A Texas woman accused of sending letters laced with ricin to President Barack Obama and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been found fit to stand trial.
Shannon Guess Richardson was declared mentally competent by U.S. Magistrate Judge Caroline Craven during a hearing in Texarkana on Wednesday, according to The Miami Herald.
Richardson, of New Boston, Texas, plead not guilty to two counts of mailing a threatening communication and one count of threatening the president of the United States. She was arrested on June 7 after sending letters out in May to Obama, Bloomberg, and the director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns.
"You will have to kill me and my family before you get my guns," the letter to Bloomberg read. "Anyone who wants to come to my house will get shot in the face. The right to bear arms is my constitutional God given right and I will exercise that right till the day I die."
During Wednesday's hearing, Richardson didn't speak except when talking to her lawyer, Tonda Curry. She faces up to five years in prison on each charge if convicted. Her next court appearance is scheduled for Sept. 11.
A federal affidavit said Richardson tried to blame her husband, an Army veteran, for the letters before she was arrested in June.
Her husband, Nathan Richardson, told federal agents that his wife wanted to end their marriage and suggested she had framed him. The New York Times reported that she placed castor beans, which contain ricin, in her husband's car to frame him as authorities investigated.
Richardson is a film and television actress with minor roles in "The Vampire Diaries," "Franklin & Bash," "The Change-Up," and "The Walking Dead." She is still married to husband, who works as a mechanic at a military depot, and has five children.
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