A 57-year-old man, Edward Peter Leclair, was charged with five counts of sexual assault against an underage girl.
He was in the court, waiting for the judge to read the verdict that the jury had just returned.
As the judge read the words that would change Leclair’s life forever, he grabbed a bottle of what appeared to be a murky colored liquid, and started to drink.
“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 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, where he was pronounced dead.
Leclair had pled non-guilty to the charges, but the odds were not in his favor.
Leclair’s crime took place in July of 2016. A girl had put a post on Craigslist, to which Leclair responded. He met with the girl, 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 her being underage, the man continued to contact her and they met three more times.
Everything started to unravel after Leclair’s girlfriend found out about the relationship. 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 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.
