A man who had just been found guilty of voluntary manslaughter in the 2000 choking death of his wife killed himself in a courthouse holding room on Friday, the Roanoke Times reports. The 72-year-old Mark Ward Faville was awaiting sentencing after a week-long trial.

According to the Times, Judge Brett Geisler called for a short recess after the Montgomery County jury's verdict was read. Faville was lead out of the coutroom, after which a sheriff's deputy was heard to yell, "Drop it!"

"There was a lot commotion. Apparently he used something and killed himself,” Faville's defense attorney Jimmy Turk told WSLS. Faville was pronounced dead at the scene. The cause of death remains unclear, however; the Times reports that Faville did not die of a gunshot wound.

Faville was facing between a year and ten years in prison. From the Times:

The crux of the case hinged on two different autopsies by assistant chief medical examiners for Western Virginia: the initial report completed by Dr. William Massello, who has since left his Virginia job, and one done later by current medical examiner Dr. Amy Tharp.

Massello found that evidence showed Anne Faville died from choking on a piece of chicken. Tharp, who reviewed the autopsy evidence 12 years later upon law enforcement’s request, ruled that the evidence showed Faville was suffocated in a homicidal manner.

During the trial, one of Faville's daughters Holly read from a note her father wrote several weeks after his wife's death, WSLS reports. "After the toxicology report, they will have all they need," it read. "They will come to get me any minute."

Photo via Roanoke Times. Contact the author of this post: brendan.oconnor@gawker.com.