Read it all here.

Moments after attorney Michael Marin was pronounced guilty of arson in Maricopa County Superior Court on Thursday, the one-time high roller went into convulsions and collapsed.

By the time paramedics got him to the hospital, he was dead.

Investigators suspect he poisoned himself rather than face a possible 15 3/4 years in prison. Video of the sentencing shot by a television pool photographer appears to show Marin putting something in his mouth in the seconds after the verdict was read.

[…]

“Michael Marin couldn’t pay his mortgage, so he burned down his house,” Deputy Maricopa County Attorney Chris Rapp said in opening statements of the trial on May 21.

Rapp laid bare Marin’s dire financial straits. In the year before the fire, his bank account shrank from $900,000 to just $50. He had a monthly mortgage of $17,250 on the mansion with a balloon payment of $2.3million coming due. In addition, Marin paid another $2,500 per month on a more modest home in Gilbert — where Rapp said he actually lived — and had an overdue tax bill of more than $34,000.

[…]

Couldn’t face bankruptcy, so he commits arson. Couldn’t face jail, so he commits suicide. So sad for his family.