On August 11, 2022, a Texas courtroom was aghast when, while hearing a guilty verdict being read, the defendant killed himself with poison. They later learned how he did it. 

Edward Leclair, 57, gulped down the cloudy contents of a water bottle while the guilty verdict was being read in the courtroom. He was brought to a holding cell where he started vomiting and lost consciousness. Leclair was brought to the hospital where he was declared dead. 

The jury was made aware of the outcome of their decision soon after. 

According to lab reports, the bottle contained sodium nitrite which led to the man’s death. 

The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office Leclair’s death a suicide. 

Security footage showed Leclair purchasing the bottle of water at around 7 a.m. Prosecutors believe that he added the chemicals while the jury was deliberating. It is not clear where he got the chemicals, but “suicide-kits” are available on Amazon. They were sued for that in October 2022. 

Leclair was on trial and facing 100 years in prison for five counts of sexual assault on a minor. The crimes occurred from 2016 to 2018 while the rape victim was 13 to 17 years old. 

His lawyer, Mike Howard, said that Leclair timed his suicide, since he would not be able to drink the poison after the verdict was read since he would be in the sheriff’s custody.  

Records show that sodium nitrite is well known for self-poisoning. A child actor Matthew Mindler, who died at 19, and an actress Lindsey Pearlman, who died at 43, used the chemical to end their lives. 

Two teenagers who committed suicide in October 2022 were said to have bought “suicide kits” containing sodium nitrite from Amazon. 

The parents of Kristine Jonsson, 16, of Ohio and Ethan McCarthy, 17, of West Virginia say Amazon was complicit in the deaths of their children by selling them sodium nitrite, a food preservative that is fatal in high doses.