By Nicki Brown, CNN
(CNN) — A key witness in Kouri Richins’ murder trial testified Thursday that she obtained the fentanyl that prosecutors allege Richins used to kill her husband of nine years.
Carmen Lauber, a housecleaner who worked for Richins, testified she sold illicit pills to the Utah mother four times in early 2022 at the defendant’s request.
“She’d called me and asked me if I could reach out to somebody for some pain meds for an investor that she knew,” Lauber testified.
A couple days after Eric Richins was found dead on March 4, 2022, Lauber said she spoke with Kouri Richins on the phone.
“I said, ‘Please tell me these pills were not for him,’” Lauber recalled telling Richins. She said Richins responded:
“No, they were not. Eric passed away from a brain aneurysm.”
Lauber’s testimony Thursday is pivotal to the prosecution of Kouri Richins, who is accused of poisoning her husband with a lethal dose of fentanyl. Prosecutors allege she killed him for his money and to start a new life with the man with whom she was having an affair.
Richins, 35, has pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder and other charges. If convicted of the most serious charge, she could face up to life in prison.
Under questioning Thursday by Summit County, Utah, prosecutor Bradley Bloodworth, Lauber confirmed she was granted immunity in exchange for her truthful testimony. She spoke with investigators several times before she was given immunity, which she said she did in part to take responsibility.
“I already knew Eric had passed away. But when they told – when they had mentioned that it was from an overdose, that hit hard,” Lauber said, dabbing her eyes with tissues.
“Only for the fact that, if that’s what happened, I needed to step up and take accountability of my part in this, what happened and what I was asked for.”
On cross-examination, the defense worked to undermine Lauber’s credibility, highlighting her history of drug use – including around the time she said she purchased the drugs in question – and the deal she reached with prosecutors to secure her testimony against Richins.
‘A little clear baggie with some pills’
Lauber testified she began obtaining illicit drugs for Richins around late January or early February of 2022.
Lauber bought an envelope of opiate pills from a woman she worked with and then gave them to Kouri Richins in her driveway the next morning, she said. Richins later asked for drugs a second time, saying the investor wanted something stronger, Lauber said.
Lauber testified she got in touch with a man who said he had pills containing fentanyl. When she texted Richins about the fentanyl pills, Richins responded, “Okay, go ahead and get them,” according to Lauber’s testimony.
Richins left Lauber approximately $1,000 cash inside of a house she was flipping, Lauber said. After she retrieved the money, Lauber said she met the man at a gas station on February 11, 2022.
“He handed me a little clear baggie with some pills in it,” she said.
Lauber testified she left the pills in the outdoor firepit of the same home where she picked up the money.
Prosecutors allege Kouri Richins tried to poison her husband a few days later, on Valentine’s Day, by lacing his sandwich. Eric Richins told his friends he broke out in hives and thought he was going to die after eating the sandwich, according to charging documents.
“I think my wife is trying to poison me,” he told one friend, per court records.
Around the end of February 2022, Richins again asked for stronger drug