Actress jailed for Obama threat

A US actress who tried to blame her husband for sending ricin-laced letters to President Barack Obama, then-New York mayor Michael Bloomberg and a gun control activist got 18 years in prison.

US District Judge Michael Schneider sentenced Shannon Guess Richardson on Wednesday to 216 months in federal prison on a biological weapons charge and ordered her to pay $367 222.29 (R3.9m) in restitution.

In December, Richardson pleaded guilty to possession of a toxin for use as a weapon, after being named in an indictment that charged her with threatening Obama, and mailing a threatening letter to Bloomberg and Mark Glaze.

Glaze had worked closely with Bloomberg in a drive to increase gun control.

A copy of the letter sent to Bloomberg posted online showed a stained, type-written document that contained numerous spelling errors.

“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,” it read. “The right to bear arms is my constitutional God given right and I will excersice that right til the day I die. whats in this letter is nothing compared to what ive got planned for you.”

Richardson has had a piecemeal acting career, including a minor role in the hit zombie television show “The Walking Dead.”