Man In Poison Case Kills Self In Jail

A man arrested on a biological weapons charge for having a lethal extract of the castor bean plant committed suicide Saturday in his jail cell.

Thomas Lewis Lavy hanged himself sometime overnight, said his attorney, Sam Heuer, who did not give any details. He was pronounced dead at 7 a.m. at University Hospital.

“This man never had any intentions of harming a soul,” Heuer said. “He was a very peaceful, law-abiding citizen.”

Lavy was arrested Wednesday at his farm in northern Arkansas. He had been indicted in Alaska on a federal charge of possession of a toxic substance, ricin, with intent to use it as a weapon.

The FBI lists ricin as third in toxicity behind only plutonium and the botulism toxin. It has no known antidote.

U.S. Attorney Paula Casey confirmed the death Saturday, but said it was under investigation and she could not give details.

Prosecutors didn’t buy Lavy’s claim that he was trying to carry some of the poison from Alaska into Canada because he wanted to bring it to Arkansas to use it to kill coyotes that threatened chickens on his farm.