Millionaire gets convicted of arson, commits suicide in courtroom

[Terminator X]

An Arizona millionaire who died minutes after he was convicted of arson appeared to have put something in his mouth while in the court room, sparking an investigation into whether the convicted arsonist had poisoned himself.

Michael Marin, 53, was convicted on Thursday of purposefully burning down his $2.55 million mansion in the tony Biltmore Estates neighborhood of Phoenix after he was unable to keep up with mortgage payments and a plan to raffle his house through a charity fundraiser failed. He faced up to 16 years in prison.

After the guilty verdict on one count of arson was read, a seemingly distraught Marin buried his face into his hands and appeared to place something in his mouth.

His face began to turn red. Minutes later, he took a sip of a liquid from a plastic sports bottle, turned to get a tissue, experienced convulsions and collapsed.

He was pronounced dead at the hospital, said Jeff Sprong, spokesperson for the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, which is investigating the death.

http://news.yahoo.com/arizona-businessman-convicted-arson-appears-commit-suicide-courtroom-152428080--abc-news-topstories.html

[Obs]

Good, I'm glad he's dead.

[Regicollis]

I guess this says something about the cruelty of the US American prison system...

[Tim Cornelis]

He'd rather die than sell his $2.5 million home...

[ВАЛТЕР]

I read it and thought: "meh...".

I really don't have much of a comment.

[Terminator X]

No big loss, maybe the douche should have bought a smaller house or sold one of his EIGHTEEN Picasso paintings.

[#FF0000]

haha

[Lynx]

Was he Old Money or New?

[Blanquist]

Why was he facing 16 years for burning his own house?

[Rusty Shackleford]

Why was he facing 16 years for burning his own house?
probably for big time insurance fraud.

[#FF0000]

Why was he facing 16 years for burning his own house?

even if you still own that shit it's illegal. A house fire is dangerous as hell almost everywhere.

[Os Cangaceiros]

Nice, he took out a rich doofus (himself) AND cheated the justice system! That guy's the man.

[Deicide]

Haha, burial.

[Jimmie Higgins]

He may have been a jackass, but I don't see anything to celebrate here.

Probably the most interesting thing from a class perspective on this case would be how the media portray rich people who do things out of desperation and how they report on working class and poor people when they are driven to extremes.

He's treated like a fuck-up but when some working class high school kid flips out - 20x worse if he's black or latino - then the media's all "it's hip-hop thug culture, heavy metal, kids are sociopaths, this thug would do anything for money, look at how they burn down what they have - that's why we shouldn't have welfare, they're always looking for the quick buck!"

Thought this part of the news report was ironic though:


was a diehard fanatic of the Burning Man festival.