Whatever
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Woman in terror hoax
got max termQuestion: What ever happened to the woman who was convicted of writing threatening notes on the interisland cruise ship?
Answer: U.S. District Judge Helen Gillmor sentenced Kelley Marie Ferguson, 21, of Laguna Hills, Calif., last September to two years in federal prison -- the maximum under federal sentencing guidelines. She is serving out her term at a low-security prison camp in Dublin, Calif.
Ferguson had pleaded guilty to a charge of conveying false information about an attempt to cause death to passengers and employees of a mass transportation provider. She was facing between 18 and 24 months in prison.
Ferguson and her family were passengers aboard the Royal Caribbean's Legend of the Seas en route from Ensenada, Mexico, when notes were discovered in a restroom on April 22 and 23, 2003. The first note threatened the lives of those on board if the ship touched American soil.
The ship was forced to cancel its Hilo stop while the Hawaii Joint Terrorism Task Force searched the vessel with bomb-sniffing dogs and questioned the crew and more than 2,300 passengers who had to be confined to their cabins as their luggage was searched.
Ferguson later admitted she wrote the notes hoping the trip would end and she could return home to her boyfriend. She was seven months pregnant at the time.
Ferguson pleaded guilty in May and was placed under house arrest at her parents' Laguna Hills home while awaiting sentencing. She gave birth to a baby girl on June 25, 2003.
Federal public defender Loretta Faymonville had argued that Ferguson had no intention of harming anyone, but was scared and stressed out from trying to hide the pregnancy from her family.
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