CNN —
A Utah woman charged with killing her husband with fentanyl and subsequently accused of writing a letter encouraging her brother to provide false testimony claims the letter was part of a fictional book she was writing, court documents show.
Kouri Richins is facing murder and drug charges on suspicion of killing her husband, Eric Richins, in March 2022, allegedly by giving him a drink containing a lethal dose of fentanyl. She has yet to enter a plea.
Prosecutors have said a six-page handwritten letter, which was found in Richins’ cell last week, amounts to witness tampering because it allegedly contains instructions for Richins’ brother to repeat “a false narrative” that would suggest her husband had gone to Mexico to buy pain pills and fentanyl, according to a motion filed last week.
But the widow claims the letter was an excerpt of a “fictional mystery book” in which she and her father go to Mexico to find drugs, according to a memorandum filed by state prosecutors on Tuesday.
Children's book author who is charged with killing her husband now accused of witness tampering
Richins defended the letter in a phone call with her mother on Saturday, telling her, “When I first got in here I was telling you I was writing a book … those letters were not a paper to you guys, they were a part of my freaking book,” according to Tuesday’s memorandum.
According to state attorneys, the letter instructs Richins’ mother, Lisa Darden, to tell Richins’ brother to falsely say that...
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