BANGOR, Maine — The trial of a South Windham man accused of mailing potassium cyanide to a man in England who used it to commit suicide will be held in May after a federal judge refused last week to dismiss the indictment.
In response to that decision, Sidney P. Kilmartin, 52, through his attorney, filed a notice that he will mount an insanity defense.
Kilmartin’s attorney, James Billings of Augusta, unsuccessfully argued that the intent of the U.S. Congress when it passed the statute Kilmartin is accused of violating was to outlaw letter bombs and packages, not to prevent the mailing of items individuals might use to take their own lives.
U.S. District Judge John Woodcock rejected that argument.
“By insisting that the statute really means that, if poison, the contents of the mailed letter must — like anthrax — be capable of committing injury or death with the mere opening of the mail, [defense attorney James Billings] is reading language into this statute that simply is not there,” Woodcock wrote in his 18-page decision, dated Wednesday. “The essence of the statute is to criminalize depositing something that the Postal Service has prohibited in the mail with the intent to kill or injure someone else.”
The U.S. Postal Service has not allowed the mailing of poison for 100 years, Assistant U.S. Attorney Halsey Frank, who is prosecuting the case, wrote in opposing the motion to dismiss.
“An ordinary person would have fair notice that sending poison — not just once, but twice, as is alleged in this case — to a suicidal person who uses the poison to kill himself, is forbidden by law,” the judge concluded.
Woodcock also said that the prosecution will have the burden of proving not only that Kilmartin mailed the cyanide to Andrew Denton, but also that Kilmartin’s intent was to harm or kill the Englishman.
Jury selection in the trial is set for May 5. The trial has not been scheduled.
Kilmartin, who has a history of mental illness, pleaded not guilty Nov. 5, to one count each of mailing injurious articles and mailing injurious articles that resulted in death. He is being held without bail at the Somerset County Jail.
According to the indictment, Kilmartin caused the death of Denton of Hull, England, when he mailed cyanide to him once in November 2012 and again the following month.
Denton’s death was ruled a suicide, according to court document. Denton’s 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 cyanide found in his system in an autopsy, the motion said. Denton suffered from depression and had made previous suicide attempts.
Kilmartin was in the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services after being found not criminally responsible in 2009 in state court, when he allegedly mail cyanide to Benton, according to court documents.
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.