Man Sentenced For Possessing Deadly Poison

The first person convicted in the United States for possession of a biological weapon was sentenced Thursday to almost three years in prison for having enough of an untraceable poison to kill 126 people.

Douglas Baker, 33, was sentenced to 33 months in prison for possessing 0.7 grams of ricin, which is extracted from castor beans. It has no known antidote and is virtually impossible to detect in the body after death.

He was convicted on Feb. 28 along with Leroy Wheeler, 55. Wheeler’s sentencing was set for June 1.

It was the first prosecution under the Biological Weapons AntiTerrorism Act of 1989.

“This is the first conviction in the nation for possession of a biological weapon,” U.S. Attorney David Lillehaug said. “It’s providential that this deadly liquid was discovered before it was used for home-grown terrorism.”

An FBI chemist testified that ricin is the third most toxic substance known, after plutonium and botulism, and twice as lethal as the deadliest cobra venom. He said there were only three known instances of its use as a murder weapon.

Prosecutors did not identify anyone as a target for the poison, and charges have not yet been filed against two men suspected of setting in motion the plan to cultivate the castor beans used to make the ricin.

Those two men, along with Wheeler, belonged to a tax protest group called the Patriots Council. They had discussed blowing up a federal building, obtaining assault weapons and killing a sheriff’s deputy, authorities said in court papers.

Baker’s wife, Collete, turned over the ricin - kept in a jar in a coffee can - to authorities in 1992 after a dispute with her husband.