A Utah judge ordered Kouri Richins to pay $55.1 million to her late husband's estate in the wrongful-death case.

An unopposed motion gets decided on the other side's facts. KSL reported the judge treated every statement in the estate's motion as fact because Richins did not dispute any of it, and KPCW reported she no longer has a lawyer in the civil case. That is the price of going silent in a civil suit while a criminal appeal is still alive. The Park Record reported the estate's own filing calls her "steeped in debt and seemingly broke." This judgment is about punishment and a permanent record. It is not a check likely to clear anytime soon.

FOX 13 Utah, KSL, and KUTV reported that 3rd District Judge Richard Mrazik ordered Kouri Richins to pay $55,120,516 to the estate of her late husband, Eric Richins, in the wrongful-death lawsuit filed by his sister and trustee, Katie Richins-Benson. FOX 13 Utah and KSL reported the order was filed Monday, Oct. 5, 2026. FOX 13 Utah listed the award as $10,780,129 in economic damages, $3,000,000 in non-economic damages, and $41,340,387 in punitive damages. The non-economic award is $1 million for each of the couple's three children, who KPCW reported are the estate's only heirs. The Park Record reported the estate first sued for more than $5 million in 2023 and raised its demand after the criminal conviction.

KSL reported the order noted that no one opposed the estate's motion on claim No. 16 of the 21-claim lawsuit, so the judge treated each of its statements as fact. FOX 13 Utah reported Richins did not dispute any of the 41 "statements of fact." KPCW reported she is no longer represented by a lawyer in the lawsuit and did not respond on her own. KSL reported the judge multiplied the economic and non-economic damages by three to set the punitive figure, citing the "level of reprehensibility" of her conduct, and that the ruling called three "particularly apt" because it matches the number of surviving children. KSL also reported that Mrazik awarded Richins-Benson $79,005 in attorney fees in a separate estate case, and that other claims remain unresolved, including one over the children's book about grief that Richins published after her husband's death.

Eric Richins died of a fentanyl overdose on March 4, 2022, at 39, KSL reported. A Summit County jury found Kouri Richins guilty on March 16, 2026, of aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, two counts of insurance fraud, and forgery, and KSL reported she was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole in May. The Park Record reported prosecutors said she killed her husband for financial gain and that she was estimated to be $7.5 million in debt when he died. KSL and The Park Record reported she was previously ordered to pay $1.3 million in restitution to life insurance companies. KPCW put that figure at $1.4 million.

FOX 13 Utah and KSL reported that a judge denied her motion for a new trial, which accused Mrazik of bias, and KSL reported she is appealing that decision. KSL also reported she has a hearing later this week in a separate case, which Mrazik split from the murder trial, charging her with mortgage fraud, money laundering, communications fraud, forgery, and other counts. KPCW reported, citing the Prison Policy Initiative, that inmates in Utah's state prisons earn 60 cents to $1.75 an hour. From the defense chair, the civil default is not surprising. Fighting a civil claim while a criminal appeal is pending can mean sworn answers that help the other side. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, and that still applies to the separate fraud case. The murder verdict stands unless an appellate court says otherwise.