"Poison" Liquid Drunk By Man On Trial Identified As Water
FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) – There was chaos in a Broward County courtroom Thursday morning when a man found guilty of armed trespassing and reckless display of a weapon drank a mysterious liquid from a medicine bottle, said it was poison, and collapsed to the floor.
Late Thursday, BSO said the "poison" was identified as water.
Marin Stroia, 60, was found guilty in a case in which he brought a gun into the courthouse and threatened to kill himself.
When the verdict was read Thursday morning, Stroia drank an unknown liquid from an aspirin bottle.
He told deputies it was poison. Just as he was about to be fingerprinted, he collapsed to the floor like a limp rag doll.
The 7th floor of the Broward Courthouse was cleared as Stroia was taken out of the courtroom on a stretcher.
Just like his first entrance in 2011, his exit more than a year later will likely be remembered for a long time.
It was January 14th, 2011 when he walked into the courthouse through an exit door with a gun which exposed a huge security problem.
Armed with a pistol he sunk to the floor, turned the gun on himself and pushed the barrel to his chin. Broward County Court Judge Joel Lazarus convinced Stroia to put the gun down and sheriff's deputies took him into custody. Lazarus said Stroia was angry and frustrated over a child support case and just needed a sympathetic ear in which to vent.
After the incident, security was beefed up at the courthouse. An armed guard was stationed next to the exit doors to stop anyone from entering and new cones were positioned to keep people on the outside away from them.
Stroia was taken to Broward General Medical Center. He has since been discharged from the hospital and is back in jail.
