PARK CITY, Utah — A Utah woman was convicted Monday of aggravated murder after poisoning her husband with fentanyl and then self-publishing a children’s book about coping with grief.

Prosecutors said Kouri Richins slipped five times the lethal dose of the synthetic opioid into a cocktail that her husband Eric Richins drank in March 2022 at their home outside the affluent ski town of Park City. They said she was $4.5 million in debt and falsely believed that when her husband died, she would inherit his estate worth more than $4 million. They also said she was planning a future with another man she was seeing on the side.

“She wanted to leave Eric Richins but did not want to leave his money,” Summit County prosecutor Brad Bloodworth said.

Richins stared at the floor and took deep breaths as the judge read the verdict.

The jury deliberated for just under three hours. Afterward, family members on both sides of the case left the courtroom hugging and crying.

Richins was also convicted of other felonies, including an attempted murder charge in what authorities alleged was another effort to poison her husband weeks earlier on Valentine’s Day with a fentanyl-laced sandwich that made him black out. Jurors also found Richins guilty of forgery and fraudulently claiming insurance benefits after his death.

Sentencing was scheduled for May 13, the day her husband would have turned 44. The aggravated murder charge alone carries a sentence of 25 years to life in prison.

“Honestly I feel like we’re all in shock. It’s been a long time coming,” said Eric Richins’ sister, Amy Richins, adding that the family can now focus on honoring her brother and supporting his sons. “So just very happy that we got justice for my brother.”

What was scheduled to be a five-week trial was cut short last week when Kouri Richins waived her right to testify, and her legal team abruptly rested its case without calling any witnesses. Richins’ attorneys said they were confident that prosecutors did not produce enough evidence over the past three weeks to convict her of murder.