Pennsylvania man gets up to 40 years prison for ricin-laced card

Source: Yahoo! News / Reuters

(Reuters) - A Pennsylvania man was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison on Monday for sending a ricin-laced scratch-and-sniff birthday card to a romantic rival and making continued threats from behind bars, a prosecutor said.

Nicholas Helman, 20, of Hatboro, a Philadelphia suburb, had previously pleaded guilty to attempted murder, risking a catastrophe and other charges for trying to poison his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend with the lethal inhalant.

After he was jailed, he was accused of seeking to have a fellow inmate "kidnap witnesses, rip their eyes out, burn their homes down and kill family members," Bucks County Deputy District Attorney Robert James said.

On Monday, he pleaded guilty to additional felony charges tied to threatening witnesses, the prosecutor and the head detective working on his case, James said.

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