Houston-area woman gets 10 years in sending explosives to Obama, Abbott

A 47-year-old woman was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison Monday for sending homemade explosive devices to former President Barack Obama, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and other officials.

Julia Ann Poff pleaded guilty to the offenses over the summer, but Monday in a courtroom in Houston, she burst into sobs and said she had done nothing wrong.

“I don’t know what we’re doing here,” Poff said, according to the San Antonio Express-News. “We had nothing to do with this. We did not do this.”

Poff lives in Brookshire, a city about 40 miles west of Houston.

She has admitted to mailing devices that were rigged to explode upon opening to Obama in October 2016 and Abbott in September 2016. She also sent a device to the Social Security Administration after she was denied disability benefits, the Express-News reported.

The package that was sent to the White House was linked to Poff through a cat hair on an address label, Houston television station KHOU-11 reported.

At Monday’s sentencing, Poff begged for leniency, saying she and her family were good Samaritans who lived by the Bible’s teachings, the Express-News reported.

“Talk to me, don’t be reading me Bible verses,” U.S. District Court Judge Vanessa Gilmore admonished her, the newspaper reported. “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.”

Poff apologized after talking to her attorneys.

“All I can say is I’m sorry,” said Poff, according to the Express-News. “I’m sorry to the people I’ve hurt.”