BANGOR, Maine — A South Windham man pleaded not guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court to charges in connection with the poisoning death of a man in England.
Sidney P. Kilmartin, 52, was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury on one count each of mailing injurious articles and mailing injurious articles that resulted in death.
He was arrested Wednesday morning. The circumstances surrounding his arrest were not made public.
U.S. Magistrate Judge John Nivison ordered that Kilmartin be held without bail until a detention hearing can be held Nov. 14.
The U.S. attorney’s office asked that he be held without bail at the Somerset County Jail.
Kilmartin currently is in the custody of the Commissioner of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services following a ruling on Sept. 9, 2009, in Cumberland County Superior Court that he was not criminally responsible for crimes he committed, according to the Maine State Bureau of Identification. Kilmartin was charged with one count each of elevated aggravated assault, a Class A crime, and burglary, a Class B crime, and two counts of violating conditions of release, a Class E crime.
Information about the Oct. 16, 2007, incident that led to Kilmartin being charged was not available late Wednesday.
Kilmartin was living in the community and not confined at Riverview Psychiatric Hospital in Augusta.
Silverstein said that he was not sure if Kilmartin would be returned to Riverview by state authorities or not.
The defense attorney told the judge Wednesday that at a later date, Kilmartin might change his pleas to not guilty by reason of insanity.
According to the indictment, Kilmartin caused the death of Andrew Denton of Hull, England, when he mailed potassium cyanide to him once in November 2012 and again the following month.
Denton’s death was ruled a suicide, according to the Hull (England) Daily Mail. His body was found on Dec. 31, 2012, at his home by a relative.
In 2013, police launched an investigation into how Denton, 49, obtained the potassium cyanide found in his system in an autopsy, the paper reported.
Denton suffered from depression and had made previous suicide attempts, the paper reported.
Silverstein said that he had not received discovery in the case but had learned in a short conversation with the federal prosecution that Kilmartin and Denton may have communicated over the Internet. The defense attorney also said that Kilmartin might have order the poison over the Internet.
If convicted, Kilmartin faces up to life in federal prison. The U.S. attorney’s office in Maine is not seeking the death penalty, according to court documents.