Jurors from Richins, Vallow trials speak at CrimeCon

jurors speak – At CrimeCon 2026 in Las Vegas on May 31, jurors from the Kouri Richins and Lori Vallow Daybell murder trials described the psychological toll of serving, what they saw in court, and the moment they felt the verdict land—while both defendants deny their crimes.

LAS VEGAS — The panel at CrimeCon 2026 didn’t feel like a typical true-crime event. On May 31, jurors from two of the most watched murder cases in recent years stepped onto a stage and talked about what it took to sit through the evidence, deliberate, and then live with the decision.

Christie Halverson. the juror identified as number three in the Kouri Richins case. said the trial hurt her mind in a way the public doesn’t understand. “Her brain hurt” during the three-week-long proceedings. she told the audience at a panel titled “Behind the Verdict: Serving on a High-Profile Jury.” She later described how she had “internalize[d]” the facts every day. calling the case “mind-blowing.”.

Halverson was joined by Laura, juror number 4 in the Lori Vallow Daybell trial. Laura said she wished she could have given Vallow Daybell the death sentence, adding that she “couldn’t believe she could do that to her own kids.”

The jurors’ remarks came months after their respective verdicts—Richins in Utah and Vallow Daybell in Idaho—each tied to deaths prosecutors said were deliberate, and each defendant still insisting she was wrongfully convicted.

In the Utah case. Kouri Darden Richins was found guilty after jurors deliberated for just over three hours of poisoning her husband. Eric Richins. in connection with his death on March 16. She was convicted of first-degree aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, forgery, and insurance fraud. Richins denied killing her husband and vowed to appeal her conviction.

Jurors heard that Eric Richins, 39, was found dead on March 4, 2022, from a fentanyl overdose at the couple’s home in Kamas, Utah, a small mountain town about 40 miles east of Salt Lake City.

Chief prosecutor Brad Bloodworth told jurors that Richins was deeply in debt when she asked her house cleaner to buy “illicit street drugs” and twice poisoned her husband in hopes of getting his money. Bloodworth said she left Eric Richins a poisoned sandwich on Valentine’s Day in 2022. and when that didn’t kill him. gave him a celebratory drink laced with fentanyl a few weeks later.

The courtroom also heard financial testimony: over the course of just three months after Eric Richins’ death, Kouri Richins spent $1.3 million in life insurance payments, according to testimony and financial records presented at trial.

A witness described by the court as a man who said he was having an affair with Kouri Richins testified that she asked him if he had ever killed anyone and how it made him feel.

As the investigation continued, prosecutors said Richins hired a ghostwriting company to pen a children’s book about grief and went on television to promote it, a point supported by testimony from the lead detective in the case.

Halverson told the panel that she had no knowledge of the case before being impaneled. but that serving on it forced her to carry it mentally. “I think about the case every single day,” she said. She also described how the moment the defense rested felt “surreal. ” and said Richins appeared “pretty much stone-faced” to the jury throughout the trial.

The jury deliberated for three hours before reaching a verdict. Halverson said it felt like a long time despite being a short deliberation for a murder case. explaining. “We as a jury just wanted to lay eyes on every piece of (evidence) before we made a decision that impacted somebody for the rest of their lives.”.

After the conviction, Eric Richins’ family, the couple’s children, and the prosecution asked the court to impose the maximum sentence. On May 13, Kouri Richins was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Before she was sentenced, Richins repeatedly denied killing Eric Richins in a message to her children, saying in court, “I will not be blamed for something I did not do.”

When Halverson was asked if she had anything to say to Kouri Richins. she responded. “I would have nothing to say to her except: We got it right.” She said she felt “a pit in my stomach” when the verdict was handed down and described the experience of hearing it replayed during the panel as a “punch in the gut.”.

Halverson also described a contact with the defense after an interview with journalist Nate Eaton. She said that following that interview. the defense’s private investigator contacted her family. and that a defense lawyer attempted to have her admit to an error on one of the guilty counts in a phone conversation.

The defense was not credited with any additional response on stage; the report notes that contact was made with Richins’ defense lawyers for comment.

In Idaho. Laura described a very different kind of courtroom burden. shaped by graphic images and testimony tied to the killing of children. Lori Vallow Daybell was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in 2023 for killing her two youngest children and her fifth husband’s former wife.

Vallow Daybell is often referred to as the “Doomsday mom” because she and Chad Daybell believed an apocalypse was imminent and that people around them were evil zombies.

Idaho prosecutors argued that the couple planned the murders to collect life insurance money and the children’s Social Security and survivor benefits.

Jurors deliberated for seven hours before finding her guilty after a five-week trial. Laura said the trial was “really overwhelming,” and that the jury “got justice” for the slain children.

Laura pointed to moments inside the courtroom that she believed did not match the severity of the case. “This isn’t a joke. ” she said. describing what she saw as instances where Vallow Daybell appeared to be joking with her attorneys. Laura said that when it appeared the defendant was hiding from autopsy photos shown during the trial. she felt. “If I have to look at this. you have to. too.”.

Laura cried onstage when the video of the verdict was replayed and said she would always have “triggers” from the case, adding that she thinks of the children “every day.”

During sentencing, Vallow Daybell told the court, “Jesus Christ knows that no one was murdered in this case. Accidental deaths happen. Suicides happen. Fatal side effects from medications happen.” Laura said Vallow Daybell was “full of it” and that she “lives on another planet. ” before stating her desire to have handed her a death sentence.

The timeline didn’t end with Idaho. In 2025. Vallow Daybell received two more consecutive life sentences after being convicted in Arizona for earlier plotting to kill her fourth husband and attempting to murder her niece’s ex-husband. Prosecutors argued that she manipulated her late brother into helping Chad Daybell. who has been sentenced to death in Idaho. carry out the crimes.

Vallow Daybell has appealed her convictions in both Idaho and Arizona.

The emotional through-line between the two cases was stark: in one courtroom. jurors described the moment the verdict replay hit like a physical blow; in the other. jurors spoke about triggers that never really stop and a sentence that. to one of them. still didn’t feel enough. Both defendants. meanwhile. have denied responsibility and are pursuing appeals—keeping the legal fight alive even after jurors said they had no doubt.

A panel that promised a look into deliberations instead delivered something heavier: the human cost of deciding that someone will spend the rest of their life in prison, and the way those jurors say the case follows them long after the gavel.

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