The Prosecution's Drug Dealer Won't Say Fentanyl

Three immunity agreements. Summit County. Salt Lake County. Federal. That's how much it took to get Robert Crozier on the witness stand in the Kouri Richins murder trial.

And after all of that, he sat down, raised his right hand, and told the jury the one thing the prosecution did not want him to say.

It was oxycodone. Not fentanyl.

If you've been following this case, you know the prosecution's theory requires a chain. Kouri Richins allegedly asked her housekeeper Carmen Lauber to get pills. Lauber allegedly bought those pills from Crozier. Those pills allegedly contained fentanyl, and that fentanyl allegedly killed Eric Richins.

Lauber has already testified. She says it was fentanyl. She's the one who used the word. She's the one who says she was told the pills contained fentanyl when she bought them from Crozier at a Maverick gas station in Draper.

Crozier says that's wrong.

What He Said Then vs. What He Says Now

The prosecution didn't just put Crozier on the stand and hope for the best. They had a prior statement. Back in May 2023, detectives interviewed Crozier at the Salt Lake County jail. During that interview, he may have used the words "blues" or "fentanyl" in describing what he sold.

The prosecution tried to use that interview to impeach him. Look, you said fentanyl before. Why are you changing your story now?

Crozier's answer is the kind of thing that should make every juror sit up straight.

He was detoxing. He was sick. He told the jury that the detectives were essentially telling him what he'd been doing, and he went along with it to avoid more trouble. He wasn't thinking clearly. He wasn't in a position to push back on anything.

But today? Sober. Clear. Under oath. And he wouldn't budge.

The Distinction That Matters

Crozier didn't just deny selling fentanyl. He explained why he knows the difference. He testified that in early 2022, he was selling Roxy 30s, which are pharmaceutical oxycodone pills. He got them from people with legitimate prescriptions. He described them as light blue.

He said the fentanyl pills he later encountered were different. Dark purple. Different appearance entirely. And he testified he had no access to a fentanyl supplier in the timeframe that matters to this case.

No fentanyl access. No fentanyl supplier. No fentanyl sold to Carmen Lauber.

That's the prosecution's own witness saying their drug supply chain doesn't connect.

Why This Matters for the Case

The state's theory requires fentanyl to travel from a source, through Crozier, through Lauber, to Kouri Richins, and into Eric Richins' body. If Crozier sold oxycodone and not fentanyl, where did the fentanyl come from?

Lauber says fentanyl. Crozier says oxycodone. One of them is wrong. And the prosecution needs both of them to be right.

My dad spent 23 years as a criminal defense attorney. He would have loved this moment. Not because it proves anything about guilt or innocence. Kouri Richins is presumed innocent and the jury will decide. But because this is what happens when you actually test the state's theory against live witnesses under oath. Theories don't always survive contact with the people who were supposedly involved.

What the Defense Did With It

Defense attorney Wendy Lewis didn't waste a second. On cross-examination, she walked Crozier through the conditions of that 2023 jailhouse interview. Sick. Detoxing. Detectives framing the conversation. Crozier agreeing to things just to get through it.

Then she brought him back to today. Sober. Prepared. Consistent.

The jury now has to decide which version of Robert Crozier they believe. The one who was sick in a jail cell with detectives telling him what happened, or the one sitting in front of them today, looking them in the eye, and saying it was never fentanyl.

That's a credibility question every single juror is going to have to answer for themselves.

One More Thing

After Crozier finished, a Salt Lake City narcotics sergeant named Eric Haskell took the stand to begin expert testimony on drug identification. But something unusual happened. The judge ordered Court TV to stop recording mid-qualification. We don't know why yet. The transcript captures only the foundation testimony before the camera went dark.

We'll be watching closely when testimony resumes.

▶ WATCH THE FULL TESTIMONY Drug Dealer Denies Selling Fentanyl to Kouri Richins' Housekeeper