A Texas paedophile died this week after drinking a mysterious liquid from a water bottle as a jury found him guilty of child sexual assault, officials said.
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.
He had been facing five counts of child sexual assault against one victim, which took place in 2016 according to Denton County Jail.
LeClair had been waiting to hear the verdict at the 16th District Court in Denton, Texas, alongside his attorney.
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.
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.’
Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office is set to undertake an autopsy to find LeClair’s cause of death.
Texas rangers are also investigating the incident, and have taken the bottle into evidence.