Overview

• She faces 26 counts including mortgage fraud, forgery, money laundering, communications fraud and engaging in a pattern of unlawful activity tied to transactions before Eric Richins’s 2022 death.
• Court filings allege that in 2019 Richins used a power of attorney to secure a $250,000 home equity line of credit on her husband’s premarital home without his knowledge and diverted the funds into K. Richins Realty.
• Documents show K. Richins Realty owed at least $1.8 million to high-interest lenders on the day of Eric’s death, ballooning to nearly $5 million the following day.
• After discovering the secret HELOC, Eric Richins removed his wife from his will and life insurance and hired an estate lawyer in 2020 to protect his assets and his children’s inheritance.
• Jury selection for Richins’s murder trial is scheduled for February 2026, and prosecutors have indicated the financial fraud charges may be tried in a separate proceeding.