A 57-year-old man, Edward Peter Leclair, was charged with five counts of sexual assault against a teenage girl.
In the courtroom, while waiting for the judge to read the verdict that the jury had just returned, he was seen with a bottle of a cloudy colored liquid.
As the judge read the words that would change the accused’s life forever, he grabbed the bottle and started to drink it.
“He chugged it,” prosecutor Jamie Beck told local news station WFAA. “It wasn’t like he was just taking sips of water. He was literally throwing it back, so to speak.”
The verdict said the man was guilty of the five counts.
When the proceedings were over, Leclair was taken back to a holding cell. Upon inspection somewhat later, he was found unresponsive. Paramedics took the prisoner to a hospital, and he was pronounced dead.
Leclair had pled non-guilty to the charges, but the jury decided otherwise.
The incident leading up to Leclair’s crime took place in July of 2016. Leclair responded to a post on Craigslist. He met with a girl, who had posted the message, drove her to a hotel and had sex with her. He paid her $200. After their first encounter, the girl revealed that she was only 14-years-old. In spite of learning her age, Leclair continued to contact her and they met three more times.
The situation started to unravel after Leclair’s girlfriend found out about his relationship with the teenager. He was arrested in 2018. His girlfriend was also arrested for a felony, because she was aware of the crimes and didn’t report them, although charges against her were eventually dropped.
It was an unusual situation, not only for the jurors but also for the defense, the prosecution and the judge. None of them had ever seen anything like this occur in the courtroom before. It actually left the court rather perplexed about what the next steps in the case would be. There was no precedent for what to do when a convicted felon commits suicide in the courtroom.