The cloudy liquid cocktail a sex offender in a Texas court drank after a jury found him guilty of sexually assaulting a child was ‘sodium nitrate,’ it has been revealed.
Edward LeClair, 57, started drinking the liquid after the jury found him guilty on the first count, and continued glugging as the other counts were read on August 11, 2022.
He died soon after.
Sodium nitrite is a salt-like substance that is yellowish-white, and odorless. The substance is often used to preserve foods such as, meat and some fish.
The oxidizing agent, more often kills people accidentally, by causing low blood pressure and limits the flow of oxygen in the body, which can result in death, experts say.
Edward LeClair, 57, died after chugging a ‘cloudy’ liquid from a bottle as he was found guilty of five counts of child sexual assault
LeClair had been waiting to hear the verdict at the 16th District Court in Denton, Texas, alongside his attorney when he started glugging the water
The sale of sodium nitrite has been banned from the online marketplace eBay since 2019, but is available on Amazon.
Former child star Matthew Mindler died by ingesting a lethal dose of suicide nitrate, according to the actor’s mother, Monica, TMZ previously reported.
Monica told TMZ that her son searched online for information on the toxic compound as it pertained to suicide, and ending one’s life painlessly.
She said that her son was able to obtain sodium nitrate by purchasing it on Amazon, at just $15 in which she says was enough to kill 4 people.
She warns others the dangers and ‘hopes someone else’s life can be spared, ‘of folks know what warning signs to look for,’ she said.
The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s office told DailyMail.com on Tuesday that the manner in which LeClair died was suicide, although the toxicology report was still being completed.
LeClair had been facing five counts of child sexual assault against one victim, which took place in 2016 according to Denton County Jail.
He had been waiting to hear the verdict at the 16th District Court in Denton, Texas, alongside his attorney before he drank the poisonous potion. It is unclear how much sodium nitrate was ingested.
First Assistant Attorney Jamie Beck from the Denton County District Attorney’s Office said that initially the situation had been normal.
But when LeClair heard that he had been found guilty on the first count, he grabbed his bottle and ‘chugged’ the cloudy liquid down as he was found guilty on the other four counts.
Beck told WFAA: ‘The jury comes in and takes a seat, the defendant and his counsel stand.
‘The jury hands the verdict to the judge, which she then starts to read. It’s during this process that he had a bottle of water with him at the counsel table, and he chugged it.
‘It wasn’t like he was just taking sips of water. He was literally throwing it back, so to speak.’
Beck explained that while those in the courtroom felt his actions were odd, they thought it was just his way of dealing with the situation.
LeClair was taken back into a holding cell after the verdicts were read, before officers decided to check on him because of his strange behavior.
The water bottle that LeClair held the poisonous potion in was collected for evidence
He was found unconscious, with witnesses saying he had ‘gone gray’ and was rushed to Medical City Denton where he was pronounced dead.
Beck added: ‘Our investigator noticed him chug the water. He told the bailiff he might want to go check on him. The bailiff did.
‘He was unconscious in the holding cell. Shortly after entering the holdover cell, he started vomiting, and emergency services were called.’
Texas Rangers are also investigating the incident, and have taken the bottle into evidence.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk
