Man gets 7 years on ricin, bomb charges

Estranged wife led police to Tenn. man with deadly poison, pipe bombs

Test your knowledge of the week's top crimes

Click here every Wednesday to see how well you've been paying attention to the crime and court stories that made headlines the week before.

Video: Crime & courts

Most popular

• Most viewed

• Top rated

• Most e-mailed

Palin attacks media over 'very scary' reporting

Israel ignores U.N. call for immediate cease-fire

Can’t get a date? It’s not them, it’s you

Makeover! New style after 14 years

Alzheimer's drugs double death risk in elderly

Most viewed on msnbc.com

updated 10:05 p.m. ET April 27, 2007

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A man who pleaded guilty to federal charges of possessing a deadly poison, firearms silencers and explosives was sentenced Friday to more than seven years in prison.

William Matthews, 56, was charged after a tip from his estranged wife led police and federal agents to search his property last May. They found the poison ricin in a sealed baby food jar, two functional pipe bombs, five gun silencers, three blasting caps and bomb-making materials.

Authorities have never explained why Matthews had the ricin, which is illegal to possess except for research, as well as pipe bombs and other bomb-making materials. The silencers are legal but were not properly registered.

Story continues below ↓

advertisement | your ad here

Roughly the amount of ricin that fits on the head of a pin is enough to kill an adult, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

He was sentenced to seven years and three months in prison and will also have to serve five years of supervised release.

Matthews testified at his plea hearing that in the 1960s he was found to have schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and received treatment then.