The woman accused of sending death threats to a Palm Beach County, Fla., man whose son was killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shootings in Newtown, Conn., was arrested in the Tampa Bay area, jail records show.
A judge issued an arrest warrant for Lucy Richards of Brandon, near Tampa, Wednesday after she did not show up in federal court in Fort Lauderdale for a change-of-plea hearing and sentencing.
Richards was arrested on the federal warrant by the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office Saturday at Brandon Regional Hospital, FBI Special Agent Michael Leverock said Monday.
Richards' next court hearing has not yet been scheduled. Jail records show she was turned over to the FBI after a brief appearance Monday in federal court in Tampa.
Richards told court officials in Tampa that "she wanted to go to trial and she does not want her future to be in one person's (the judge's) hands," according to court records. She also said that she had mental health and general health problems.
Prosecutors asked the magistrate judge to keep her in jail because of the trial judge's order, her nonappearance for a scheduled court hearing and because they said she is a danger to the community and herself.
Richards had been expected to plead guilty to one charge related to making death threats last week. The prosecution and defense were going to recommend that she be sentenced to house arrest and probation, authorities said.
But early that morning, Richards called the Federal Public Defender's Office to say she would not appear in court. She gave no explanation, Assistant Federal Public Defender Robert Berube told the judge.
Senior U.S. District Judge James Cohn immediately issued an arrest warrant for Richards and revoked her bond.
She had been free on $25,000 bond since she surrendered in court in December. She pleaded not guilty to four federal charges that she sent threatening email and voicemails to Lenny Pozner in January 2016.
Richards could face a federal prison term because she did not show up in Court. Prosecutors could withdraw the plea-agreement offer.
Pozner's 6-year-old son, Noah, was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary shootings.
