Episode Details

Week one of the Kouri Richins murder trial is starting, and the battle lines are drawn. Prosecutors say she poisoned her husband Eric with fentanyl for nearly $2 million in life insurance money. The defense says the case is built on compromised witnesses and circumstantial evidence. Criminal defense attorney Bob Motta breaks down where this five-week trial is heading—and where it's most likely to be won or lost.

The prosecution's case hinges on Carmen Lauber—the housekeeper who claims she sold Kouri fentanyl. She's been granted immunity. But her supplier, Robert Crozier, has recanted his statement and now says whatever he sold wasn't fentanyl. No pills were ever recovered. No pills were ever tested. Bob explains what that means for the state's theory—and how a defense attorney would attack it on cross.

The 15-minute gap is critical. Prosecutors say Kouri's phone was unlocked six times in the fifteen minutes before she called 911. First responders noted Eric "seemed like he had been dead a while." Kouri told investigators she went immediately to the phone. Bob walks through how the defense will try to reframe that gap.

Two of Eric's friends will testify he called them eighteen days before his death and said "I think my wife tried to poison me." That secondhand testimony goes directly to the attempted murder charge. Bob explains how powerful it can be—and the defense's best approach to neutralizing it.

An orange notebook with Kouri's "firsthand account" of Eric's death could be admitted. The insurance fraud charges are bundled with the murder. The judge has set a hard deadline the defense says can't be met. Bob analyzes every pressure point.

This is trial analysis in real time—from someone who knows how these cases play out.

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