Robin Lod sidelined with meniscus tear in right knee
Robin Lod has been ruled out for an extended period after suffering a meniscus tear in his right knee during Wednesday’s 1-0 home-win over the Houston Dynamo.
1970-01-01 08:00
Utah mother charged with poisoning husband was more than $2m in debt, new documents reveal
A Utah mother who has been charged with poisoning her husband spent the final day of his life on calls with the Internal Revenue Service and a money lender as she struggled with around $2.5million in debt, according to newly-filed court documents. Kouri Richins, 33, is charged with murder over the death of her 39-year-old husband Eric Richins, the father of her three boys, in March 2022. Before her arrest earlier this month, she had been promoting the release of a children’s book she wrote as a grieving widow about dealing with loss. New documents filed on Thursday in Summit County, where Ms Richins is being held, offered new details about previous poisoning attempts. The documents reveal that three days after Ms Richins bought fentanyl pills in a hand-to-hand transaction in her driveway, on Valentine’s Day 2022, she “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 documents stated. “Eric found his son’s epipen and administered it to himself and slept. Eric Richins believed that he had been poisoned. Eric Richins told a friend that he thought his wife was trying to poison him.” The couple had been having financial disagreements, and Mr Richins had removed his wife as a beneficiary from his will and estate, according to documents. “In September 2020, Eric Richins discovered that the Defendant had obtained and spent $250,000 home equity line of credit on the Kamas home, withdrawn at least $100,000 from his bank accounts, and spent in excess of $30,000 credit cards,” the new documents state. “The Defendant had also been appropriating distributions made from Eric Richins’ business for the purpose of making federal and state quarterly tax payments and not paying the taxes. The stolen tax payments totaled at least $134,346. Eric Richins confronted the Defendant and she agreed to repay him.” In October 2020, Mr Richins consulted a divorce lawyer and an estate-planning lawyer, changing his will to form a living trust and placing his estate in control of his sister, Katie Richins-Benson, for the primary benefit of his three children. He transferred his partnership interest in his stone masonry business to the trust and replaced Ms Richins as the beneficiary of his $500,000 life insurance policy with the trust. She was unaware of this. Mr Richins also was unaware that his wife had taken out at least four life insurance policies on him totaling nearly $2m, according to the filings. In late January 2022, Ms Richins took out a new insurance policy on her husband. It was issued the following month, on 4 February. The next week she procured illicit fentanyl, according to the documents, and the sandwich incident followed days later. Ms Richins reached out again to contacts who helped her obtain illegal drugs in late February, according to documents, claiming that the “fentanyl pills that she previously provided were not strong enough and asked that she procure some stronger fentanyl”. One contact, according to documents, “initially stated that the Defendant specifically asked for ‘some of the Michael Jackson stuff’ during this request for fentanyl, but subsequently conceded that the Defendant may have made the Michael Jackson reference during her first request for fentanyl”. Through this contact, Ms Richins arranged to meet another person at a gas station to buy fentanyl on 26 February, 2022 according to the documents. On 1 March, her “outstanding state and federal tax liability was $189,840,” and she owed “a hard money lender at least $1,847,760”. She also owed her husband “at least $514,346,” the documents stated. On 3 March, she “had a lengthy telephone call with the IRS and talked to her hard money lender,” the charging documents noted. Hours later, she prepared her husband a Moscow Mule cocktail. Ms Richins told investigators that her husband drank the cocktail while in bed, and she slept in one of the boys’ bedrooms because the child was having a night terror. When she awoke around 3am, Ms Richins said, she returned to her room and found Eric cold to the touch, prompting her to call 911. While she told police she’d left her phone in the couple’s room while caring for her child, “the status on her phone shows that it was locked and unlocked multiple times and there was also movement recorded on the phone,” the documents state. “In addition, tolls and phone billing data for Defendant’s phone show that messages were sent and received during that time.” Mr Richins was pronounced dead on 4 March, 2022. Almost immediately Ms Richins, a real estate agent, closed on a multi-million-dollar mansion the couple had been arguing about. Two days after his death, she arranged for a locksmith to drill into her husband’s safe. When his sister and trustee objected, Ms Richins “became enraged and punched [her] in the face and neck,” the documents state. “Sheriff’s deputies responded and called Eric Richins’ estate planning lawyer from the scene. Here, the Defendant learned for the first time of the existence of the Eric Richins Living Trust.” Ms Richins was arrested last week and a 19 May detention hearing has been postponed until 12 June. Between her husband’s death and her arrest, Ms Richins had been fighting with his family and trust regarding his estate and, particularly, the couple’s sprawling home, where they married on 15 June 2013. Presenting herself as a grieving widow, Ms Richins also authored a children’s book titled Are You With Me? on dealing with loss. She appeared on a local TV show to promote the book weeks before she was taken into custody. Lawyer Greg Skordas, a Richins family spokesman, told The Independent on Wednesday: “It was right up until the end that she was carrying on as though nothing had happened, and that she was a victim, and she was a martyr and promoting her book. “And I don’t know to what extent she knew this was coming or suspected it, but we certainly did.” A lawyer for Kouri Richins has not responded to requests for comment from The Independent. Read More Four students stabbed to death, a weeks-long manhunt and still no motive: What we know about the Idaho murders Lori Vallow had two alleged accomplices in her children’s murders. One will never face justice
1970-01-01 08:00
Explainer-How important is the claimed capture by Russia's Wagner Group of Ukraine's Bakhmut?
By Andrew Osborn LONDON Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Saturday that his Wagner fighters had completed
1970-01-01 08:00
Gurkha in 'world first' bid reaches top of Everest
The British army veteran says his aim was to inspire others and change perceptions of disability.
1970-01-01 08:00
DeSantis asks that judge be disqualified from Disney's free speech lawsuit
Gov. Ron DeSantis is asking that a federal judge be disqualified from the First Amendment lawsuit filed by Disney against the Florida governor and his appointees
1970-01-01 08:00
'I always know it's him': Paul Walker's daughter Meadow reveals she still gets signs from her late father
Meadow Walker said, 'I swear whenever I'm in an argument with someone or anything, I start seeing four and seven everywhere'
1970-01-01 08:00
Telecom Italia urged to call board meeting to name Vivendi candidate - sources
MILAN Telecom Italia (TIM) is being urged by some directors to hold an extraordinary board meeting to name
1970-01-01 08:00
Low-income tenants lack options as old mobile home parks are razed
Mobile home parks are among the few affordable options that remain for extremely low-income people
1970-01-01 08:00
What’s Trending Today: Griner’s WNBA Return, Smiths’ Bassist Dies
Welcome to Social Buzz, a daily column looking at what’s trending on social media platforms. Debt Ceiling Talks
1970-01-01 08:00
Scientists have discovered why we wake up earlier as we get older
Are your grandparents up very early in the morning, without fail? Well, it turns out there are scientific reasons why older people wake up earlier as they get older. It’s been revealed that in later life, the natural process of ageing leads to changes in the times the body approaches sleep. According to HuffPost, our approach towards resting and amount of sleep we require is down to both genetics and our age. Cindy Lustig, who is a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, said: “Like most of the things that change with age, there’s not just one reason, and they are all interconnected.” Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter It’s all to do with the brain becoming less responsive as people age to factors such as sunlight, social cues and physical activity which indicate where in the day we are at any given time. “The wiring of the brain is likely not sensing... and responding to the inputs as well as it should because it’s an ageing brain,” Dr. Sairam Parthasarathy, the director of the Center for Sleep and Circadian Sciences at the University of Arizona Health Sciences, also told the publication. “These are all what we call time givers, or they give time to the brain,” he said. In other words, they help the brain sense where it is in the 24-hour circadian cycle. Younger people can more easily connect indicators like eating dinner with the idea of sleeping in the next few hours. However, that’s not as easy for older people to register naturally, especially as their vision tends to suffer in later life. “Interestingly, one of [the reasons] seems to be that the vision changes that come with age reduce the intensity of the degree of light stimulation that our brain receives, which plays an important role in ‘setting’ our circadian clock and keeping it on track,” said Lustig. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
1970-01-01 08:00
Ukraine-Russia war – live: Kyiv denies Putin has taken Bakhmut but warns ‘situation is critical’
Ukraine has denied claims by Russia that it has taken full control of Bakhmut but warned the situation in the key battle town is “critical”. Hanna Maliar, Ukraine’s defence minister, pushed back on the claim by Yevgeny Prigozhin that his Wagner Group of mercenaries had seized the town around lunchtime. "Heavy fighting in Bakhmut. The situation is critical," she said on the Telegram messaging app. "As of now, our defenders control some industrial and infrastructure facilities in the area and the private sector." Elsewhere, Volodymyr Zelensky is inJapan for the G7 summit, marking his first high-level visit to Asia since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year. His visit comes after a massive boost for Ukraine’s war effort, with US President Joe Biden telling G7 leaders that Washington supports joint allied training programs for Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets. The Kremlin responded by saying any move by Western countries to supply Ukraine with the fighter jets would carry “colossal risks”. Read More Ukraine repels Russian forces in Bakhmut after overnight strikes on Kyiv Pentagon accounting error could give Ukraine extra $3bn in US weapons Russia extends detention of US consular worker by 3 months Putin clashes with own finance minister over damage done to Russian economy by oil sanctions
1970-01-01 08:00
Donna Summer was sexually abused as a child by her pastor and tried to kill herself as she grew famous
The shocking revelations about the singer came to light in the HBO documentary ‘Love to Love You, Donna Summer’
1970-01-01 08:00
