Shannon Guess Richardson (
née
A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth ...
Rogers; born August 31, 1977)
is an American convicted felon and former actress.
[ She worked in television and film roles, including '' The Walking Dead'', but is best known for sending ]ricin
Ricin ( ) is a lectin (a carbohydrate-binding protein) and a highly potent toxin produced in the seeds of the castor oil plant, ''Ricinus communis''. The median lethal dose (LD50) of ricin for mice is around 22 micrograms per kilogram of bod ...
-laced letters to U.S. President Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...
and New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...
mayor Michael Bloomberg
Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author. He is the majority owner, co-founder and CEO of Bloomberg L.P. He was Mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013, and was a c ...
, while attempting to frame her husband. She was convicted and sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment in July 2014.
Career
Richardson appeared in minor roles in television series such as ''The Vampire Diaries
''The Vampire Diaries'' is an American supernatural teen drama television series developed by Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec, based on the book series of the same name written by L. J. Smith. The series premiered on The CW on September 1 ...
'', ''Franklin & Bash
''Franklin & Bash'' is an American comedy-drama television series created by Kevin Falls and Bill Chais. The series starred Breckin Meyer and Mark-Paul Gosselaar as unconventional lawyers and longtime friends. A Turner Broadcasting executive ...
'', and '' The Walking Dead''.
Personal life
Richardson was abandoned by her mother at the age of two and raised by her father, Terry Rogers. Rogers worked at General Motors in Doraville, Georgia
Doraville is a city in DeKalb County, Georgia, United States northeast of Atlanta. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 10,623.
History
Doraville was incorporated by an act of the Georgia General Assembly, approved December 15, 18 ...
. She was the oldest of three children, having one younger brother and one younger sister.
At the time of her arrest, Richardson lived in New Boston, Texas. She has been married three times. On October 8, 2011, she married Nathan Richardson, a U.S. Army veteran who works as a mechanic in a military depot.[ He filed for divorce in June 2013.][
At the time of her arrest in June 2013, Richardson had five children, ranging in age from 4 to 19 with her two previous husbands and was pregnant with her sixth child.] On July 4, 2013, Richardson gave birth to a boy, named Brody, while in custody. Officials said that the baby was born four months prematurely, weighed only two pounds at birth, and that he needed to remain hospitalized. In August 2013, Nathan Richardson won temporary custody of Brody.
Arrest and conviction
In May 2013, while going through a divorce
Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganizing of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the ...
, Richardson called the police and falsely accused her husband, Nathan Richardson, of mailing letters laced with the poison ricin
Ricin ( ) is a lectin (a carbohydrate-binding protein) and a highly potent toxin produced in the seeds of the castor oil plant, ''Ricinus communis''. The median lethal dose (LD50) of ricin for mice is around 22 micrograms per kilogram of bod ...
to several politicians. Nathan Richardson was never charged in regard to the matter. He told investigators that his wife set him up. Investigators found evidence that she had mailed the ricin-laced letters herself in an effort to set up her estranged husband.
Richardson was arrested on June 7, 2013, for her alleged involvement in ricin-laced letters being sent to politicians such as President Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...
and New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg
Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author. He is the majority owner, co-founder and CEO of Bloomberg L.P. He was Mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013, and was a c ...
. She was charged with "mailing a threatening letter to President Barack Obama".[
On June 6, Richardson confessed that she had mailed the three letters, knowing they contained ricin, but claimed her husband made her mail the letters.][ On June 20, a ]federal judge Federal judges are judges appointed by a federal level of government as opposed to the state/provincial/local level.
United States
A US federal judge is appointed by the US President and confirmed by the US Senate in accordance with Article 3 of ...
ordered Richardson be given a psychological examination, based on a request from her court-appointed attorney
A public defender is a lawyer appointed to represent people who otherwise cannot reasonably afford to hire a lawyer to defend themselves in a trial. Several countries provide people with public defenders, including the UK, Hungary and Singapore, ...
, who said she had shown "a pattern of behavior" that raised questions about her ability to assist in her own criminal defense
In the field of criminal law, there are a variety of conditions that will tend to negate elements of a crime (particularly the ''intent'' element), known as defenses. The label may be apt in jurisdictions where the ''accused'' may be assigned some ...
.
On June 28, Richardson was indicted and charged in the mailing of ricin-laced letters to President Obama and Mayor Bloomberg. The three-count indictment accused her of mailing three threatening letters around May 20 to Obama, Bloomberg, and Mark Glaze, the director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns. A criminal complaint
In legal terminology, a complaint is any formal legal document that sets out the facts and legal reasons (see: cause of action) that the filing party or parties (the plaintiff(s)) believes are sufficient to support a claim against the party ...
filed on June 7 revealed that the FBI had used Mail Isolation Control and Tracking Mail Isolation Control and Tracking (MICT) is an imaging system employed by the United States Postal Service (USPS) that takes photographs of the exterior of every piece of mail that is processed in the United States. The Postmaster General has stat ...
(MICT), a previously undisclosed mass surveillance program run by the U.S. Postal Service, to narrow its investigation to Richardson.
On November 22, Richardson reached a plea agreement
A plea bargain (also plea agreement or plea deal) is an agreement in criminal law proceedings, whereby the prosecutor provides a concession to the defendant in exchange for a plea of guilt or '' nolo contendere.'' This may mean that the defenda ...
on three counts. On December 10, she pleaded guilty and was sent to the Texas State Prison System
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) is a department of the government of the U.S. state of Texas. The TDCJ is responsible for statewide criminal justice for adult offenders, including managing offenders in state prisons, state jails, ...
. The U.S. government contracts with county and state officials nationwide to hold federal prisoners pending trial. On July 16, 2014, most of the charges against Richardson were dropped as per her plea agreement. The charges of making threats against the President of the United States and mailing threatening communications were dropped. Richardson was convicted of the charge pertaining to manufacture and possession of a biological weapon and sentenced to 18 years in prison, $367,222 in restitution, $100 special assessment fee (for psychological testing), 5 years' supervised release and ordered to undergo psychological treatment while in prison and continue psychological treatment after her release.
On March 16, 2015, the Investigation Discovery
Investigation Discovery (stylized and branded on-air as ID since 2008) is an American multinational pay television network dedicated to true crime documentaries owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. As of February 2015, approximately 86 million Amer ...
channel aired episode 10 of season 6 of the television show '' Who the (Bleep) Did I Marry?'' which featured Shannon Richardson's case as told by her ex-husband. The episode was titled "Poison Love".
In March 2015, Shannon Richardson filed suit under , for deprivation of rights while imprisoned. The civil action was "dismissed with prejudice" on 7 March 2015.
Richardson is being held in a federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas with a projected release date of Nov. 18, 2028.
References
External links
*
Shannon Guess profile
at the Atlanta Motion Picture Studios company website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Richardson, Shannon
1977 births
21st-century American actresses
21st-century American criminals
Actresses from Texas
American film actresses
American television actresses
Living people
People from New Boston, Texas
Prisoners and detainees of the United States federal government
Ricin
People from Bowie County, Texas