Tammy Felbaum, the transsexual convicted of causing her husband's death by castrating him in 2001, openly admits she has since written threatening letters to court officials.

However, she's still asking a judge to withdraw her guilty plea so that she may have a trial.

"She believes that she can explain to a jury that she only wrote those letters to attract attention to her (homicide) case,"said Jon Botula, Felbaum's attorney.

District Attorney Randa Clark, who's prosecuting the case, has a different take on the defendant's request.

"She's just trying to subvert the process and use it to her own ends,"Clark said after hearing Tammy Felbaum testify in court Monday.

Tammy Felbaum, 49, told Butler County Judge George Hancher that she didn't understand the plea she gave because she is under psychiatric care and taking multiple medications.

She blames her problems — legal and mental — on her first prosecution.

"I wasn't in my right mind when I wrote (the threatening letters). I was under stress and grief from my husband's death," Tammy Felbaum said. "I still am."

Prosecutors believe James Felbaum, 40, choked to death on his own vomit after he was castrated by his wife inside the couple's filthy mobile home in Marion Township.

Following a non-jury trial in 2001, Tammy Felbaum was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to 5 1/2 to 11 years in prison.

Tammy Felbaum, currently housed in the woman's state prison in Cambridge Springs, already is eligible for parole on that case.

But still she is asserting her innocence and claiming she only committed the new crimes to bring light to the old injustice.