The Richins Drug Chain: Can You Convict on Witnesses Who Bought Their Freedom?
Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary
True Crime Today
3.3 • 908 Ratings
🗓️ 13 March 2026
⏱️ 14 minutes
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Summary
In the Kouri Richins murder trial, the prosecution's drug supply chain runs through two witnesses — and both of them have immunity deals. Both of their stories shifted. One recanted on the stand. The other changed her account of what drug she bought after federal charges appeared on the horizon.
It's the kind of evidentiary situation that keeps defense attorneys up at night — and gives them ammunition in closing arguments.
On Hidden Killers, Tony Brueski sits down with Eric Faddis — defense attorney and former felony prosecutor — to dissect the structural problem at the heart of the prosecution's case. Not just the credibility of each individual witness, but the combined weight of two compromised testimonies holding up a first-degree murder charge.
Eric breaks down what an immunity deal actually requires, where witness preparation ends and improper influence begins, and what a defense attorney does in front of a jury when the prosecution's own detective was caught on tape saying things that don't help the state's case.
This is a conversation about how the justice system actually works — and where it can go sideways.
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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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