Authorities in Utah have charged a current sheriff and a former sheriff with obstruction of justice connected to the high-profile prosecution of Kouri Richins, according to recently unsealed court documents. The indictments, filed last month, were released Wednesday with significant redactions applied.
Richins, 36, was convicted in March of fatally poisoning her husband, Eric Richins, with fentanyl. She subsequently received a sentence of life without parole from Judge Richard Mrazik.
The charges against Wasatch County Sheriff Jared Rigby include one count of obstruction of justice in a criminal proceeding, classified as a second-degree felony, and one count of making a written false statement, a misdemeanor. Prosecutors allege that in January, Rigby presented or used a knowingly false item with the specific intent to hinder the prosecution.
David Edmunds, who served as Summit County sheriff from 2003 to 2014, faces a single count of obstruction of justice in a criminal investigation, a third-degree felony. The indictment accuses him of providing false information on March 13 with the aim of impeding an investigation.
Both men have entered pleas of not guilty, as reported by ABC affiliate KTVX. Attorneys for Rigby have previously asserted that he acted within the law. Requests for comment from the sheriffs’ legal teams and the Wasatch County Sheriff’s Office had not been returned at the time of publication.
Legal filings indicate the charges relate to an anonymous letter postmarked January 10, 2026. Rigby’s motion notes that the allegations involve interference in the Richins case concerning this correspondence, though the document does not specify the letter’s contents or authorship. Edmunds’ motion states that his indictment links the letter to alleged misconduct by a Summit County deputy and accuses him of making a false statement intended to conceal the identity of the letter’s writer.
In a separate development this week, Judge Mrazik ordered Richins to pay more than $55 million in damages to Eric Richins’ estate and family members in a wrongful death civil suit. The judgment includes approximately $10.8 million in economic damages and $3 million in non-economic damages designated for each of their three children.
Additionally, the court imposed $41.3 million in punitive damages, calculated by tripling the sum of economic and non-economic losses. The judge noted that the guilty verdict and undisputed record evidence established that Richins caused her husband’s death through poisoning, depriving the minor children of their parents due to her imprisonment.
Richins is currently seeking a new criminal trial, a request that is pending before the Utah Court of Appeals.
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