Actress Gets 18 Years in Prison for Mailing Ricin to Obama

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A Texas-based actress who appeared on The Walking Dead, Franklin & Bash, and Vampire Diaries was sentenced to 18 years in prison for mailing letters laced with ricin to President Obama and Michael Bloomberg. She also attempted to frame her ex-husband for the crime.

Via USA Today:

Shannon Guess Richardson, 36, was also ordered to pay $367,000 restitution as part of a plea bargain for pleading guilty in December to one count of developing, producing, possessing and transferring a biological agent for use as a weapon. She bought the materials — castor bean seeds and lye — online.
Richardson mailed three letters in May 2013 from her home in New Boston, near Texarkana, and then drove to a Shreveport, La., police station to implicate her estranged husband, who had filed for divorce. She told the FBI she did not think the letters would be opened because of security measures.
“What’s in this letter is nothing compared to what ive got in store for you mr president,” read the letter to Obama. “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.”

Richardson apologized at her sentencing:

“I never intended for anybody to be hurt,” she said. “I’m not a bad person. I don’t have it in me to hurt anyone.”
“I do love my country, and I respect my president,” she added.

Yes. Except for the whole mailing-him-a-threatening-letter-laced-with-deadly-poison thing.

Image via Titus County Sheriff.

 
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