Woman gets 7-year term for
sending faked-anthrax letters
A 25-year-old nurse accused of sending more than half a dozen threatening letters purportedly containing deadly anthrax spores apologized yesterday to everyone victimized by her actions.
"I was selfish and foolish and did not think about the consequences and the impact it has caused to many innocent lives," a tearful Sharon Cardenas said yesterday during a plea to the court for leniency.
But U.S. District Judge David Ezra, citing the seriousness of her conduct, sentenced Cardenas, of Kalihi, to seven years and three months in federal prison, the stiffest penalty possible under federal sentencing guidelines. She also will be placed on a total of five years of supervised release once she gets out of prison.
Cardenas is the first person in the nation to be convicted under the "weapon of mass destruction" statute that was enacted in response to terrorism in the early 1990s, said assistant U.S. Attorney Ken Sorenson.
Cardenas pleaded guilty last September to one count of mailing threatening letters and two counts of threatening the use of a weapon of mass destruction.
She sent the letters, pretending to be her boyfriend's mother, Caridad Berzamina, a housekeeper at a Waikiki hotel, to frame her for the offense. Cardenas apparently lifted Berzamina's signature off a birthday card she had received. Of 14 threatening letters she mailed between April 2000 and November 2001, about half contained a powdery substance.
Letters were sent to the main police station, the Kalihi station and to the Waikiki Beach Marriott, Berzamina's workplace. Businesses were shut down, people were evacuated and the Fire Department's hazardous-materials team was called to investigate after the letters were opened.
One of the letters Cardenas sent was addressed to herself, which she reported to police and cited as the basis to seek a restraining order against Berzamina.
The substance she placed in the envelopes was simply a mixture of baby powder, rat poison and fish tank granules, Sorenson said.
The first letter she mailed that contained a powdery substance was before Sept. 11, 2001, and the anthrax scares that enveloped the nation around that time, he said.
Cardenas sent other letters to her boyfriend's employer and to prominent members of the Filipino community, apparently to embarrass Berzamina, according to U.S. Postal Inspector Byron Dare.
But her reasons for doing what she did and her dislike for Berzamina remain unclear, Sorenson said.
Defense attorney Randall Oyama could not be reached for comment. He had argued for a sentence on the lower end of guidelines, saying she testified to the best of her recollection and that the record does not show her intent or willingness to obstruct justice.
The hotel had fired Berzamina shortly after receiving the letter but has since rehired her, Sorenson said.
Outside the courtroom, a Cardenas family member declined comment other than to say the family still loves and supports her.