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(SUMMIT COUNTY, Utah) — When Laura, the foreperson in Kouri Richins’ murder trial, first saw the mother accused of murdering her husband, she didn’t think much of her.

“She was kind of nondescript,” she told ABC News’ “Good Morning America” in an exclusive interview. “She didn’t really show that much emotion. I was trying to get some vibe from her and it was very hard to pick up any kind of vibe.”

The foreperson was one of eight jurors in Summit County, Utah, who convicted Richins this week of murdering her husband, Eric, with a fatal dose of fentanyl in March 2022. 

Richins, 35, who after her husband’s death self-published a children’s book on grieving, was found guilty on all five counts, including aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder.

“There was never a not guilty check with anything, with any element, nothing,” the foreperson, Laura, who was juror No. 2, told ABC News of the 3-hour jury deliberations on Monday. 

“Even though it was just three hours, I felt like we came into that deliberation fully loaded,” she said, adding, “To evaluate the case and to look at the evidence we had to zoom in on these little bits of evidence and kind of ignore all the fluff and ignore the drama.”

Richins in 2023 self-published her children’s book, which she said was intended to help her sons with their loss. 

A month prior to her arrest in May 2023, the mom of three young sons appeared on a “Good Things Utah” segment on Salt Lake City ABC affiliate KTVX to promote the book. In the segment, Kouri Richins said her husband of nine years died “unexpectedly” and that his death “completely took us all by shock.

The jurors were shocked when they were told about the book in the final days of testimony at the trial, Laura told ABC News. 

“Everyone just felt like they’re hit with a truck,” she said. “We’re like, what? What the hell is this? It was so odd and so strange.”

Richins did not testify during the three-week trial and the defense called no witnesses. 

The prosecution alleged she was having an affair, was deep in debt and was desperate to inherit her husband’s estate and life insurance.

The jury found her guilty of aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder, along with three other counts. Two were for insurance fraud connected to life-insurance policies and a third was for forgery, for forging her husband’s signature on documents. 

Sentencing is scheduled for May 13 and Richins could receive 25 years to life. 

“People were really sad, because they did not want to find her guilty,” Laura told ABC News of her fellow jurors. “They were really hoping that she was innocent. And we couldn’t come to that conclusion, and it was really heartbreaking.”

She added, “This devastating reality that this family was torn apart and these poor kids will really basically never have a dad or mom.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche used his first news conference Tuesday to shrug off any suggestion that he would use the Justice Department to more aggressively target perceived enemies of President Donald Trump, as he heaped praise on his ousted predecessor Pam Bondi. 

“First of all, we have thousands of ongoing investigations and prosecutions going on in this country right now, and it is true that some of them involve men women and entities that the president in the past has had issues with and that believe should be investigated,” Blanche said. “That is his right, and indeed it is his duty to do that, meaning, to lead this country.” 

Blanche denied he views President Trump’s public statements urging the prosecutions of his enemies as “pressure” on him in serving as the head of the DOJ. Trump, naming several of his perceived political foes in a September social media post, said, “JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!“

“I do not view this as pressure,” Blanche said. “I do not view this as something that is going to keep me up at night, except to make sure that we are investigating every case that we that we have to the fullest extent of the law and using all the resources we can.”

Trump announced Thursday that Bondi was being ousted as his attorney general in a post on his social media platform, saying she’ll move to a role working in the private sector. Blanche said it remains a mystery why Bondi was ousted, despite widespread reporting that it was due to Trump’s frustration with her lack of successful prosecutions against his political opponents and her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files. 

“Nobody has any idea why the attorney general is no longer the attorney general and I’m the acting attorney general, except for President Trump,” Blanche said. 

Blanche, who previously served as Trump’s defense attorney in the cases brought against him by former special counsel Jack Smith and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, repeatedly sparred with reporters at Tuesday’s press event, accusing the media of ignoring years of so-called “weaponization” under the Biden administration. 

“When I’m asked questions, or when I see reporting about shock and awe at this supposed weaponization of this Department of Justice, it means nothing to me, because it’s completely false,” Blanche said. “People say the president wants to go after his political enemies. No, the president has said time and time again that he wants justice.” 

With the news conference happening amid uncertainty over President Trump’s Tuesday morning threat to destroy the “civilization” of Iran, ABC News pressed Blanche on whether the DOJ is providing advice to the White House about what kind of military strikes could constitute potential war crimes. 

“The Department of Justice, as it always does, supports the Department of War, the White House, Department of State to the extent that’s involved, and our intelligence communities, to the extent that that’s something that’s appropriate, and we provide counsel to them, and we have been doing that, as you would expect,” said Blanche, who declined to engage on the topic of potential war crimes. 

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(WAYNE COUNTY, Mich.) — The Justice Department has demanded 2024 federal election ballots and records from Wayne County, Michigan, according to a letter posted online by state officials early Monday morning.

The letter, from Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, references three voter fraud convictions from the 2020 election and a civil case alleging fraud that was dismissed in 2020.

“Based on this history of fraud convictions and other allegations concerning the election procedures in Wayne County and, for the purpose of ensuring that the foregoing federal election laws were not violated in the November 2024 federal election, we are requesting that you produce the following election-related records from that election: all ballots (including absentee and provisional), ballot receipts, and ballot envelopes,” the DOJ letter said.

State officials said the letter is a continuation of President Donald Trump’s efforts to interfere with the election process, following his recent executive order regarding mail-in voting and the FBI’s seizure of 2020 election ballots in Fulton County, Georgia.

“Once again, President Trump is weaponizing the Justice Department in an attempt to sabotage our democratic process and turn it into his own personal agency to interfere in state elections. This request is as absurd as it is baseless,” Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a statement. “Successful convictions underline that Michigan’s safeguards work and that instances of voter fraud are rare and addressed.”

“Using these prosecutions and recycling debunked 2020 election conspiracy theories as justification to demand copies of the ballots of Michigan residents is a clear attempt to bully clerks and spread fear, even after Donald Trump won Michigan in 2024. If this administration wants to bring this circus to our state, my office is prepared to protect the people’s right to vote,” Nessel said.

Michigan state officials also say that none of the examples provided in the letter were from the 2024 election cycle.

Representatives from the Justice Department and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.

FBI agents in January removed 700 boxes containing ballots and other materials associated with the 2020 election from a Fulton County election site after obtaining a search warrant based on unproven claims of widespread voting irregularities.

Trump has long criticized the outcome of the 2020 election, personally pushing to overturn the results after his loss and later being indicted in two criminal cases over his actions. Those cases have since been dismissed, and Trump has continued to push for criminal accountability for what he baselessly alleged was a stolen election.

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