When 43-year-old Robert Josh Grossman took the witness stand in a Utah courtroom in March 2026, the world finally learned his name. For years, he was simply known as Kouri Richins‘ secret lover—the man prosecutors say she was desperate to be with at the time she allegedly poisoned her husband. Now, under oath, he was forced to relive their affair for the entire world to see.
It was a devastating, raw performance. As intimate text messages between the pair were projected onto a screen, Grossman squirmed in his seat, repeatedly muttered “oh boy,” and eventually placed his head in his hands, wiping away tears. His testimony, which quickly became one of the most gripping moments of the trial, painted a picture of a secret relationship that prosecutors say provided the powerful motive for a murder that shocked the country.
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The Romance That Sparked a Tragedy
The story of Grossman and Richins began years before the crime, rooted not in passion but in property. They met in South Carolina around 2017 when Grossman responded to an online ad for a handyman to help flip houses. Their relationship soon turned romantic, and he eventually moved to Utah in early 2020 to help her with other projects. On the stand, he admitted he “loved her” and believed she loved him too, though their affair was complicated by her marriage.
However, the texts the jury saw told a much darker story. Less than a month before Eric Richins’ death, Kouri messaged Grossman a chilling hypothetical: “If I was divorced right now and ask you to marry me tomorrow, you would?” He replied, “Yes. In Love with Y O U! Of course I would.” The messages then became more explicit. Just days later, she fantasized about his presence in her life, texting, *”If he could just go away and you could just be here! Life would be so perfect!!!” It was a devastating string of evidence that Grossman had to read aloud in court.
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A Broken Man Confronting the Truth
The most haunting detail of his testimony came not from before the murder, but after it. Grossman recounted a conversation he had with Richins about two weeks after Eric’s death. “She asked if I had ever killed anybody,” he testified, his voice likely heavy with the weight of the revelation. As a military veteran who had served in Iraq, Grossman said he had taken lives in combat and answered her question honestly. At the time, he didn’t find the inquiry odd.
He testified that he was completely in the dark, stating, “Never for a moment did I have a clue… that something intentionally might have happened to him.” It was only later—after a private investigator hired by Eric’s family confronted him with the truth—that Grossman began to see his entire relationship through “different lenses”. By that point, his emotional connection had shattered, but the public testimony had just begun. As of May 2026, Kouri Richins was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for her husband’s murder.
