A Texas actress who tried to blame her husband after sending ricin-laced letters to officials including President Barack Obama was sentenced Wednesday to 18 years in prison.
A federal judge gave Shannon Guess Richardson, 36, the maximum sentence under her plea deal on a federal charge of possessing and producing a biological toxin. Richardson was also ordered to pay restitution of about $367,000. She had pleaded guilty to the charge in December.
"I never intended for anybody to be hurt," she told the court, adding later, "I'm not a bad person; I don't have it in me to hurt anyone."
"I'm not a bad person; I don't have it in me to hurt anyone."
Really?
Let's see if that passes the smell test.
Prosecutors say Richardson mailed the three letters from New Boston, outside Texarkana, then went to police and claimed that her husband had done it. She was arrested last June. The day before her arrest, Nathan Richardson filed for divorce; it was finalized in January.
Prosecutors say investigators noted inconsistencies in Richardson's statements. She also acknowledged in a signed plea agreement that she ordered castor beans online and learned how to process them into a substance used to make ricin, a toxin that can cause respiratory failure if inhaled.
She obtained an email address, a PayPal shopping account and a post office box in her husband's name without his knowledge, according to the document.
On the morning of May 20, 2013, she said she waited for her husband to go to work and then printed the mailing labels.
The letter to Obama read, "What's in this letter is nothing compared to what ive got in store for you mr president," according to the document. "You will have to kill me and my family before you get my guns. Anyone wants to come to my house will get shot in the face."
She eventually admitted to trying to blame her husband and lying to authorities.
Damn!
This nasty piece of work went to all the trouble of learning how to make this deadly poison, opened up a Pay Pal account and P.O. Box in her husband's name, and then sent off letters containing ricin to the President of the freaking United States.
I know we talk about the humiliating things that Sarah Palin has subjected Todd to during their years of marriage, but at least she never tried to get him arrested for threatening to kill the President.
That is a whole new level of evil in my book.
