A Mississippi man who sent three letters containing ricin to three government officials, including President Barack Obama, reached an agreement with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to his crimes in an Oxford federal court on Friday.
In 2013, Dutschke sent ricin letters to Obama, a judge in Mississippi and a U.S. senator, The New York Times reported. J. Everett Dutschke, 42, pleaded guilty to four counts, including one for developing a biological weapon and threatening Obama with one of the ricin-laced letters.
"I am voluntarily entering this plea," Dutschke said, according to the Associated Press, "and I understand fully in doing so that I am accepting responsibility for everything that he mentioned," Dutschke said after prosecutors explained to the court his actions.
Dutschke was not considered a suspect when authorities began investigating the letters last year, the AP reported. Only one of the letters actually reached the intended target, the judge, but she was unharmed. Federal authorities originally arrested Paul Kevin Curtis, who Dutschke tried to frame in the letters.
One of the letters said "I am KC and I approve this message," the AP reported. Another letter also had the words "Missing Pieces," which are the same words in the tiled of an unpublished book Curtis wrote. Dutschke was later apprehended in April when investigators found out that the two men have been longtime rivals.
The plea means Dutschke doesn't have to stand trial, which was scheduled for this May. If convicted by a trial Dutschke faced up to life in prison. By pleading, Dutschke's sentence is reduced to 25 years. Judge Sharion Aycock did not schedule a sentence hearing at the trial, The New York Times reported.
In a similar case last year, a Texas woman pleaded guilty to sending ricin-filled letters to Obama and then Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The woman, Shannon Guess Richardson, also tried to frame her ex-husband as the culprit.
