She gets 6 years for chemical attacks

A woman who placed toxic chemicals on the vehicle and outside the home of her husband's paramour was sentenced yesterday to six years in federal prison.

Carol Ann Bond, 37, of Lansdale, pleaded guilty in December to using a chemical weapon and to mail theft.

Bond, who has been in federal custody for almost a year, sat stoically by her attorney as she was sentenced by U.S. District Judge James T. Giles. Bond's attorney, Robert Goldman, had argued for leniency, saying that she had "acted out" because she was overcome by depression and anxiety after learning that her husband had a child with Myrlinda Haynes, a family friend.

"The government has no heart in this case," Goldman said, adding that the feds' decision to charge Bond under the chemical-weapon statute was unfair.

But Giles didn't see it that way. He said that Bond wanted to satisfy her need for revenge.

Citing Scripture, the judge said: "There is some wisdom to the proposition that 'vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord.' When a person becomes vengeful, that often results in criminal behavior," adding that Bond knew right from wrong.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Shapiro said that Bond had "deliberately" conducted a relentless campaign of threats, assaults and intimidation in late 2006 through June 2007 against Haynes and her daughter, Gabrielle, then 2 years old.

The feds said that Bond had made more than two dozen attempts to poison Haynes and her daughter.

Video surveillance twice recorded Bond contaminating the muffler of Haynes' car with chemicals.

Haynes became aware of Bond's actions before she or her daughter incurred any physical harm.

Giles found yesterday that the daughter had not been an "intended victim" of Bond's crimes, but nevertheless said that Haynes' daughter had been affected and could have been harmed.

He also ordered Bond to make restitution of more than $9,900 to Haynes, much of it for counseling.

Bond, a former lab analyst at Rohm & Haas, the chemical manufacturer, took a specialty chemical, chlorophenoxarsine, from Rohm in 2006.

Authorities later found a white powdery substance containing arsenic on the front-door handle of Haynes' home and the door handles of her car.

Chlorophenoxarsine is used to prepare commercial biocides, is toxic and can be fatal if absorbed through the skin.

Giles ruled that Bond had purchased another chemical, potassium dichromate, over the Internet and later placed the chemical on Haynes' vehicle and inside her mailbox. Bond said yesterday that she "did not intend to harm Haynes, just to scare her," and thought that the chemicals would cause only "skin irritation."

But Haynes told the court that she and her daughter felt terrorized by Bond, prompting Haynes to sell her Norristown home. *