MAN DIES IN COURT AFTER BEING SENTENCED TO 16 YEARS IN PRISON

53 year old Michael Marin was an Ex Wall street trader until he was found culpable in a fire incidence. He was found guilty in a Phoenix-area courtroom Thursday of setting his mansion on fire in a ploy to escape his mortgage debt...in a twist of fate he appeared to put something into his mouth, suffered a seizure and died.


Police are now investigating whether he purposefully killed himself. Shortly after the jury read its verdict and sentenced him to 16 years in prison, Marin appeared to place something in his mouth several times and drink from a bottle he brought with him into the courtroom. Minutes later, he suffered from a seizure and died. Police can't yet confirm whether Marin’s death was a suicide.

In 2009, Michael Marin’s mansion in a ritzy Phoenix neighborhood caught fire, Marin claimed he had to escape from the house wearing a scuba tank and mask to protect himself from the smoke, but investigators found evidence that he set the fire himself.

He'd been living an extravagant lifestyle that reportedly included owning Picasso sketches and $800 climbing boots, Marin’s financial situation grew dire the year before the fire. 

The Arizona Republic claimed his bank account balance fell to only $50 from $900,000 even while he had a monthly mortgage payment of more than $17,000.

With suicides becoming a common recurrence among small-business owners and entrepreneurs coping with financial crisis in countries like Greece and Italy, according to... The phenomenon has become so widespread that some European newspapers are calling it “suicide by economic crisis.”

Whatever the police eventually comes out with this might not be the last of suicides if people's finances does not determine the kind of lifestyles they live.