JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - A Mississippi man who sent letters dusted with the poison ricin to President Barack Obama and other officials was sentenced Tuesday to 20 years in prison on unrelated state charges of fondling three martial arts students.
James Everett Dutschke was sentenced in Lee County Circuit Court in Tupelo. Judge Paul Funderburk ordered Dutschke to serve 20 years on the fondling charges at the same time he’s spending 25 years in federal prison on the ricin letter charges, District Attorney Trent Kelly said. That’s followed by a 25-year suspended sentence on the state charges. Dutschke was also ordered to register as a sex offender when he is released.
The sentence was in line with what prosecutors had proposed when Dutschke pleaded guilty in January to inappropriately touching the students at his martial arts studio in Tupelo. Assistant District Attorney Sadie Gardner has said the fondling occurred between 2007 and 2013.
“It was nothing other than what we expected,” said Lori Neil Basham, Dutschke’s lawyer.
On Tuesday, the grandmother of one of the victims addressed Funderburk about the harm Dutschke had done.
“She basically told him he was a child molester and said no amount of time could make it all right,” Kelly said.
Basham said Dutschke returned to federal custody following the state court sentencing.
Dutschke was sentenced on the federal charges May 19 by U.S. District Judge Sharion Aycock. Dutschke had pleaded guilty to the federal charges in January, then told the judge on May 13 he wanted to withdraw his guilty plea, claiming he was innocent in both the ricin case and the fondling case. Within days, he had changed his mind again and told Aycock he would stick with his guilty plea.
Tuesday, Dutschke kept to himself and did not speak in court when he was sentenced, Kelly said.
A 42-year-old Tupelo resident, Dutschke sent the letters to Obama, Republican U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker and Mississippi judge Sadie Holland in April 2013 in what prosecutors have said was an elaborate plot to frame a rival, Paul Kevin Curtis. Poisoned letters addressed to Obama and Wicker were intercepted before delivery, but one letter reached Holland. She was not harmed.
Curtis, an Elvis impersonator and singer who lives in Corinth, had feuded with Dutschke, mainly through online postings. Curtis was initially arrested by federal prosecutors but was abruptly released after officials found no physical evidence of ricin in his home.
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