Kouri Richins: The Pattern Behind the Murder Charge

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1:06Until the season changes, and suddenly you lose your motivation to get out of bed. In fact, one in five people experience some form of depression no matter the season or time of year. At the American Psychiatric Association Foundation, our vision is to build a mentally healthy nation for all, because we want you to live your best life and be your best you all year round. At the American Psychiatric Association Foundation, our vision is to build a mentally healthy nation for all, because we want you to live your best life, and be your best you all year round. In fact, we want you to live your best life and be your best you all year round. Until the season changes, and suddenly you lose your motivation to get out of bed. In fact, one in five people experience some form of depression no matter the season or time of year. Best you all year round. Please visit mentallyhealthynation.org to learn more. This is Hidden Killers with Tony Brusky. Here now, Tony Brusky.

2:08If you've been following along with the Cory Richens case, you're probably well aware that Cory Richens has left a trail of utter destruction in virtually every relationship that she's touched over the last God knows how long, at least the relationships that have come to light in this trial, we're going to go through all of those. So you get a real full picture of this woman and get, I guess, even greater context to who the person that is accused of murdering her husband actually is. Does she have the propensity to carry out what she's been accused of? I think when you have it all all in front of you and we kind of wrangle it all together, everything you need to know about this woman in terms of her interpersonal relationships, how she handles people, how she handles things, how she handles anything in her life, especially when it comes to being an advantage to her and not to others,

3:10how she hits the gas on, well, this is going to benefit me. I'm going to go down that road pretty damn strong. That's what we're going to be exploring today in this piece. I want to get your thoughts in the comments section as we work our way through it. Substack in YouTube or the places to do that. Hit subscribe wherever you're listening right now. So let's go back. It was Valentine's Day. I know we're talking about this again, but this is part of the context. We're not going to rehash every aspect of this case. We're going to go to these specific people, specific incidences and specific events that really matter, that really show, say, clearer picture of who Corey Richens is if you didn't already have one. So Valentine's Day 2014, let's start there. Valentine's Day 2022, February 14th is what I'm talking about. And somewhere in Utah, Cody Wright picked up a phone call from his business partner, Eric Richens. He took the call the way you take any call from someone you've known for years,

4:12without thinking much about it. But something was wrong. According to Wright's testimony, the voice on the other end wasn't the Eric Richens he knew. There was fear and an urgency. A tone Wright said he'd only heard from Eric twice before in his life. Once when Eric's mother died and once when he'd been in a serious accident, that was it. You know that tone you get with friends, you're like, hey, what's going on? You're like, you're like, oh God, something is going on here. Because of course, I like to answer the phone when my friends call me and go, hey, what's going on? I'm like, hey, are you okay? Everything's great. I just had a value meal at the restaurant. Oh my God, are you okay? It was delicious. You just talk like that just to freak people out. And then you move on. It's a great day. I'm kidding. But you know what I mean? The feel, the mood, it's that almost inability after you've gone through some sort of a trauma

5:19and you're trying to communicate to talking any other way. Because you're just trying to get the message out because you are so traumatized by what has just occurred. And then this moment in time, Eric is contemplating and really I think realizing that his wife very realistically just attempted to murder him. That's kind of serious. He was calling because he was scared. And according to prosecutors, the reason he was scared was his wife. The sandwich and getting sick three weeks later, Eric Richens was dead. I'd phone call his where the story actually begins. Not with the charges, not with the arrests, not with the children's book that came later. It begins to the man who couldn't call his own wife on Valentine's Day because prosecutors alleged she was the threat. It begins to the man

6:26who had to use his business partner as a lifeline, his brother-in-law as a secret conduit to a divorce attorney attorney and his own home email as a communications risk. A man who was trapped inside his own life and who according to the evidence presented at trial was surrounded on every side by a person who put him there. Cori Richens, of course, has pledged not guilty to charges of aggravated murder, attempted murder, insurance fraud and forgery. She is presumed innocent until proven otherwise. But the picture prosecutors have built over the more than two weeks of testimony isn't just a picture of a crime. It's the picture of a pattern and the pattern is this. According to the evidence presented at this trial, nearly every person in Cori Richens life served a function. When the function was useful, they stayed closed. When it expired or became an obstacle, they got drained, discarded or used for something else. That's not editorializing this. That's the accounting, witness by witness, dollar by dollar. And it's been presented under oath.

7:30Start with Eric because according to the prosecution, you have to start with Eric to understand everything else. Prosecutors alleged Cori used Eric's power of attorney to take out a $250,000 dollar home equity line of credit on their family home without his knowledge to fund her real estate business. Their home was on the line when Eric found out his brother-in-law, Clinton Benson, testified that Eric was very upset and sad. The conversation that followed was about divorce attorneys. Eric believed Cori was monitoring his emails, so he couldn't even contact a lawyer directly. He had to route his own legal communications through his brother-in-law like a man running an underground operation inside his own marriage. At some point, before his death, prosecutors alleged Cori applied for $2 million in life insurance on Eric's life. A forensic handwriting testified a trial of the signature on the application probably wasn't Eric's.

8:30It appeared to be a simulated forgery written by someone who had access to his handwriting and was attempting to replace it. According to prosecutors, Eric Richens was insured for his own death without his knowledge by the person who allegedly caused it. He was consulting a lawyer to get out. He never got out. And there's Chelsea Barney described a trial as Cori's lifelong best friend, the kind of friend you call first, trust completely, the kind of friend most people spend their entire life trying to find. According to testimony, Chelsea Barney lost her entire life savings in a real estate deal with Cori that went wrong, everything gone, and she still showed up. She still took the calls. She was still apparently the person Cori leaned on after Eric died. Text messages shown in court included Cori writing to Chelsea in the aftermath of her husband's death. They will not take for me what is mine. This is an observation and I'm curious

9:35in the comment section to anyone who has ever dealt with someone like a Cori. And again, we're not diagnosing her. But many times in our discussions here, I've I've described her in the way I can relate to her personality. She strikes me. And again, this is just in my opinion, not diagnosing. I have no idea. Very borderline, very narcissistic personality disorder, very cluster B to the nth degree. That's my opinion. I do not know. But if we're looking at the pattern, that's at the pattern, tells me someone who's been through this a time or two in we won't go into all the details. I got a question for anybody else out there who's dealt with someone like this. When they when they're grandstanding like this after they've exited some sort of situation or the situation is exited from them. And and they're being forced to reckon with the consequences of their actions. And in some cases,

10:42it's it's taking something away. If if you're getting a divorce, sometimes it's, well, guess what? You no longer have access to your husband's money because it's not yours because he earned it. You didn't. And because you've been sitting there stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars for the last however long, it can be situations where where you're you're being taken from in other ways. And the person is held accountable. Oh, you you didn't work all those hours. And now you expect full pay those sort of things. They get very, very, very r speak in my opinion. I'm curious if you see in this in this almost HBO kind of period. Almost, I don't even what the arrow of a victory in is. They will not take from me. What is mine?

11:49I mean, it's like, it would really be used in a sentence in any other way, except when you're really trying to grandstand. Have you noticed this, have you noticed this in these types of people? When they're put into the corner, they start speaking like they're out of some sort of Elizabethan novel. I mean, it's like, oh, if you put it that way, I'm going to take you so much more seriously because it sounds like it's a snippet from this very old, aged book that has all of the wisdom of the decades and the centuries of people that came before you. And of course, your own words too, Corey, they will not take from me what is mine. It's interesting. I've noticed this as a pattern in this type of behavior. Regular vernacular goes out the window and it gets very, oh, Elizabethan.

12:50And maybe I'm described, maybe the terms I'm using are not quite accurate, but you get it. You get what I'm talking about. Have you noticed this? Have you noticed this in these types of people? When they get into the corner, when the mask is pulled down a bit, suddenly they start speaking in these terms. I'm curious. Again, there's so many things with these folks like they all go to the same damn convention. How to destroy your life and others around you. When you get caught, start speaking like this. And separately, according to testimony, Corey and Chelsea, or Corey rather sent Chelsea a message assuring her that investigators had found nothing on either of them. Them. Oh, yeah. Of course, they always try to pull other people into their fold of chaos because that's not just them. The woman who had already lost everything trusting her was being used again, different functions, same playbook, nothing on them. Yeah, because as if she has anything to do with it, you crazy, crazy, that was another

13:54friend, unnamed in the headlines, but naughty in the evidence forensic accounting accounted rather, Brooke Carrington testified about a text exchange in which Corey encouraged a friend to wire her 45 grand as a down payment on a property deal. The friend sent the money. The deal never closed. According to Carrington, as soon as at 45 grand landed in Corey's account, he was gone, spent immediately on an outstanding debt payment. No deal, no refund, no record of a conversation about what happened to it. So your, your lifelong friend, I believe she was a waitress, this is her life savings. Yeah, Corey, this sounds great. I'm going to invest in this. Let me cover my debts with your money. The modality to do that is really it's stunning.

15:00It shows such a lack of empathy for humanity, anyone else in your life, I mean, just for a second, just for a second, think to yourself about this scenario here. Let's say you lend a friend some money, let's say you lend a friend $100, $200, let's say you take, let's do this, let's do it the other way around, let's do it from the Corey perspective. Let's say your friend, you're in, you're in really a tough situation and your friend lends you $100, okay? $100. It's a nice little amount of money, I mean, it's nothing to sniff at, it's like if you lend somebody $100, I don't know, I think in most cases you expect to get it paid back unless you're like, I got you, you're good, you know? So let's say you take that $100 and you told your friend, okay, I need, I need to get

16:06groceries this week, you know, the kids, it's really tough, they're hungry, we got to get food. I'm really, it's a mess right now. I got you, I can help. And then they go and spend that money to pay down bills, debts from other previous horrible choices that they made and not on the food that they said they needed. It really makes you question that human being, what that person is capable of, what that person truly thinks and truly feels, their actions and their, their words are not congruent in any way, shape or form. And it's, it's disturbing that they're going to take that $100, I mean, it's a hundred bucks, I mean, it's a hundred bucks, a hundred bucks is a hundred bucks, I don't care how freaking rich you are or not, a hundred bucks is a hundred bucks, it goes a lot less further today than it did five years ago, but still it's a hundred bucks.

17:11And it's a bit of a betrayal if that person doesn't use the money for what they said they were going to do it for the reason you lent it to them. If they said I need a hundred bucks to pay down my debts, so we're like, I don't think I, that's on you, my friend. I hope you figure that shit out, but I don't have a bunch of debts. I've been more responsible with my money than you, it's not to shove it in your face, it's just I don't have those sorts of debts. So no, I'm not, I'm not taking my money and funding your debts, it's a little different than I need money for food or something, but anyway, $45,000 is what Corey took in, spent on something completely different, and this was a real estate investment, not buying food that she was supposed to be spending it on for her friends, so everything would go in her friends name and such, completely lied to her about it, allegedly, $45,000,

18:11$45,000, every red cent this person had, gave to her friend, and then Corey just sucked it up and went away, that's, that's stunning, I mean, there's a lot of levers you're pulling to get there to do that, to feel that this is going to be an okay plan, and I don't care any idea here, oh, well, she thought if she's spent it down over here, she'd make it back over, no, that's just foolishness, that's Tom Foolery, and it's going to end in a fist of cuffs, for she shall have what is hers, remember? I mean, it's stunning, I mean, it's, it's not murder, but it's, it's like up there, it's up there, it shows an ability to really screw someone over in such an extreme way,

19:20I mean, when you kill somebody, at least they're dead, they're not going to keep living in poverty that you just put them into, this is actively putting your friend into poverty, and saying, oops, not my fault, that's, I mean, that's another level, I mean, again, money and life are obviously two very different things, but am I the only one who feels like, it's not worse, but it almost takes a worse person to be able to do that, that's how I kind of feel, it's, it's an interesting dynamic, the action isn't worse than murder, but it takes someone that is worse than a murderer to pull that off, it really, it does.

20:26There's Josh Grossman, a boyfriend, he testified that their relationship became romantic around 2020, that he worked on houses Corey was flipping, that she let him live in home, she was renovating, how nice of Corey, she bought him to truck, she gave him money when he needed it, he was like her pet, basically, said he loved her, when prosecutors asked whether she loved him, he hesitated and said she probably did, though he acknowledged, he likely loved her more than she loved him, less than a month before Eric Richens died, text messages shown to the grand jury included Corey asking Grossman, if I divorced right now and ask you to marry me tomorrow, you would, he was the contingency plan, he had real emotional investment in a woman who prosecutors argue was running a parallel

21:33life with a ticking clock on it, he ended up on the witness stand testifying against her, this is what she loved him with, just utter disregard here for another human being, you can tell this bitch totally used him, totally prayed on him, talk about predatory behavior, I mean let's, let's, let's flip the script here for a moment, if Grossman were Corey, if this were a man that was flipping houses and not doing very good at it and basically failing at the business the whole time, and someone noticed, oh this woman that you brought in, that seems to be rather good at working on your projects, she's lovely,

22:38what are you paying her, I'm not, I just let her stay in the houses and then I get to effort, and then I bought her a car or something, like what, huh, like she's working for you, no, I'm not paying her at all, no, I get to have sex with her, and she thinks it's great, just keep telling her out, like it would be outrageous, people would be looking at this like, our Kelly shit, they would, if this were flipped, people would be looking at this relationship like our Kelly, so you basically have bamboozled this woman into convincing her that you love her, she's doing free work for you, you're basically doing her at will, at your will, not necessarily her, but whenever you feel like the need to show some love, quote unquote,

23:40spread the love around, she's just there for you, and she doesn't seem very wise about any of it, and she's pretty much coercively at your control because you're not paying her, she's living in your homes, as much as the argument in this case has been trying to make for anyone on the defensive, oh, Corey was trapped, she didn't have money, really, she, show me where the fuck that ever happened, other than her own words, her own victimization statements that she blithers out of her mouth, that really don't seem to land in reality, oh, Eric was control, really, was he, was he, because I think we have a far clearer example of some uncoercively controlling another human being here, and it ain't Eric at Corey. Again, if these scripts were flipped,

24:54she'd be in an even worse monster than she already is. Because it's a guy being manipulated by a woman, and well, guys just like sex whenever they can get it, so he has got nothing to complain about, does he? She's got a cute, doesn't matter the modality in which that all happened, the modality in which she pretty much, again, coercively controlled him and brainwashed him into thinking that this is a great idea, everybody's an adult, everybody can make their own decisions, you're exactly right, but, again, there's laws out there that protect people from being taken advantage of. Courage of control is a real thing, and it happens in both directions, and this is a good example of it, if it's all true. There's Carmen Lauber to the housekeeper, according to her testimony.

25:59Lauber purchased illicit opiate pills for Corey multiple times in early 2022, eventually connecting her to a supplier of pills containing fentanyl after Corey asked for something stronger. When Lauber texted Corey about the fentanyl pills, Corey responded according to testimony, okay, go ahead and get them, private investigator Todd Gabler, hired by Eric's family, and logged over 936 hours of work on the case, testified that among all the contacts and Corey's life, she communicated with Lauber more than almost anyone except Eric and her mother, her husband, her mother, her drug source. That was her inner circle, according to the evidence lover, it didn't choose to become a witness in a murder trial, according to prosecutors, Corey made that decision for her. Eric's family, his sister Katie Richens Benson, his father Eugene, his brother-in-law Clint sat in that courtroom through every day of testimony. They filed a

27:00wrongful death lawsuit, they hired Garber who spent 936 hours and more than $100,000 just to get someone to take seriously, what they had believed from the very night they walked through that door. That's the cost of fighting someone when the system isn't ready to move yet, $100,000, nearly a thousand hours. And while they were doing that, while Katie was spending her own resources, and her grief fighting for her brother, Corey was allegedly sitting in a jail cell, writing a six-page letter to her mother. The letter had three words written at the top in large letters, walk the dog. And we're going to break that thing down in another piece tomorrow. So press subscribe because you don't want to miss that. According to prosecutors, it was an instruction manual. It allegedly directed Corey's mother to coach her brother into constructing a false narrative, claiming Eric had obtained fentanyl from coworkers in Mexico, building a fictional

28:00drug pipeline to counter the forensic evidence and tucked inside that letter according to prosecutors was a directive to find photos of Katie's daughters and send them anonymously to media outlets, specifically to make Katie, the woman who had just lost her brother and was fighting for justice for him, livid. Now let's expose your niece, your nieces. Chilled what? She wasn't content with what she allegedly did to the people outside her family. She allegedly reached inside her own family too, just to twist the knife a little bit more. And here's where it all connects. Forensic account in Brooke Carrington testified that by the time Eric Richens died in March of 2022, Corey had approximately seven and a half million in debt with monthly payments of 80 grand. Her net worth was negative 1.6 million. Carrington's exact words, it was imploding. Her debts and liabilities far outweighed her assets. And if she had sold everything she had,

29:04it would have not been enough to get back to zero. And in a separate email, do a creditor around the same period, Corey described yourself as the head of a company with over 100 employees who had made more than a million dollars on her last five deals combined. None of it was real. The business was a fiction funded by other people's money, loans, equity lines, life savings, wired by friends, labor from a boyfriend, and marriage, she could not afford to leave. Every person in this piece was according to the evidence, subsidizing Corey's implosion, Corey's bad decisions. Eric with his estate and his forged signature on a life insurance policy, Chelsea Barney with her life savings. An unnamed friend with 45 grand grossment with his labor, his time and his emotional investment. Lauber with her freedom, Eric's family with six figures in a private investor in years of grief. And when it all finally ran out of other, and when it all finally ran out, other people's resources, all of it. When the business was imploding and the

30:12divorce was coming and the exit routes were closing, prosecutors alleged Corey made the first move on Valentine's Day. Eric got sick after eating food. She allegedly ordered for him. He survived. He called his business partner afraid, and his voice sounded like it only had twice before it is life. Three weeks later in March 4th, he did not survive. After Eric died, Corey Richens wrote a children's book about grief. It's called, Are You With Me? The cover shows a father with angel wind. She published it and promoted it publicly. And now years later, five children who no longer have a father because of what prosecutors alleged she did are old enough to understand what a trial is. Cody Wright, the business partner who got the phone call in Valentine's Day had to sit in a courtroom and describe the fear and his friend's voice to the jury. Chelsea Barney, who had no life savings left, took the stand and testified against the person she considered her closest friend. Carmen Lauber became an immunity witness. Eric's family spent $100,000 in a private investigator

31:12and somewhere out there, a children's book is still for sale. If prosecutors are right, the full accounting of a Corey Richens left behind isn't just a list of victims. It's the portrait of a world view. One where other people exist to fulfill a function and when the function is finished, so is the relationship. Everyone got something from her until the moment they became inconvenient and then they got something else entirely. Eric Richens was the one who couldn't survive it. Your thoughts in the comments section on YouTube and sub-stack. I get even more angry because it's just God. This is why she needs to be put away forever because she will go out there and this is her modality. I don't think she's sitting there like with like an evil cauldron going, how can I screw people over today? It's just what she does. This is how she thinks you're supposed to act and no one's going to tell her different. However, she got there, whatever made Corey Richens,

32:20her screwed up childhood being a band and being, you know, the people, I mean, you get it. It makes sense. Her childhood was shit. When at the end of the day, we all grow up and we have to take accountability for our choices and we can't just keep repeating the pattern of the monsters before us and go, don't blame me. Blame them. No, blame you. You made the choices. You face the consequences. Your thoughts in the comments section on YouTube and sub-stack will continue the conversation there. Be sure to press subscribe wherever you download podcasts. You don't miss any of our coverage of this case and the many that we cover for you right here, wherever you get podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, I Heart. Hit subscribe. We do greatly appreciate it. We'll continue the conversation in the comments until then. I'm Tony Bursky. We'll talk again real soon.