The liquid a Texas pedophile ingested before dying in a courtroom last year was sodium nitrate, according to the local medical examiner’s office that ruled his death a suicide.
Edward Lakeyer, 57, was facing five counts of sexual assault in Denton, Texas, in August, and as the guilty verdict was being read, he dropped a water bottle filled with a cloudy liquid.
Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office told the Daily Mail On Tuesday, Leclair committed suicide from the effects of sodium nitrite poisoning.
Denton County Assistant District Attorney Jamie Beck said CNN At the time of LeClair’s death, an investigator noticed that LeClair was chugging liquid before being taken away.
Back told WFAA While those in the courtroom thought his drink from the bottle was odd, they felt it was his way of coping with the verdict.
When a bailiff was asked to check on Leclair, he was found unconscious in a holding cell.
“Shortly after entering the holdover cell, she began vomiting, and emergency services were called,” said Mike Howard, LeClair’s defense attorney.
Howard said he saw LeClair take a “tall drink from a water bottle” while hearing the verdict, but the lawyer said he didn’t know what was in the bottle.
Laker was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Surveillance video from the Denton County Courthouse shows Lakeyer buying a bottle of water around 7 a.m. The New York Times reported..
After the jury deliberated for about three and a half hours, prosecutors believe LeClair dumped the chemical into the water.
Howard told The Times that when he realized he could face up to 100 years in prison, “he decided to do what he did last time.”
“If he had waited another 30 seconds, he would have been in sheriff’s custody and he wouldn’t have had access to that bottled water,” Howard said. “He wouldn’t have been able to. So, you know, I think he knew.”
Sodium nitrite is an oxidizing agent that occurs frequently Used to preserve food items. Like meat, but usually kills people accidentally by lowering blood pressure and restricting the flow of oxygen to the body.
Former child actor Matthew Mindler took his life 2021 with a $15 bottle of sodium nitrite he bought on Amazon at age 19.
“Empire” actress Lindsay Perlman, 43, also Died by suicide after consuming sodium nitrite in February 2022, according to a report by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner.
In October, the families of two suicidal teenagers filed a lawsuit against Amazon, accusing the online company of selling so-called “suicide kits” to teenagers that contain sodium nitrite.
“This is different from those who sell ropes, knives or other instruments that can be used for death because there is no domestic use for them. [sodium nitrite] At the purity level (98-99%) it sells it,” the families’ attorneys wrote in the lawsuit.
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