BANGOR, Maine — A South Windham man who faces federal charges in connection with the cyanide poisoning death of a man in England was denied bail Monday in U.S. District Court.
Sidney P. Kilmartin, 52, was indicted by a federal grand jury in November on one count each of mailing injurious articles and mailing injurious articles that resulted in death. He entered a not guilty plea last month to the charges against him.
“There is no combination of conditions that will assure Mr. Kilmartin will arrive at trial … or provide safety of the community,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Halsey B. Frank said after giving U.S. Magistrate Judge John Nivison a rundown of the state’s evidence against Kilmartin.
Frank said investigators followed a paper- and computer-based trail linking Kilmartin to the death of Andrew Denton of Hull, England. The two met on an Internet blog used by suicidal people, and Kilmartin mailed Denton two packages of potassium cyanide, a white, granular poison, once in November 2012 and again the following month, Frank said.
“Our investigation has revealed that Mr. Kilmartin was able to acquire 100 grams of potassium cyanide in September 2012 … and we can only account for about 20 of those grams of cyanide,” the prosecutor said.
Denton’s death was ruled a suicide, according to the Hull (England) Daily Mail. Denton’s body was found 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. That investigation led to Kilmartin.
“We can trace him getting it, advertising it for sale and making it available to others on the Internet, and we tracked it to Mr. Denton,” Frank said.
Kilmartin’s attorney Jim Billings said he wanted Kilmartin to be released on bail to Riverview Psychiatric Hospital in Augusta, which is where he was sent after he was deemed not criminally responsible for crimes he committed in 2007, including the aggravated assault of an elderly man. Kilmartin was deemed not criminally responsible for the 2007 crimes on Sept. 9, 2009 and remains in the custody of the Commissioner of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, who allowed him to be slowly released into the community over the years.
“He’s not going to be out on the street. … He’s going to be housed in a secure facility,” Billings said.
Billings said Riverview, which sent two representatives to the bail hearing, notified him Friday that they were not interested in Kilmartin’s return.
“The news that Riverview was not looking to have him come back was a bit of a surprise,” Billings said.
Nivison granted the prosecutor’s motion to detain Kilmartin until his trial, saying Billings had not answered his questions about how Kilmartin would be securely detained at Riverside, how he would be restricted from using the Internet and phone and how the move would benefit his client.
“The unaccounted [for] cyanide and seriousness of this [means] the level of dangerousness for anybody in the community is extremely high,” Nivison said.
Kilmartin is being held at Somerset County Jail. If convicted, he faces up to life in federal prison because the U.S. attorney’s office in Maine is not seeking the death penalty.
BDN writer Judy Harrison contributed to this report.