An American man fatally stabbed himself in the throat with a pair of scissors in a Taiwanese courtroom Thursday after being sentenced to four years in prison for drug possession.
Tyrel Martin Marhanka, 41, yelled, “I don’t want to live anymore,” before plunging the blades into both sides of his neck, the Taipei Times reported.
He died at a nearby hospital about 30 minutes after severing his arteries with the scissors, which he had separated into two 8-inch blades.
Marhanka, who worked in the country as an English teacher, was arrested in last year in April after Changhua County police found more than 200 marijuana plants, 195 dried cannabis plants and 10 opium poppies at a home he was renting.
He told the officers that he grew the plants as a “hobby.”
Authorities said Marhanka, a U.S. citizen who used to live in Illinois, had moved to the country more than 15 years ago and had a Taiwanese wife and two young children.
After receiving the sentence, Marhanka was told he could appeal but he said he did not want to, the Taipei Times reported.
He died with a four-inch gash on the left side of his neck and a two-inch cut on the right side.
Marhanka smuggled the scissors past a metal detecting gate by hiding them in a magazine underneath his arm, officials said.
The courthouse said it has installed two X-ray scanners to strengthen security after the incident.
With News Wire Services.
