See also: Burning Man: An Attorney Says He Escaped His Blazing Home Using Scuba Gear; Now He's Charged with Arson
See also: Michael Marin, "Burning Man," May Have Committed Suicide in the Courtroom
Michael Marin probably popped a cyanide pill after a jury handed down a guilty verdict against him in his arson case, according to Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
Marin collapsed in the courtroom a few minutes after he was declared guilty of burning down his Biltmore Estates mansion, and was later pronounced dead at a hospital.
Arpaio says Marin ordered a canister of sodium cyanide off the Internet in 2011, before the trial, and had it sent by Fed-Ex straight to his doorstep.
After Marin died, his son found an email his father had sent him, saying to check his car -- which he had left in Mesa -- if things didn't go his way in court.
Marin's family got this information over to MCSO, and investigators found the clearly labeled canister of cyanide in his car.
An autopsy's still pending on Marin, but Arpaio says "all indications point to suicide."
Detectives didn't actually open the cyanide canister, Arpaio says, but they said it felt heavy, like it was filled with powder.
MCSO suspects he put some of the powder in a capsule, brought it to court, and swallowed it after the guilty verdict came in.
Meanwhile, Arpaio pointed out that Marin bought the canister from a website called chemical-supermarket.com for the price of $68.64.
He noted the "irony" of it being on sale today for $34.32.
