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Woman sentenced in mothball soup case

07:58 AM CST on Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Associated Press

AUSTIN -- An Austin woman who put mothballs in soup at a store’s self-serve kiosk in 2007 has been ordered to undergo mental health treatment and to stay away from the grocery chain unless escorted by another adult.

Lea Suzan Sechler, 45, pleaded guilty to tampering with a consumer product, a second-degree felony.

State District Judge Julie Kocurek sentenced Sechler on Monday to 10 years deferred adjudication, a form of probation, and 30 days of inpatient treatment.

Dr. Richard Coons, a forensic psychiatrist, wrote in a letter to the judge in October that Sechler is delusional and has heard voices for years, the Austin American-Statesman reported Monday in its online edition. He wrote Sechler “had developed the paranoid delusion that people with malevolent intent were coming onto her property. Voices were threatening her. Then, the voice told her that if she did something dumb like putting something into the soup it will reverse.”

According to a police affidavit, workers at a Randalls grocery store discarded all the soups in its self-serve kiosk in May 2007 after noticing a strong odor from one of the containers. A customer reported a strange smell from soup she bought in June 2007, after the cart reopened.

Randalls officials had the soup tested and discovered it contained a primary ingredient found in many types of mothballs.

Authorities traced Sechler through video surveillance of the soup cart and her store savings card and arrested her in July 2007.

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