A Brookshire woman has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for mailing explosives to then-President Barack Obama.
The package which was addressed to Obama in 2016, was intercepted at a White House handling facility at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington D.C.
After the discovery, the FBI examined the parcel and confirmed it was a bomb.
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While on trial, Julia Poff, 47, who had earlier confessed to the crime in July, rescinded her decision while sobbing moments before the ruling.
“My problem is that I have a huge heart and I’m too trusting of people,” Poff said at her sentencing in a Houston federal courtroom.
According to the Houston Chronicle, the 47-year-old mother of four said she and her family have helped dozens of people in need over the years. She cited Bible verses she said she and her husband, a co-defendant in the case, live by.
U.S. District Court Judge Vanessa Gilmore stopped the woman during her time for comment to ask her to explain her actions.
“Talk to me, don’t be reading me Bible verses,” Gilmore said. “I need to understand why you’re saying you’ve done good for so many people and how that squares with the fact that you made bombs and sent them … with the intent to kill.”
At that point, Poff denied committing the crimes, Huston Chronicle reports.
“I don’t know what we’re doing here,” Poff said to the court, sobbing. “We had nothing to do with this. We did not do this.”
After conferring with her defense attorney, Poff apologized.
“All I can say is I’m sorry,” said Poff. “I’m sorry to the people I’ve hurt.”
In another crime-related story, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has sent a touching message to the judge who will decide the fate of the man who threatened her.
In the two page letter addressed to Judge Frank Geraci, Omar wrote; “As someone who fled a war zone, I know how destabilizing acts of political violence can be. That his threat of violence relied on hateful stereotypes about my faith only made it more dangerous … It was a threat against an entire religion, at a time of rising hate crimes against religious minorities in our country.”
Despite facing a lot of hate in the United States, Omar noted that people who commit crimes have been victims before. She stated that compassion, not retribution, might be the only way to rehabilitate him.
“We must ask: who are we as a nation if we respond to acts of political retribution with retribution ourselves? The answer to hate is not more hate; it is compassion,” she wrote.
She suggested that community integration and social services would serve Carlineo better than a long prison sentence or a hefty fine.
Sharing my full letter on the the sentencing of Patrick W. Carlineo, a man convicted of threatening my life.
We must apply a system of compassion to criminal justice.
Who are we as a nation if we respond to threats of political retribution with retribution ourselves? pic.twitter.com/s96jjh8AlD
— Rep. Ilhan Omar (@Ilhan) November 19, 2019
“Punishing the defendant with a lengthy prison sentence or a burdensome financial fine would not rehabilitate him. It would not repair the harm he has caused. It would only increase his anger and resentment,” wrote Omar.
Congresswoman Omar during her time in congress has faced out radical actions from white Americans who have tagged her racist. The last was from President Trump who suggested in a tweet that they should “go back” to their countries.
