An inmate serving a life sentence in Georgia mailed two homemade bombs to the Justice Department’s headquarters and a courthouse in Alaska to force prison officials to meet their demands, according to sentencing documents.

Lena Noel Summerlin, 57, whose legal name was David Cassady at the time of the alleged crimes, according to prosecutors, demanded six days inside a cell with her partner and dozens of grocery items, including snacks, candy and soda, court documents say.

Summerlin’s court-appointed attorney Tina E. Maddox wrote in a sentencing memorandum that now Summerlin identifies as a transgender woman and legally changed her name.

A three-page list written by Summerlin shows she wanted two jars of Peter Pan peanut butter, a variety of Hostess pastries, bags of Cheetos, Doritos, Instant Ramen and more.

“If you have trouble finding an item or particular brand on this list, find something close to it and substitute,” Summerlin wrote.

Now Summerlin has been sentenced to 80 years in prison in connection with the bombs prosecutors said she made and mailed in January 2020. Her sentencing was announced by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Carolina.

“This defendant’s devices were not only a threat to the recipients, but to every individual that unknowingly transported and delivered them,” U.S. Attorney Bryan Stirling, of the Southern District of South Carolina, said in a statement.

Maddox did not immediately return McClatchy News’ request for comment Sept. 23.

Summerlin is serving a lifetime state prison sentence in Tattnall County, Georgia, on charges of kidnapping, false imprisonment, aggravated sodomy and impersonating an officer, according to prosecutors.

She was arrested on those charges within a year of being released from prison on another aggravated sodomy charge in 1991, prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum.

The bombs are mailed

On Jan. 24, 2020, Summerlin mailed two bombs she had built in prison to the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building in Washington, D.C., and to the federal courthouse in Anchorage, Alaska, the sentencing memo says.

“After three days,” prosecutors wrote in the filing that “no one reported the bombs’ existence to authorities so (Summerlin) decided to bring attention to the matter by attempting to mail two additional bombs.”

Summerlin let a correctional officer know that the packages with the extra bombs would not fit in the mail receptacle and revealed explosive devices were inside, according to prosecutors.

The officer then alerted authorities, leading to the bombs being confiscated, the sentencing memo says.

Afterward, in an interview with federal agents, Summerlin shared that she already mailed two “gifts,” referring to the other bombs she sent, according to the sentencing memo.

Detailing her motive, Summerlin told agents she wanted the Georgia Department of Corrections “to comply with certain demands including being placed in a cell with her partner and a list of commissary items,” the sentencing memo says.

Summerlin also complained about how she was treated in prison, according to the filing.

The bombs are found

Law enforcement ultimately located the package with the bomb at the Justice Department’s headquarters, according to prosecutors.

Summerlin, however, would not reveal where she sent the second bomb, the sentencing memo says.

“I’m losing any leverage that I may have,” Summerlin told agents, according to the filing.

That day, the sentencing memo says a clerk at the federal courthouse in Anchorage received a manila envelope with Summerlin’s former name on it and opened it, finding wires inside, the sentencing memo says.

She instantly hit a panic alarm, and the courthouse was evacuated by U.S. Marshals, according to prosecutors.

The sentencing memo includes photos of the bombs, showing they were each made with two batteries as a power supply, wiring as a conductor, a removable switch, an ignition wire and a container. They also contained shards of glass and flammable liquid, according to prosecutors.

“(Summerlin) put the safety of others and lives at risk when (she) constructed these bombs and decided to place them in the mail,” prosecutors wrote in the sentencing memo. “These two packages had to travel a great distance, almost certainly on a plane.”

“Not only did the bomb contain glass fragments, which could cause serious bodily injury to a person upon explosion, the ignitable liquid could have caused a fire creating even more of a substantial risk of harm to a greater number of people,” the filing continues.

Summerlin later pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted malicious use of explosive material, according to prosecutors.

She was ordered to serve two 40-year sentences on both counts concurrently, prosecutors said.

Maddox wrote in a sentencing memorandum on Summerlin’s behalf that she is remorseful over what happened.

Maddox argued “the Defendant’s actions were not contained by a desire to harm others or terrorize institutions, but were acts of desperation born out of unrelenting abuse, hopelessness, and mental distress.”

Maddox wrote in the sentencing memo that the bombs were mailed as a “cry for help” to “expose the horrific abuses she and others endured in state custody.”

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