PHOENIX — As the word “guilty” filled the silence of a Phoenix courtroom, defendant Michael Marin closed his eyes, put his head in his hands and appeared to put something in his mouth. He then took a swig from a sports bottle.
Minutes later, the 53-year-old Marin was dead.
Now investigators are trying to confirm their suspicion that Marin popped a poison pill after the jury found him guilty of arson, a bizarre ending to a case that began in 2009 when he emerged from his burning mansion in scuba gear.
Prosecutors said he torched his home when he couldn’t keep up with the payments. Marin, an attorney and father of four, faced seven to 21 years in prison.
“This is one of the strangest cases I’ve seen in a long time,” said Jeff Sprong, a spokesman with the Maricopa County sheriff’s office. “We’re hoping to find out exactly what he was thinking and exactly what he took.”
Detectives will get the liquid from the sports drink tested for poisons. An autopsy was being conducted Friday to determine if any poison was in Marin’s system, but results weren’t expected to be released for months.
Marin’s four grown children, who live in Arizona, did not return requests for comment, nor did his attorney, Andrew Clemency, or prosecutor Chris Rapp.
Marin, a former Wall Street trader, had summited Everest and wrote on his Facebook page that he had scaled six of the world’s seven tallest mountains. He also was an art collector who had original Picassos.
House votes to boost subsidy for flights to rural areas
WASHINGTON — The House Friday passed a transportation and housing spending bill that would boost funding by 11 percent for a government program that subsidizes air travel to rural areas, an initiative long criticized by budget watchdogs as rife with waste.
Lawmakers voted 261-163 to pass the fiscal 2013 appropriations measure, H.R. 5972. The bill would provide $214 million for the Essential Air Service, which pays carriers to continue flights to more than 100 small communities, such as Dodge City, Kan., and Huron, S.D.
Critics say the flights often are little-used and can cost taxpayers hundreds of dollars per passenger. The program “lavishly subsidizes some of the least essential air services in the country,” said Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif.
On Tuesday, McClintock offered an amendment to cut $114 million from the program. His proposal divided his Republican colleagues, with some saying their constituents depend on the service, and the House rejected it, 164-238.
Militants kill 10 in attack in eastern Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan — Suicide bombers blew themselves up at the gate of a government compound in eastern Afghanistan before dawn Friday, opening the way for armed insurgents to storm the facility and touching off an hours-long gunbattle that left 10 people dead, officials said.
The 17 militants attacked the compound in Nuristan province’s Kamdesh district around 3 a.m., said provincial Gov. Tamim Nuristani. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but it matched the pattern of Taliban assaults that typically target Afghan government installations or the U.S.-led international military coalition.
The remote district along the Pakistani border was the site of one of the deadliest attacks on American forces in the Afghan war. In October 2009, hundreds of insurgents stormed the base with rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and guns. When the fighting was over, about 150 insurgents were dead but so were eight Americans and three Afghan soldiers.
The U.S. later withdrew from Nuristan province, saying that it was not strategically important to have soldiers stationed there and that it could be covered with troops based in nearby provinces.