Gun rights activist sentenced to 18 years for sending letter of Obama.

Started by Razgovory, July 17, 2014, 07:35:07 AM

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Razgovory

July 17, 2014, 07:35:07 AM
QuoteCNN) -- The Texas actress who admitted sending ricin-laced letters to President Barack Obama and then-New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was sentenced to 18 years in prison Wednesday, the U.S. attorney's office said.

Shannon Guess Richardson, 36, also was ordered to pay $367,000 in restitution.

"Today's sentencing brings an appropriate and just end to what is surely one of our most unusual, even bizarre cases," John Bales, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Texas, said in a statement.

In December, the actress pleaded guilty to possession of a toxin for use as a weapon, prosecutors said.

Though the charge carried a maximum penalty of life in prison, prosecutors said at the time that Richardson entered into a plea deal under which she would not serve more than 18 years.

Three envelopes containing the natural, highly toxic compound derived from castor beans were mailed from Shreveport, Louisiana, in May 2013, after records showed Richardson made online purchases of castor beans and lye, another component of ricin.

Richardson lived in New Boston, Texas, about 90 miles north of Shreveport.

In addition to Obama and Bloomberg, Richardson also mailed a poison letter to Mark Glaze, then-director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, which Bloomberg founded, an FBI arrest affidavit said. The group's office is in Washington.

The letters, which contained what the FBI described as "very low concentrations" of ricin, were discovered before causing any injuries or fatalities. They also issued a threat: "You will have to kill me and my family before you get my guns. The right to bear arms is my constitutional God-given right. What's in this letter is nothing compared to what I've got planned for you."

Richardson -- who had minor roles in television shows, including "The Walking Dead" and "The Vampire Diaries" -- initially told FBI agents that her now-estranged husband had sent the tainted letters.

But authorities said Richardson was found to be "deceptive" in a polygraph exam.

Investigators found that her computer storage devices contained the text of threatening letters to Obama and the couple's computer records showed that her husband couldn't have printed them because he was at work at the time, according to an FBI arrest affidavit.

Eventually, Richardson admitted to investigators that she'd mailed the letters, though she claimed her husband had typed them out and forced her to print and mail them, the affidavit said.

Nathaniel Richardson denied any wrongdoing, telling investigators that his wife was "intentionally misleading" them and that she wanted to end their marriage, court papers said.

He filed for divorce in June 2013, and court papers indicated that Shannon Richardson was pregnant. According to CNN affiliate KYTX-TV, Shannon Richardson gave birth to a boy, Brody, in July 2013, four months before her due date.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/16/justice/texas-ricin-actress-sentenced/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

HVC

#1
July 17, 2014, 08:41:17 AM
I thought she was just a scorned wife nutter, not a gun nutter? Didn't she go right to the police after mailing the letters and accuse her husband?
Being lazy is bad; unless you still get what you want, then it's called "patience".
Hubris must be punished. Severely.

garbon

#2
July 17, 2014, 08:50:21 AM
Quote from: HVC on July 17, 2014, 08:41:17 AM
Didn't she go right to the police after mailing the letters and accuse her husband?

Like the article says...
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

MadBurgerMaker

#3
July 17, 2014, 08:56:10 AM Last Edit: July 17, 2014, 08:59:45 AM by MadBurgerMaker


An amazing acting career. :)

E:
QuoteI thought she was just a scorned wife nutter, not a gun nutter? Didn't she go right to the police after mailing the letters and accuse her husband?

Apparently the husband is the gun nut, but was all cooperative-like with the police.

derspiess

#4
July 17, 2014, 09:14:59 AM
Is she a gun rights activist, Raz?  If not, why the misleading thread title?
"If you can play a guitar and harmonica at the same time, like Bob Dylan or Neil Young, you're a genius. But make that extra bit of effort and strap some cymbals to your knees, suddenly people want to get the hell away from you."  --Rich Hall

The Minsky Moment

#5
July 17, 2014, 09:17:27 AM
Quote from: derspiess on July 17, 2014, 09:14:59 AM
Is she a gun rights activist, Raz? 

Maybe she plays one on TV?
The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists.
--Joan Robinson

Viking

#6
July 17, 2014, 09:21:22 AM
Quote from: The Minsky Moment on July 17, 2014, 09:17:27 AM
Quote from: derspiess on July 17, 2014, 09:14:59 AM
Is she a gun rights activist, Raz? 

Maybe she plays one on TV?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3m78XgVSv8

I'm pretty sure zombies are pro-gun-control, pro-crossbow-control, pro-machete-control and pro-baseball-bat-control.
First Maxim - "There are only two amounts, too few and enough."
First Corollary - "You cannot have too many soldiers, only too few supplies."
Second Maxim - "Be willing to exchange a bad idea for a good one."
Second Corollary - "You can only be wrong or agree with me."

A terrorist which starts a slaughter quoting Locke, Burke and Mill has completely missed the point.
The fact remains that the only person or group to applaud the Norway massacre are random Islamists.

Razgovory

#7
July 17, 2014, 09:39:29 AM
Quote from: derspiess on July 17, 2014, 09:14:59 AM
Is she a gun rights activist, Raz?  If not, why the misleading thread title?

I would say that sending a letter that says ""You will have to kill me and my family before you get my guns. The right to bear arms is my constitutional God-given right. What's in this letter is nothing compared to what I've got planned for you." is activism concerning guns.
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

Baron von Schtinkenbutt

#8
July 17, 2014, 10:10:47 AM
Quote from: Razgovory on July 17, 2014, 09:39:29 AM
Quote from: derspiess on July 17, 2014, 09:14:59 AM
Is she a gun rights activist, Raz?  If not, why the misleading thread title?

I would say that sending a letter that says ""You will have to kill me and my family before you get my guns. The right to bear arms is my constitutional God-given right. What's in this letter is nothing compared to what I've got planned for you." is activism concerning guns.

She was trying to frame somebody.

derspiess

#9
July 17, 2014, 10:33:19 AM
:D  Yeah, minor detail there.
"If you can play a guitar and harmonica at the same time, like Bob Dylan or Neil Young, you're a genius. But make that extra bit of effort and strap some cymbals to your knees, suddenly people want to get the hell away from you."  --Rich Hall

grumbler

#10
July 18, 2014, 06:04:57 AM
Quote from: derspiess on July 17, 2014, 10:33:19 AM
:D  Yeah, minor detail there.

Well, that, and the fact that it wasn't sending the letter that got her jailed, but rather the lacing it with ricin.  However, it is pretty clear that she chose her victims at least partially based on her stance on gun control.
The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.   -G'Kar

Bayraktar!

CountDeMoney

#11
July 18, 2014, 06:29:19 AM
Quote from: grumbler on July 18, 2014, 06:04:57 AM
Quote from: derspiess on July 17, 2014, 10:33:19 AM
:D  Yeah, minor detail there.

Well, that, and the fact that it wasn't sending the letter that got her jailed, but rather the lacing it with ricin.
.

Yeah, minor detail there.

Agelastus

#12
July 18, 2014, 08:06:07 AM
Quote from: grumbler on July 18, 2014, 06:04:57 AM
Quote from: derspiess on July 17, 2014, 10:33:19 AM
:D  Yeah, minor detail there.

Well, that, and the fact that it wasn't sending the letter that got her jailed, but rather the lacing it with ricin.  However, it is pretty clear that she chose her victims at least partially based on her stance on gun control.

Her stance or, since it appears that she was trying to frame him, her husband's stance?
"Come grow old with me
The Best is yet to be
The last of life for which the first was made."

grumbler

#13
July 18, 2014, 08:49:57 AM
Quote from: Agelastus on July 18, 2014, 08:06:07 AM
Her stance or, since it appears that she was trying to frame him, her husband's stance?

I've never heard anything indicating that he cared that much about gun control.  She, on the other hand, is a first-class kook; has been married three or four times, has six kids by six different fathers, and was barely competent to stand trial.  The gun control thing may have been a fake, but it appears to have been her fake.
The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.   -G'Kar

Bayraktar!

derspiess

#14
July 18, 2014, 08:58:25 AM
So we're not really disagreeing on anything, then?  :unsure:
"If you can play a guitar and harmonica at the same time, like Bob Dylan or Neil Young, you're a genius. But make that extra bit of effort and strap some cymbals to your knees, suddenly people want to get the hell away from you."  --Rich Hall
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