MARYVILLE POLICE DEPARTMENT

Steve Parsons, 48, took a fatal cyanide pill just moments after he was sentenced to spend up to seven years in jail for having sex with a 14-year-old girl.

A Missouri man found guilty of sodomizing a 14-year-old girl horrifically killed himself in court by allegedly taking a cyanide pill only moments after the verdict was reached.

Authorities say Steve Parsons, 48, collapsed and started convulsing on the floor before shocked friends, family and witnesses after allegedly swallowing the poison in a Maryville courtroom, Thursday.

Parsons, found guilty of two felony counts, had been sentenced to a maximum of seven years behind bars after his brave young victim took the stand testifying against him in a bid to make matters right.

“I can’t speculate on what he was going through but I am firmly convinced that his death was not a result of a wrongful verdict by the jury,” Gentry County Prosecutor Jerry Biggs told FOX4KC.

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Michael Marin, ex-Wall Street banker, similarly poisoned himself in June, 2012 after being convicted of deliberately burning down his $3.5 million Arizona mansion.

Biggs expressed himself as “quite surprised and disappointed and unhappy and sorry. Sorry for the victim. Sorry for her family.”

The station reports that Parsons, owner of Parson’s Tire and Service in St. Joseph was well known through both Maryville and nearby Stanberry.

He was arrested in July, 201, in Gentry County but a change of venue moved his trial to Nodaway County.

Immediately after his shocking death Nodaway County Sheriff Darren White discovered his overnighted purchase of 100 grams of cyanide from an online store last week.

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Marin was horrifyingly filmed swollowing the pill in court before falling over and convulsing from the poison.

White believes he entered the courthouse with the poison already slipped inside his mouth to escape detection from the building’s security.

Parsons’ extremely shocking suicide was undoubtedly surprising to all, however not quite unique.

Almost exactly one year ago a multi-millionaire businessman famously took his own life the same terrifying way — and the gruesome act was entirely caught on camera, making national headlines.

That man, Michael Marin, 53, was pronounced dead only minutes after convicted of deliberatively burning down his $3.5 million Phoenix, Ariz., mansion, in June, 2012.

A final autopsy report on Parsons is expected later this week.