This man told his family: if something happens to me, it's my wife's fault. They claim he tried to poison him on Valentine's Day.

By Minyvonne Burke and Colin Sheeley - NBC News

Eric Richins knew his life was in danger, and he left a message to his family: If anything happens to me, it's my wife's fault.

The 39-year-old man died on March 4, 2022, at his home in Kamas, about 40 miles southeast of Salt Lake City, Utah. He was found unconscious in his bedroom by his wife, Kouri Richins, 33, who later wrote a children's book about grief, and was finally arrested last Monday, accused of adding fentanyl, a deadly drug even in trace amounts, to a cocktail she had prepared the night before for her husband.

That could have been the final one, but maybe it wasn't the first time.

Kouri Richins.KPCW.org via AP

According to documents from the Summit County Sheriff's Office, it was his relatives who asked police to investigate his wife after her death, because the man himself had told them he suspected she had tried to kill him on several occasions.

"According to his sister, Eric and his wife went to Greece a few years ago and, after his wife gave him a drink, he became seriously ill and called his sister to tell her that he suspected his wife had tried to kill him," the official documents cite.

"On Valentine's Day 2022, his wife bought him a sandwich, and after a bite Eric was out of breath from hives. He used his son's epi-pen and benadryl before passing out for hours," official records explain.

The man was thinking about divorce and changed his powers of attorney, will and life insurance to benefit his sister instead of his wife, the documents add. Two relatives said he told them he was afraid "Kouri would kill him for money and wanted to make sure his children were covered."

A family spokesman, Greg Skordas, said Wednesday that the man remained married for his children. "They had three kids, young people, and I think Eric, very involved in his life as a football coach, a baseball coach, a basketball coach, wanted to keep his family together," he said.

"He was a good father, a philanthropist, he cared about a lot of people, he did everything he could to get the most out of his marriage," Skordas said, adding that the family was very happy with the criminal charges against the wife and hoped "justice will be served."

Eric Richins.Walker Mortuary

Investigators explained in their probable cause report that Richins died after his wife prepared a Moscow Mule cocktail for him the night before to celebrate the sale of a house. The woman told police she prepared it in the kitchen and took it to the bedroom, where he drank it on the bed, according to the document.

The woman explained that she slept in one of her children's room because she suffered from nightmares, according to the report; She said she woke up around three in the morning to find her husband "cold to the touch" in their bedroom, and called 911.

She said she had left her phone in her bedroom and didn't take it to her son's room, but investigators discovered the phone had been locked and unlocked several times and recorded movements in the time she said she was in her son's room, with messages sent and received and then deleted.

Sheriff's deputies stated that the man was on the floor at one foot of the bed, that attempts had been made to revive him without success and that he was pronounced dead. An autopsy and toxicology report ruled he died of a fentanyl overdose, according to court documents. He had five times the lethal dose of fentanyl of the illegal type in his system, not the one obtained in medicines, according to the coroner, who added that he believed it was ingested orally.

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The official document says that apparently the woman did not try resuscitation maneuvers, as she had said, because a large amount of blood was found in the man's mouth.

Her family says Richins never told her he had taken her out of his will, and that the couple was discussing buying a two-million-dollar home that she wanted to sell for more money, according to official documents. He planned to tell her he wasn't going to sign the documents, according to his family, but the day after his death it was she who signed them, according to official documents. He then invited his friends to a big party where they drank and celebrated, according to official documents.

A year after her husband's death, the woman wrote a book about grief titled Are You With Me?, to "generate peace and comfort for children about the loss of a loved one," according to its description on the Amazon commercial website. She dedicated it to her "wonderful husband and an extraordinary father."