Actress Shannon Rogers Guess Richardson Arrested For Ricin Letters

Texas actress Shannon Rogers Guess Richardson, who's had parts in "The Walking Dead" and "Vampire Diaries" was arrested Friday in Arkansas in connection with the mailing of ricin-laced letters to President Barack Obama and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The letters in question were postmarked May 20 in Shreveport, La., which also handles mail from parts of Texas and Arkansas. They did not have return addresses, but all contained the same menacing message:

"You will have to kill me and my family before you get my guns. Anyone wants to come to my house will get shot in the face. The right to bear arms is my constitutional, God-given right and I will exercise that right till the day I die. What's in the letter is nothing compared to what we got planned for you."

Guess Richardson had previously contacted authorities on May 30 to implicate her husband, army veteran Nathan Richardson, but later failed a polygraph test and investigators found inconsistencies in her story. The actress then admitted mailing the letters knowing they contained ricin, but said her husband had typed them and made her print and send them.

The couple is reportedly expecting their first child in October, but has been in the process of getting a divorce, which may have been a factor in Guess Richardson's accusations against her husband.

John Delk, a lawyer for Nathan Richardson, told The Associated Press Thursday that Richardson may have been set up by his wife, in retribution for the pending split. "There are a lot of factors I'm aware of that indicate (Nathaniel Richardson) was set up in this deal by her," he said.

Rogers Guess is a mother of five children from previous relationships. She was charged Friday with mailing threatening communications. If convicted, she faces up to 10 years in federal prison.

As for her roles in "The Walking Dead" and "Vampire Diaries," even producers weren't sure who she was.

Glen Mazzara, producer of the AMC zombie drama "The Walking Dead" took it to Twitter after he found out about the news and asked if anyone knew what role she played, to which "Vampire Diaries" producer Julie Plec replied that if she did anything similar to what she did in her show, Guess Richardson was probably "third background from the right."