on the balance, kind of have some cognitive |
| 1:43.0 | dissonance, kind of saying, hey, wait a sec. |
... |
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