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Homeless Woman Pleads Guilty To Threatening Bush

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By THOMAS W.  KRAUSE | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 27, 2007

TAMPA - A slight woman with thick-framed glasses and somewhat disheveled graying hair wore an orange jail jumpsuit today as she sat before a federal magistrate judge.

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  Deloris Jean Baines

"You understand why you are here today?" asked U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas B. McCoun III.

"The threat I made to President Bush," the woman said in a soft voice.

Deloris Jean Baines, 45, looks like anyone's grandmother. Today the homeless woman pleaded guilty to a charge of willfully making a true threat to injure or kill the president of the United States.

She sat still and acted polite throughout the hearing.

Prosecutors said that on July 24, 2006, Baines sent a letter to the White House from a post office near the Manatee and Sarasota county line. A White House mailroom accepted the letter on July 31, 2006.

"President Bush, I have a .38 revolver," the letter states. "I bought it for you."

Baines, prosecutors said, wrote that Bush treats himself to excellent food in the White House and lives like a king. In the letter, Baines asks whether Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is any better than she, according to prosecutors.

"Can you feel the hell I live daily?" the letter asks.

A U.S. Secret Service agent interviewed Baines two weeks after she sent the letter. She admitted to writing it and said, at least twice, that she was ready for federal prison. She was arrested in Tallahassee.

In court, Baines said she has been treated well since her arrest. She has been taking the medication Prolixin, generally prescribed for psychotic disorders. Her only excuse for writing the letter was that she was "going through a hard time" when she wrote it, she said.

McCoun told Baines that by pleading guilty she could receive up to five years in prison, up to three years of supervised release and as much as $250,000 in fines.

"I was homeless before I did this," Baines said, sounding earnestly concerned. "I've got no one to pay no fines."

McCoun said that given her financial status, a hefty fine would be unlikely.

Baines made only one complaint throughout the hearing.

"I've got some property in Tallahassee at the police department," she said. "They had no right keeping my stuff. It's just a bag with some photographs in it."

One of Baines' public defenders, Dijonja Dyer, told the judge that Tallahassee police were working on the return of her property. The judge said he would help if need be.

A sentencing date for Baines has not been set. After a pre-sentence investigation, U.S District Judge Susan Bucklew will determine Baines' fate.

After the hearing, Baines' other public defender, Adam Allen, shook his head and lamented the plight of the mentally ill. "It's a sad state of affairs that with us living in one of the wealthiest countries in the world there are no means of providing mental health care for the poor except for the criminal justice system and prison."

In federal custody, Allen said, Baines will be treated for her condition. The Prolixin, however, comes in an injection once every three or four months. It is expensive.

When Baines is released, Allen said, she will be unlikely to have access to the proper medications or the money to get that medication.

Reporter Thomas W. Krause can be reached at (813) 259-7698 or tkrause@tampatrib.com.

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