Texas Father Gets Custody of Ricin Suspect’s Baby

NEW BOSTON (AP) – The estranged husband of a Texas woman charged with sending ricin-laced letters to President Barack Obama and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has won temporary custody of the couple’s newborn son. The Texarkana Gazette reports a judge in New Boston on Monday granted temporary custody to Nathaniel Richardson. He’s divorcing Shannon Guess Richardson, who remains in federal custody and faces a competency hearing Wednesday in Texarkana. The incarcerated woman gave birth July 4 to a premature son. She wasn’t present at the custody hearing. An affidavit says Shannon Richardson tried to implicate her husband in the ricin letters before her June 7 arrest in Mt. Pleasant. He has not been charged. Shannon Richardson has been accused of sending tainted letters to Obama, Bloomberg and to a leader of the mayor’s gun-control group.