The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s office recently ruled the cause and manner of death of Edward Leclair, a Frisco man who died immediately after he was found guilty of five counts of sexual assault of a child in a Denton County courtroom.
Leclair, 57, was arrested in 2018 after allegedly having a sexual relationship with a teenage girl, according to the Denton Record Chronicle. His trial began in August in the Denton County Courts building, and on Aug. 11, the jury returned a verdict of guilty on all five counts.
“As the judge was reading each verdict, he (Leclair) had a water bottle in front of him and he began to chug that entire bottle,” said Jamie Beck, first assistant district attorney for Denton County.
The water in the clear bottle — which Leclair brought for himself — appeared cloudy or murky to some in the court, Beck said.
As is customary, the judge asked the jury to leave the courtroom and had Leclair taken into custody so that the judge could speak to the attorneys about when to start the sentencing process, Beck said. Sentencing could have begun that afternoon, so Leclair was placed in a holding cell just outside the courtroom.
A county investigator who noticed Leclair chug the water bottle then asked the bailiff to check on him. The bailiff found Leclair unresponsive in the cell, Beck said, and paramedics rushed him to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
About six months later, the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s office has officially ruled that Leclair died by suicide, from a toxic amount of sodium nitrite. The final report has not been finished, so no other information could be released Monday, according to a medical examiner’s office spokesperson.
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