‘Walking Dead’ Guest Star Shannon Richardson Sentenced to 18 Years for Mailing Ricin to Obama

Yesterday the sentencing of Shannon Richardson, who had minor roles on TV’s ‘The Walking Dead’ and the Sandra Bullock movie ‘The Blind Side,’ took place yesterday. CBS News reports that Richardson was arrested last June for sending letters with the deadly toxin ricin to President Obama and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. Richardson pled guilty last December.

Richardson reportedly mailed the letters and then went to police to claim that her estranged husband, Nathan Richardson, was responsible for mailing them. However, inconsistencies with her story, as well as an investigation into her online purchases, led to Richardson’s arrest. The investigation revealed that she had made purchases for the materials required to make ricin online. She later confessed that she lied to authorities about her husband’s involvement.

Yesterday, Richardson told the court “I never intended for anybody to be hurt. I’m not a bad person. I don’t have it in me to hurt anyone.” Regardless of her statement, the judge sentenced the 36-year-old actress from Texas, to18 years in prison on a charge of possessing and producing a biological toxin. She has also been ordered to pay $367,000 in restitution.

Oscar Pistorius Found Guilty Today

Just minutes ago Judge Thokozile Masipa found OscarPistorius guilty of “culpable homicide” after fatally shooting his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp through a bathroom door on Valentine’s Day last year.

The court did, however, clear Pistorius of the more serious charge of premeditated murder, saying that the state had failed to prove such a charge. In the judge’s words: “The state clearly has not proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused is guilty of premeditated murder. There are just not enough facts to support such a finding.”

Sentencing for Pistorius is scheduled for October, at which time he could face up to 15 year in prison for culpable homicide.
 

Italian Horror House Gets Old, Yet, Familiar Visitor

The bizarre behavior exhibited by Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito throughout this tragic nightmare has been the source of much talk and controversy. Although it pales in comparison to other peculiar actions exhibited by the two throughout, Raffaele Sollectio added to that when he brought his new love to visit the home where he was convicted of brutally murdering Meredith Kercher.

Last week La Nazione newspaper in Italy reported that Sollectio and his new girlfriend, Greta Menegaldo, were seen standing outside the cottage where he was convicted of participating in the murder of Meredith Kercher.  One local resident, Enea, told La Nazione that she saw them. Enea said, “I’m telling the truth: I couldn’t believe it…when I saw them up close, it was Sollecito.” Raffaele’s father also confirmed the visit, saying, “If Raffaele wanted to show his girlfriend the ordeal he went through, I can’t see anything wrong with that…he has absolutely nothing to do with that crime.”

It was only last September (2013) when Amanda Knox announced that she planned on attending the grave site of “her friend,” Meredith Kercher and meet with Kercher’s parents. The Kercher family, however, wants nothing to do with Knox, and have alluded to, many times, their belief that Knox and Sollecito were involved in Meredith’s murder…along with the fact that their family lawyer who has represented them during this entire process, Francesco Maresca, has been vocal about his belief in their guilt, which speaks volumes about how the Kercher family feels.

Curse of Amanda Knox: Realtor says “Italian Horror House Hard to sell”

 

 

The Italian cottage where Amanda Knox, Raffaelle Sollecito, and Rudy Guede  have been convicted of butchering Meredith Kercher was put up for sale in December of 2013. Due to the infamous circumstances, said a Perugian agent for the Tecnocasa real estate agency, which is handling the sale, “…it has not been easy to find potential buyers who are willing to overlook the fact that a brutal murder took place there.”

The owner of the Perugian villa, Italian retiree Aldalia Tattanelli, was forced to drop the price more than $100,000, from $630,000 to just over $520,000. Six years after Kercher’s murder, almost to the day, eight new tenants living in the home almost died when a carbon monoxide leak nearly poisoned them all in their sleep. This adds to the infamy of the home, and some have gone as far as saying that the home is cursed. It was this incident that prompted Aldalia to sell the home.

In the U.S., sellers are required to disclose if a murder took place in a house.  That’s not the case in Italy and the listing makes no mention of the gruesome crime that took place there. In fact, the realtor said that “The owner [Aldalia] is adamant that everything possible be done to discourage anyone in the realtor’s office from saying a word about the murder.”

“We have received requests for information, and many, who are probably busybodies, have already visited our web page,” the realtor said. “I hope to exclude macabre curiosity seekers because the property has a certain value.” Tecnocasa Realty is so wary about curiosity seekers that “the company requires that anyone potential buyers make an appointment and come to the sales office in person for even general information” on the two-unit property, which comes with 5,000 square meters of land and parking for seven vehicles.

“Frankly,” says the realtor, “this is a tough sell in an already tough real estate market.”

Would you live in a house with such a history?

Raffaele Sollecito now admits having questions about Knox’s behavior following Kercher’s murder

As if the Amanda Knox case could not get any more bizarre, Raffaele Sollecito has upped the ante. In a recent exclusive interview on an Italian TV news broadcast, Sollecito said he has several “unanswered questions” for his former girlfriend, Amanda Knox. This adds yet another waiver to the many different versions Sollecitoprovided over the years about the same details. In the official story, the part that remained consistent, at least, Knox and Sollecito both claimed that Knox left his flat the morning after Kercher’s murder and returned home, where she noticed the door left wide open and witnessed blood spots in the bathroom. Knox claimed that she found it odd and just assumed that one of her roommates was menstruating and left blood behind. She proceeded to take a shower and returned to Sollecito’s flat and ate breakfast. 

“Certainly I asked her questions,” Sollecito explained in his latest interview. “Why did she take a shower? Why did she spend so much time there?” When asked what responses he had for these question Sollecito replied, “I don’t have answers.” In the interview, Sollecito said Knox left his apartment to take a shower, then returned hours later looking “very agitated.” Yet, in an interview with Kate Mansey just two days after the murder, Sollecito said, “But when she went into the bathroom she saw spots of blood all over the bath and sink. That's when she started getting really afraid and ran back to my place because she didn't want to go into the house alone.” This is a far cry from what Knox said in her emailto friends and family, Knox wrote:

“…I returned to raffael’s place. after we had used the mop to clean up the kitchen i told raffael about what i had seen in the house over breakfast. the strange blood in the bathroom, the door wide open, the shit left in the toilet. he suggested i call one of my roommates, so I called filomena.” (6^th paragraph).

The discrepancies between Knox’s version and Sollecito’s version is strikingly different. Raffele claims Knox was visibly distraught when she returned and that this was the focus of discussion (i.e. being the first thing they discussed). Knox, on the other hand, claims that she did not even bring up the bizarre circumstances back at her apartment until “after” they finished mopping the kitchen floor.

 

In his latest statement, Sollecito is clearly trying to distance himself from Knox, believing that there is far more evidence against her than against him. “You all know that the focus was only through Amanda to her behavior, to her peculiar behaviour, but whatever it is, I’m not guilty for it.“Why do they convict me? Why do put me on the corner and say that I’m guilty just because in their minds I have to be guilty because I was her boyfriend. It doesn’t make any sense to me.” Sollecito forgets to mention the bloody barefoot prints at Knox’s apartment, found to be in Kercher’s blood attributed to him, the knife found in his apartment that scientists say was the murder weapon, his DNA found on Meredith Kercher’s bra that was found in her room, even though Sollecito claims that he was never ever in that room, and his own strange behavior, which includes providing a false alibi (saying he and Knox were at a party with a friend on the night of the murder) and several conflicting versions. 

But what’s there to question if you [Raffaele] were with Knox the whole day and night of Meredith Kercher’s murder? It appears as though Sollecito is alluding to the notion that he knows something far more than he is saying; yet, he is being very careful with his words—only providing us with a hint of this. His latest statement is a clear attempt to distance himself from Knox. 

Sollecito appeared on Twitter recently, for what he claimed was, to answer questions and clear his name. He was very outspoken of his innocence and had no problem in his witty, sarcastic responses to those who questioned his innocence. However, when I asked him about the Mansey interview he did claiming that he was with Knox at a friend’s party on the night of the murder, Sollecito disappeared for a couple of days, came back writing only in Italian, and ceased from responding to anymore questions.

Is it possible that Sollecito will turn on Knox all together at some point when the pressure mounts over the next year? Guess we’ll have to wait and see…