The Texas pedophile who passed away inside a courtroom last year had sodium nitrite in his system, as confirmed by the local medical examiner’s office. His death was ruled as a suicide.
In August, Edward Leclair, 57, was in a court of law in Denton, Texas, standing trial for five charges of sexual assault. As the jury’s guilty verdict was being declared, he quickly downed a bottle of water containing a murky liquid.
The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed on Tuesday to the Daily Mail that Leclair took his own life as a result of toxic ingestion of sodium nitrite.
At the time of Leclair’s passing, Denton County Assistant District Attorney Jamie Beck informed CNN that an investigator had observed Leclair consuming the liquid at a rapid rate prior to being taken away.
Beck relayed to WFAA that those present in the courtroom were taken aback by his decision to drink from the bottle. However, they understood it was likely his way of dealing with the verdict that he received.
Footage captured by security cameras at the Denton County courthouse depicts Leclair buying a water bottle at approximately 7 a.m., in accordance with a report by the New York Times.
The jury spent roughly three and a half hours deliberating, and prosecutors assumed that Leclair took that opportunity to pour the chemicals into the liquid.
