Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Man dies immediately after he was found guilty in Denton County, Texas Rangers investigating

The Texas Rangers are investigating the in-custody death of a Frisco man who died minutes after he was found guilty of five counts of sexual assault of a child in a Denton County courtroom, according to the Denton County Sheriff’s Office.

Edward Leclair’s mugshot courtesy of the Frisco Police Department

Edward 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 last week in the Denton County Courts building, and on Thursday afternoon 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. His cause of death has not been determined, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s office website on Monday afternoon.

“We’ve had shootings, heart attacks, fake illnesses and more happen at the courthouse, but never this exact scenario,” Beck said.

It’s not clear what the court will do next, Beck said. The judge and attorneys are researching what the court should do, legally, to wrap up the case.

“The judge’s inclination is to declare a mistrial, and normally we can prosecute again, but we obviously can’t in this case so we would dismiss the charges,” Beck said. “But that’s somewhat unfair to the victim, who may not feel like this is justice. It could be that absolutely nothing happens.”

Mark Smith
Mark Smith
Mark Smith is the Digital Editor of The Cross Timbers Gazette.

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