Grief author accused of killing hubby tried to score drugs from handyman who died right after telling cops: court docs

Kouri Richins’ handyman died in a motorbike accident soon after telling cops that the grief author had tried to buy fentanyl from him in the weeks before she’s accused of using the drug to fatally poison her husband, court documents reveal.William Hayden Jeffs, 35, made the claim when he was interviewed by cops earlier this year as part of the long-running investigation into the 2022 death of Richins’ husband, Eric Richins, KSL reported, citing newly unsealed search warrants tied to the case.

Jeffs, who had worked on multiple homes owned by Richins, had claimed the mom-of-three realtor had asked him if he could obtain fentanyl and propofol for her in the weeks before her husband drank the fatally-laced Moscow mule on March 4, 2022.During the interview, the handyman allegedly showed police copies of text messages that backed up his claim, the court papers state.It wasn’t immediately clear when the interview took place.

But, in a tragic twist, Jeffs ended up being killed in a traffic accident on Sept.30 while he was out riding his Harley Davidson, according to the search warrants and an online obituary.

In the wake of his death, a judge granted a search warrant for Jeffs’ phone to be used as evidence in the case against Richins, according to the court filings.The search warrant didn’t divulge exactly what evidence was obtained.

It also stopped short of revealing Jeffs’ response to Richins’ request for drugs, or whether he supplied them.Richins is accused of slipping her husband five times the lethal amount of the synthetic opioid into the Moscow mule cocktail after trying — but failing — to spike his breakfast sandwich with street fentanyl weeks earlier, on Valentine’s Day 2022, at their home near Park City.A year after her husband’s death, Richins then self-published an illustrated storybook about a father with angel wings watching over his young son titled, “Are You With Me?”Richins, who has repeatedly called her husband’s death ...