LIVE: Breaking Down the Prosecution's Case Against Kouri Richins

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1:00Tyler Reddick here from 2311 Racing. Victory Lane? Yeah, it's even better with Chamba by my side. Race to chambacasino.com. Let's Chamba. No purchase necessary, VGW Group Void were prohibited by law, CTNC's, 21 plus, sponsored by Chamba Casino. This is Hidden Killers with Tony Brusky. Here now, Tony Brusky. Let's move over now to the trial that's going on over to Utah, the Corey Richards trial underway. And we're going to focus first. We're going to do two kind of segments on this one on the prosecution's case. What they're presenting, what they're arguing, we'll go to the defense then second. And whether this adds up to murder beyond a reasonable doubt, the state says Corey poisoned her husband, Eric, with fentanyl for money and to start a new life with her boyfriend. They've got a witness who says she bought drugs. He got Eric's own word saying he thought Corey was trying to kill him. They've got insurance policies to lead a text and internet searches and paint a picture

2:01of premeditation. Let's take into the questions that you've been asking and be sure to ask them if you're watching us live right now in the comments section. We'll try to get over to those. We'll start with this from a bride in Salt Lake City, Carmen Lauber testified that she bought fentanyl for Corey for separate times. She says Corey told her it was for an investor. Nobody believes that, right? What investor needs the realter to score street fentanyl for them is the prosecution arguing. That was always a cover story from murder. The investor story, I mean, that's an interesting angle on this. We're just learning that now that it was for an investor. What are you going to tell somebody that it's for you? You're always going to come up with a story. Especially if you're buying illicit drugs. Right. Right. I guess I've never bought illicit drugs, but I guess I probably have a story, but it's

3:07for the neighbor's cat. They're really into fentanyl. I mean, I guess it's kind of a semi-believeable story. It's interesting. You know, here's where it tracks really well because Corey is someone who's very obsessed with her image. This is my conjecture and it's until proven guilty and served alleged in front of everything I'm going to say for the next 30 minutes. She clearly seems like someone who has the profile that's obsessed or very concerned with image and how she's portrayed to other people, how other people see her. That's how this type of personality profile works. I am under the operational thought process of her of kind of an amount diagnosing border lineish narcissistic personality disorder, something in that area. That's my opinion. Those type of folks are very obsessed with their image. The fact that she used it as an investor that she's doing this from, it puts her even

4:11in that weird conversation of getting drugs. It kind of elevates her of like, it's for an investor because I'm so busy, I'm so high-falutin, I'm so important in this business, I'm getting this from my investor, you know, because you know, we're that tight, I'm buying, you know. It's a weird way of doing things, but I can see how through her prism, this seemed like a win. And also, I feel like she did it because, well, you can't let somebody know that they would be for you, right? Like the mask would have to be pulled away. She's so perfect. She would never do something like this now for an investor, for the company, blah, blah, blah. I'll do what I got to do, but she would never herself show that she had that experience with illicit drugs. Even standing to get the drugs, basically. So they, yeah, I mean, the investor story I found to be interesting, Robin, and Robin just mentioned.

5:12And so an influencer personality, I would say that would be absolutely correct, wouldn't you? Yes. I would say she's very, yeah, she could have been down that road. She has, I mean, she reminds me somewhat of kind of like Ruby Frankie in some ways. She reminds me of Donna Adelson in a lot of ways. I mean, just take that, that narcissistic personality type that can never be accountable for anything and has a justifiable reason for anything that they're doing, all their modality, everything that they do, everything they touch, even how were they need to lie cheat and steal and scheme, they will somehow tell themselves, I'm doing this for the greater good. That's a very reason. And I'm entitled to do this and anyone who questions me, how dare them. That's disrespectful because you're questioning, you know, the genius of this type of a person.

6:13That's my opinion on kind of the way that she operates. Yeah. Stephanie from Park City, Eric allegedly told his sister on a phone call just weeks before he died that he believed Corey was trying to poison him. He said those words out loud to family. How does the prosecution use that? Is that hearsay? Can they get it in front of a jury? I believe it can come out and it probably will. I honestly don't know the answer to that in this case specifically. I know that like that has been those sort of statements certainly have been used in other trials. I don't know if the judge has allowed that in, but it certainly has been said. And I mean, I would say I'm going to guess it is. The fact that they've brought up the sandwich, which could be also kind of hearsay is, too. I'm going to guess that that's going to be in there. And it is powerful, especially when you look at the character of Eric and he's not a paranoid

7:20guy. I mean, if this was a guy who was constantly paranoid and there could be a track record of see, he was paranoid about this and that. So it makes sense. He thinks his wife's trying to kill him, too. If you could go down a track record and say, see, that would explain that more. But I don't think they have that. They don't have anything like that. So if you have somebody making a statement like that, which is pretty rare, I think, to have happen that someone's going to actively feel that way and then still stay in the relationship. Yeah, I mean, that's going to be very powerful, I think. There's a lot of things in this case that are, there's nuggets here in there. There's not one big smoking gun. It's an accumulation of things and you got to kind of look at which pile of shit is worse and then determine, okay, which number one, which is worse, but then is that pile of shit enough to say beyond a reasonable doubt? Or is it still just, yeah, it's pretty, yeah, we're hearing still pretty, yeah, over

8:24here, because you're going to have both in this case. I think the investigation was extremely flawed, but it doesn't mean that she didn't do it either. Right. You and I had a brief conversation this morning via text and we were talking about the witness who's been on the stand for the last day and a half, Carmen Lobber. And there's another piece of that where it's like her testimony seems to kind of change in waiver and the defense is really going after her about that, really trying to paint her is somebody that's not trustable, not, not worth trustworthy, I should say. And I have to be honest, watching it, I kind of feel that way. I kind of feel like I'm not sure that if this were the only evidence they were going on, I'd have to say not enough for me. And I personally think that, and again, just my opinion, I think Corey probably did do what we all, you know, what she's being on trial for. But I would still have to question whether or not this was enough for me to actually put her behind bars for the death of her husband.

9:25I think if you're just basing it on those folks, no. But where it gets there for me, it's going to be the digital. And that's what syncs everybody. I mean, on memes alone, just on like the memes alone. I mean, I guess it doesn't necessarily prove she did it. I mean, look, if she was, let's look at it from this perspective for a moment, a thought experiment, if you will, as Robin says, the memes of, I'm rich, I'm, you know, wiping their face with money and the Trump, I'm rich meme and idiots, idiots everywhere. Those are the three memes that were brought up that she apparently was searching on her device literally as Eric was being hauled out of the house in a body bag. And her children are in the other room inconsolable. She's looking at these, these memes are coming up on her device.

10:29Pretty barbaric, you know, just, oh my God, but does it mean that she did it or did an opportunity just present itself in his death if he OD'd on something at his own hands. And now suddenly life is going to be good for Corey because suddenly he's gone and she's wanted him gone for a long time and she didn't have to do anything about it. Now she gets the money, now she gets this and that. And he OD'd, so I had nothing to do with it. So life is good. And she's just a cold, heartless bitch. I mean, is that, is that what that is? Because I guess you really could interpret it one of two ways. She would have to really be a cold-hearted bitch, I think, to celebrate it. Even though she apparently wasn't happy, she had this other boyfriend, she had all these things that she wanted in life. They were struggling, they were having some issues.

11:30I think it's really tough. We've all had bad relationships that we've wanted to probably get out of. I don't know that I would celebrate the death of somebody, even if it was something that I was unhappy in, in that way, that close to the actual timeframe of him being pulled out of the house. Like maybe a week or two later, you'd be like, oh, I just feel so much better. There's a couple of memes about my life getting better, whatever. I don't know that the timing on that is really suspect. What makes her more of a monster if she, she was looking up those memes and she did it, knowing that she did it, or if she didn't do it, she was looking up those memes. I think it makes her look more humane if she did it because that was part of her plan and she knew it all along. She looks even more monstrous in some ways that this is just her instinctual reaction to his accidental death if that's what happened in some ways.

12:32We just got a question from Robin who says, the memes are kind of meaningless. Her name is Richens. How do you prove she was looking at those memes at that time? And then she says, did she post the memes or just see them? And we don't know that the way it was, we'll find out, but the way it was described so far in the openings was that they were accessed on her device, right? So that could simply mean, when you go on your phone and you're looking up to send somebody a meme and you type it in and then that's what comes up as an image, that could be that. We don't know the answer to that question yet, but I would just say, look at it though, with her last name being Richens, sometimes like you're typing, you're texting somebody and you actually press the GIF for a meme button and all of a sudden these memes start popping up. Could she have been typing something else and they just happened to come up? I mean, that's an interesting thought Robin, to be honest with you. Robin, you just gave them, you just gave the fence something they're going to bring

13:36up now. Good job. Exactly. Good job. Because quite honestly, I think they're probably looking for ideas. So I'm going to laugh when that pops up in court because it probably will. Well, there was, this is, I brought up now several times and this actually, my fiance brought this up the other day because I think it could answer so many questions is a hair follicle test on Eric. As far as we know, none was done. At least we've never seen it, we've never heard of it being brought up. As far as we know that's not an evidence, I could be wrong, but a hair follicle test would tell you whether Eric was a regular user of fentanyl or other drugs, it would tell you that. And it would tell you he was not.

14:36That benefits one of two sides and I don't know that either side feels strong enough in their case to grab that piece of evidence and go look or because either way, whatever that result would be would be very revealing. And I know we've had people say he had very short hair. We could only looking at the length of his hair depending on how long, how fast he grows his hair, all that kind of stuff. But we could get, I think we could get at least some information if that would be done. Hair is hair. It doesn't just have to be on your head. That would be shown. That would be fine. So he might have some long, you know, if there's a hair anywhere with any length, it's like a tree. You know, it's the rings of a tree. It will tell you, it will tell you a lot. So I don't know. I mean, it's that I think would be very telling if, you know, it shows that, oh, it looks like he has us in his system a lot. It would lean a lot more towards in overdose. It would be very strong for Corey if there ain't that, then, yeah.

15:43The toxologist testified that quantum pain, that's Corey's prescription medication. Not Erich's was found in Erich's blood. It was a small amount, but it was there of Erich had no prescription for that drug. How did it get in the, in his system is a prosecution using that to show Corey was putting things in his food and drinks. But not quite know how they're going to use that yet, but yeah, that wasn't a system as well. And again, I think you could use that two ways. You could say, see, he's, he's just going to the medicine cabinet and treating it like skittles. You know, whatever is there, he's just taking some. Or Corey made, it could be, well, you know, it's there and he takes it every now, then. I don't know. I don't know how they're going to, to put that. It is an interesting one because it almost makes you wonder like what it, Corey, so she get the, the fentanyl and she's like, and just for added measure, let me push some of this in here too. Yeah, I mean, the, the mind process, when you start thinking about the mind process on getting

16:45the drugs, connecting with somebody to get the drugs. And it looks like from the testimony that I've seen over the last couple of days, there were a few prescriptions around the house in various locations along with the, and I'll say it like the, the prosecutor and the defense said, comey's THC, comey's like they're so afraid of saying THC comey's, I'm not sure why, but yeah, I mean, there seems to be a lot of stuff going on in that house. And it seems no one seems to have any clue or understanding in how THC works. Yeah. They think it's like from the devil or something and it's somehow this horrible, deadly, scary drug that's literally killed no one ever. But some, you know, and that I feel like they're, they're really, they're playing, they're trying to create confusion. They're playing on the jury also not fully grasping that and going, oh gosh, he's a drug user. And THC gummies, well, like half the people in the courtroom are like, I'm on one right now. Yeah.

17:45You know, I bet a member of the jury probably is on one right now, probably, I mean, of the two of us, I'm guessing there's a 50, 50 shot that somebody here is on one just saying exactly. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's not something where it's, it's not nine, it's not 1952 or something. Right. Or the 80s or anything where it's, you know, it's just not that. It's been, yeah, it's been fascinating to watch that. Your thoughts in the comment section on the prosecution of Corey Richards and where that's all at, sub stack or YouTube is where you can weigh in. We'd love to get your feedback there and be sure to press subscribe. Want more on this case and others? Then press subscribe now and don't miss a moment of true crime coverage from Tony Brusky and the Hidden Killers podcast. Bubba Wallace here from 2311 Racing.

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