Heber City Police have agreed to hand over a cell phone belonging to a former employee of Kouri Richins who was allegedly asked to procure drugs for her in the weeks leading up to Eric Richins’ death.The witness, William Hayden Jeffs, worked as a handyman on several properties Kouri owned through her real estate business, according to a search warrant signed on Nov. 6. Summit County Sheriff’s Office detectives said they interviewed Jeffs earlier this year, and he showed text messages allegedly corroborating his statement that Kouri asked him to supply her with fentanyl and propofol. Jeffs provided copies of the texts to investigators, the search warrant said.He is the second employee the Kamas mother of three is accused of asking for drugs before her husband’s fatal overdose on March 4, 2022. Eric died after consuming five times the lethal dose of fentanyl, according to autopsy results. Summit County prosecutors accused Kouri of poisoning her husband with a laced Moscow Mule and arrested her in May 2023. They allege Kouri purchased illicit fentanyl from an acquaintance, who was a housekeeper she employed, multiple times in early 2022. Phone records show Kouri contacted the housekeeper several times in January 2022. However, the content of the messages is unknown because they were deleted. The housekeeper told detectives Kouri called or texted her asking for fentanyl, so she asked an acquaintance to introduce her to someone who could sell her drugs. The acquaintance gave the housekeeper a name and phone number, and a meeting was arranged. Court records state the housekeeper met the individual at a gas station in Draper on Feb. 11, 2022, and purchased between 15 and 30 pills believed to be fentanyl. “Three days later, on February 14, 2022, the Defendant prepared a sandwich for Eric Richins and placed it on the seat of his truck with a love note. Shortly after consuming the sandwich, Eric Richins broke out in hives and had difficulty breathing,” the search warrant said. Eric administered his son’s EpiPen and fell asleep. Prosecutors said he believed he had been poisoned and told a friend he thought he almost died. Kouri allegedly asked her housekeeper to procure something stronger in late February. Eric died less than a week later.The search warrant signed earlier this month does not indicate when Kouri may have contacted her handyman for fentanyl. Jeffs, 35, died in a motorcycle accident on Sept. 30. His cell phone was seized by the Heber City Police Department in a separate investigation. Officers released it to the Summit County Attorney’s Office after the warrant was served to assist with the homicide case.A second search warrant was also signed on Nov. 6 granting law enforcement access to the Richins’ Francis home. Investigators wanted to collect “any and all documents, writings, or journals located on the Richins Family Home property, including in outbuildings, garages, and detached home offices.”Kouri Richins is accused of fatally poisoning her husband Eric Richins at their eastern Summit County home in March 2022. Credit: Park Record file photo by David JacksonKouri is charged with nine crimes including two first-degree felonies — aggravated murder and attempted criminal homicide — as well as several second and third-degree felony charges of mortgage fraud, making a false insurance claim and forgery.Third District Court Judge Richard Mrazik on Nov. 12 granted a request from prosecutors to drop two second-degree felony charges of distribution of a controlled substance.Kouri has been held in the Summit County Jail since her arrest. An aggravated murder trial is set for May 2025. Mrazik denied her defense attorneys’ request to reconsider bail during a Nov. 12 hearing.The judge did rule to sever the two mortgage fraud and two felony forgery charges stemming from incidents in 2021, meaning there would be a separate trial for the fraud allegations.Kouri Richins and her family have maintained her innocence.“With two charges dismissed and four others severed, the defense stands more confident. The case against our client is rapidly narrowing, exposing deeper weaknesses with each step,” defense attorney Kathryn Nester said in a statement earlier this month.The post New evidence emerges in Kouri Richins case appeared first on Park Record.