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A Texas teenager has been charged with trying to serve a poisoned drink to a fellow student so she would be able to perform in the school play.
Katherine Smith, 18, had told her family that she was the star of the school play when in reality she was an understudy, according to an arrest warrant published Friday on www.thesmokinggun.com.
A number of family members said they would come from out of town to see the performance and Smith decided to poison the lead actress on opening night "so she could not perform in the play," the arrest warrant said.
Smith brought a small vial of bleach to her Hurst, Texas school and poured some into a bottle of Mountain Dew, which she then presented to the lead actress as a gift.
But the bottle smelled strongly of bleach and the girl brought it to a teacher to complain. The teacher smelled the bottle and called police.
Smith initially denied that she had done anything to the bottle but a day later confessed to her teacher and wrote a statement describing how she had hidden the vial that held the bleach and then thrown it down a storm drain.
Police took the bottle of Mountain Dew to a forensic laboratory for testing and issued an arrest warrant on May 22.
Smith turned herself in and was released after she posted bail, a spokesman for the Tarrant County Sheriff Department told AFP.
The district attorney's office is waiting for further forensic results before determining whether to proceed with the case. Smith has been charged with tampering with a consumer product, a felony with a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.
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AFP 022155 GMT 06 06
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