Trial Graphics Support | Summit County, Utah | Verdict: March 2026
When the prosecution in a nationally watched murder trial needs a jury to follow a story built almost entirely on circumstantial evidence, how that story is told visually can be the difference between confusion and conviction. In State of Utah v. Kouri Richins, BlueBear Solutions’ Art Director Sam Kerr partnered with the Summit County prosecution team to develop the trial graphics strategy from the ground up. The result: a guilty verdict on all five counts after fewer than three hours of deliberation.
The Case
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother of three, was charged with the 2022 fentanyl poisoning death of her husband Eric, along with attempted aggravated murder, insurance fraud, and forgery. The prosecution's theory was straightforward: she murdered him for financial gain while carrying on an affair. The evidence was anything but simple. The case involved hundreds of digital records, financial documents, expert forensic testimony, and no direct witnesses to the crime. The jury needed to see the full picture, not just isolated facts.
Starting at the End
Sam's approach on this case was unconventional by design. Rather than building graphics from opening forward, the team started with closing arguments. Lead prosecutor Brad Bloodworth set the tone early: define the finish line, then figure out how to get there. Sam began drafting the closing deck in March 2025, nearly a year before the February 2026 trial date. When the trial was stayed in April 2025, work paused. Sam used the time well. In November 2025 he traveled to Utah to meet the full trial team, spend time with the experts, and immerse himself in the prosecution's strategy. That week changed everything.
"Meeting everyone in November made a huge impact on the design process," Sam said. "I came home with a lot of work to do, but I really knew what everyone wanted to see and I got a great feel for how everyone worked."
The Volume and the Flexibility
The final opening presentation came in at 20 slides, refined down from an initial draft of 50. The closing was a different story. The first complete deck, main closing plus rebuttal, ran approximately 200 slides. When the defense rested without presenting a case, Sam and the team scrapped 100 slides and rebuilt from there. By closing arguments, the jury saw 104 slides in the main closing and another 63 during rebuttal.
Making Complex Evidence Visual
The evidence in this case was dense and varied. Sam and the team built visuals across every category of evidence presented:
Text message reconstructions designed to look like a smartphone screen, immediately familiar to any juror with a phone.
Cell tower maps that traced the physical movements of the defendant and a key witness, correlating their text messages with geographic location data.
Phone activity timelines using icons to convey the story quickly, without requiring jurors to read every word on a slide.
Annotated video exhibits with scrolling transcripts added, and graphic details or images of children blurred where appropriate.
Financial org charts mapping the defendant's trail of lenders and the financial collapse that gave motive weight.
Physical activity graphs and one slide Sam calls simply “the elephant slide” – perhaps the most memorable graphic of the entire trial.
That slide deserves its own explanation. The legal team found the image, and Sam built the slide around it: an elephant and a silhouette of a person, paired with the court’s own Jury Instruction #27 on circumstantial evidence. Brad Bloodworth didn’t need to say much. “Does everyone know what happened here?” The jury saw the scene and understood immediately – you don’t have to witness something directly to know it happened. In a case built heavily on circumstantial evidence, that image did more work than a paragraph of argument ever could.
The Expert Testimony Work
Digital forensics expert Chris Kotrodimos presented one of the most compelling evidence sets of the trial. Both the defendant and a key witness had wiped their phones. Chris recovered the data, but raw forensic output is not jury-friendly. Sam worked directly with him to translate those findings into approximately 200 slides. Post-verdict, one juror cited the cell phone evidence as among the most impactful of the trial.
What This Case Illustrates
What made this work was a prosecution team that treated BlueBear as a strategic partner from day one. Sam puts it plainly:
"When litigation teams treat us as consultants and not vendors, that's when we're able to be at our best," Sam said. "We have a lot of experience, probably more trial experience than most litigation attorneys. The more we know about a case and the trial strategy, the more helpful we can be.”
The Outcome
Kouri Richins was convicted on all five counts. The jury deliberated for less than three hours.
On May 13, 2026, Kouri Richins was sentenced to life without parole.
BlueBear provides trial graphics, courtroom presentation, court reporting and litigation support for complex civil and criminal matters.
