About 250 Summit County residents will soon learn whether they’ve been summoned for jury selection in the murder trial of Kouri Richins, where just 12 will be seated for almost five weeks of proceedings. Third District Court Judge Richard Mrazik met with the prosecutors and defense attorneys o n Monday morning to determine which potential jurors would not be summoned. The court’s jury team plans to notify residents this week if they need to appear. Jury selection is set to begin on Tuesday, Feb. 10, and could last six days. Witness testimony and evidence will be presented starting on Feb. 23. Kouri is charged with aggravated murder and attempted homicide, first-degree felonies, stemming from the March 2022 death of her husband, Eric Richins, as well as two counts of second-degree felony insurance fraud and forgery, a third-degree felony. She has pleaded not guilty. Her attorneys — Wendy Lewis, Kathy Nester and Alexander Ramos — also asked Mrazik to reconsider moving the trial to Salt Lake County in a motion filed on Friday. They argued there’s a “reasonable likelihood that a fair trial cannot take place in Summit County” based on questionnaire responses from prospective jurors. The Summit County Attorney’s Office opposed changing venues in a filing on Sunday, citing the court’s previous ruling. The judge denied the defense’s request on Monday. Mrazik did not appear to have any doubts about whether it was possible to seat a fair and impartial jury in Summit County. Monday’s hearing focused on striking potential jurors “for cause,” such as bias or a close familiarity with a key person connected to the case. From the original pool of 449, about 250 people will be summoned.  Around 40 people will be called each day for voir dire in the morning and afternoon. They’ll be asked questions from a court-approved list. Ultimately, eight jurors and four alternates will be chosen. Nester expressed serious concerns about the trial’s timeline, which Mrazik has set a firm deadline for, and said there could be a mistrial if the trial extends too long and jurors drop out, or Kouri’s rights may be compromised if it’s forced to end on schedule. “I don’t see a scenario in the world … where this case will end on March 27,” Nester told the judge on Monday. She pointed to at least 1,000 exhibits that could be presented and witness testimony that could take days. For example, one of the state’s experts reviewed the Richins bank accounts, tax information and business documents, culminating in 70 exhibits to go through at trial. Nester worried the case could morph from a murder trial into one of complex, white-collar crime. She said that one expert could take three days, and prosecutors have identified more than 10 experts and 100 other witnesses who could be called at trial. The defense has 35 witnesses of its own, and would likely cross-examine anyone called to testify. Nester anticipated attorneys would need two full weeks to lay their defense, and questioned if they would run out of time before then. Mrazik was not convinced.  He said the trial must end on March 27, with the jury receiving the case. The judge recognized the Kouri Richins case as very important, and a long time coming, but he said it is one of 1,000 on his docket. If needed, Mrazik was amenable to giving the jury more time to reach a verdict. Kouri has been held in the Summit County Jail since her arrest in May 2023. Her trial was originally set for May 2025, but was postponed until an appellant court could determine whether a fair and impartial jury could be seated in Summit County. The Utah Supreme Court in June declined to hear the defense’s appeal, and the trial was rescheduled for 2026. Summit County spent about $540,000 on the public defender contract for the case in 2025, with another $500,000 earmarked for 2026. The County Attorney’s Office filed a separate felony case against Kouri in June 2025 for financial crimes dating back to June 2021. In that case, she’s charged with five counts of mortgage fraud, five counts of forgery, seven counts of issuing a bad check, seven counts of money laundering, one count of communications fraud and one count of a pattern of unlawful activity. Those charges will be tried separately.  The post Summit County prepares for jury selection in Kouri Richins trial appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less