Wife pleads guilty in poisoning of woman

A former Rohm & Haas lab technician pleaded guilty in federal court yesterday to trying to poison her husband's alleged mistress by placing toxic chemicals on the front-door handle of her home, on her car's door handle and inside the car's muffler.

Carol Ann Bond, 36, of Lansdale, pleaded guilty to two counts of using a chemical weapon and two counts of mail theft.

Court papers said Myrlinda Haynes, the alleged mistress of Bond's husband, phoned postal inspectors in March and complained that someone was placing chemicals in her mailbox, on her mail, on her front door and on her car's doors outside her Norristown home.

Haynes suspected Bond, who is married to Clifford A. Bond, the father of Haynes' 2-year-old child.

Court papers said Carol Ann Bond phoned Haynes about two years ago and said something to the effect that "I'm going to make your life a living hell" and "dead people will visit you."

Haynes told authorities that chemicals were placed on her car around Thanksgiving 2006 and during a weekend last February.

Haynes took a photograph of a red powdery substance.

Authorities subsequently installed a video camera at Haynes' home and positioned it to view the outside of her home, including her mailbox, door handle and car.

Bond later was observed stealing mail from Haynes' mailbox and placing the red powdery substance inside her car's tailpipe.

Government forensic chemists later determined that the red powdery substance was potassium dichromate, which is destructive to the upper respiratory tract and may cause death if absorbed through the skin.

A white powdery substance also was found on Haynes' front-door handle and car-door handle.

Authorities later determined that it was a specialty chemical that contained arsenic, used to manufacture a commercial biocide, and may be fatal if absorbed through skin.

Haynes was not injured.

When Bond was arrested in June, agents found a piece of stolen mail in her home and a tube of a chemical in her car.

Bond admitted that she took the chemicals from Rohm & Haas when she worked there.

U.S. District Judge James T. Giles set sentencing for March. Bond could face nearly five years in prison.

She has been held without bail since her arrest. *