E! News has reached out to Kouri’s legal team for comment and has not heard back.
Kouri, who was arrested in March 2023, has not entered a plea in her case.
The author, who wrote about grieving a loved one in her children’s book Are You With Me? after her husband, 39, died, is charged with aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, mortgage fraud, insurance fraud and forgery, with prosecutors alleging in a previous filing that she fraudulently claimed insurance benefits after Eric’s death.
The statements came after a judge granted a request from Kouri’s lawyers to withdraw from her defense, according to a May 17 filing obtained by Dateline, which noted that one of the attorneys had attributed the reason to an “irreconcilable and nonwaivable situation.”
In another audio statement her spokesperson provided to Dateline, Kouri said, “This withdrawal was not my choice. And it was not a personal choice of any counsel on my defense team.”
