STATESBORO, Ga. \u2014 A person already in prison has been sentenced to 80 years in federal custody after authorities said they built two bombs while behind bars and mailed them to a federal courthouse in Anchorage, Alaska, and the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Federal prosecutors on Tuesday announced the sentence for the inmate authorities identified as David Dwayne Cassady, 57, who was incarcerated in a state prison in Georgia when the devices were made, authorities said. The inmate pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted malicious use of explosive materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The inmate has severe anxiety and gender dysphoria, defense lawyer Tina Maddox wrote in a sentencing memo to the court. The crimes were “acts of desperation born out of unrelenting abuse, hopelessness, and mental distress,” Maddox wrote. The defendant is a transgender woman and now goes by the name Lena Noel Summerlin, the lawyer said in the July 8 court document.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The indictment says both bombs were made at a state prison in Tattnall County, Georgia, and mailed from the prison. The document does not detail how the bombs were built or where the materials were obtained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bombs were functional and had the capabilities to explode, a plea agreement states. The inmate admitted to mailing them “in retaliation for prison conditions,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since the early 1990s, the inmate has been held in a variety of Georgia prisons after being convicted of more than a dozen crimes, including kidnapping and aggravated sodomy, according to records from the Georgia Department of Corrections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“This defendant’s devices were not only a threat to the recipients, but to every individual that unknowingly transported and delivered them,” U.S. Attorney Bryan Stirling said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The defendant “intended to incite fear” in the targets and among the public, said Rodney Hopkins, the inspector in charge of the Atlanta division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n