Using scissors that he somehow got past metal detectors, a 41-year-old American convicted of growing marijuana killed himself at his sentencing hearing in a Taiwan courtroom, the Taipei Times reported Friday.
“I don’t want to live anymore,” Tyrel Martin Marhanka reportedly declared after a judge pronounced his four-year prison sentence. Marhanka then “took out two metal objects, and with one in each hand stabbed himself on both sides of the neck, severing the arteries.”
“Court officials said Marhanka had smuggled in a pair of 21cm scissors, which he had separated into two sharp metal blades,” the Taipei Times said.
“An initial investigation found a magazine that he seemed to have used to conceal the scissors,” The New York Times reported. “A metal detector apparently did not uncover the scissors when he entered the building. The court said that the building did not have enough space for a more advanced scanner but that it would install X-ray machines in a new building.”
Marhanka was quickly given medical attention and rushed to a hospital, where he reportedly died about a half hour after arriving.
• Ken Shepherd can be reached at kshepherd@washingtontimes.com.
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