A federal judge Thursday formally accepted the guilty plea of Shannon Richardson, a Texas actress who admitted last month to mailing ricin-laced letters to President Barack Obama, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and a Washington, D.C.-based, gun-control advocate.
In a two-page order, U.S. District Judge Michael Schneider of east Texas approved a plea agreement between Richardson and federal prosecutors that required that she plead guilty to one count of developing, producing, possessing and transferring a biological agent for use as a weapon.
The charge carries a potential life sentence, but prosecutors agreed that in exchange for her plea,Richardson would serve 18 years in prison, followed by five years of supervised release.
In his order, Schneider signed off on a magistrate judge’s earlier acceptance of the plea, found Richardson guilty of the crime and tentatively approved the 18-year sentence pending a review of a presentence report compiled by the U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services Office.
After the probation office completes its report, Schneider will formally sentence Richardson during a hearing that had not been scheduled as of Friday.
The ruling comes less than a month after Richardson admitted in court that she purchased the supplies to make ricin and then placed the toxin on three threatening letters she mailed May 20 to Obama, Bloomberg and Mark Glaze, the head of a gun-control advocacy group that Bloomberg co-led.
According to her plea agreement, Richardson also admitted that she attempted to frame her husband as the sender of the letters and also lied to federal authorities about her involvement in the crime.
Richardson’s husband, Nathan Richardson, has not been charged with any crime related to the ricin letters. He has since filed for divorce. He also has been granted temporary custody of an infant born to Shannon Richardson on July 4 while she was in federal custody.
Before her arrest, Richardson was best-known for small television roles on The Vampire Diaries and The Walking Dead and the 2009 movie The Blind Side.
Arkansas, Pages 10 on 01/04/2014