2-26-2011 Missouri:MARYLAND HEIGHTS • A man committed suicide after barricading himself in a bedroom of his Maryland Heights home Friday during a home visit by federal court officials, police said.
An attorney identified the dead man as a child pornography offender who was about to be sentenced.
Maryland Heights police said while federal court officers were in the home in the 11000 block of Galaxy Court about 1 p.m., the man became nervous and fled from the basement to a top-floor bedroom. Police said the federal officials then heard what sounded like a gunshot.
The federal court officers called Maryland Heights police, who found the man dead in the bedroom.
Police did not identify the man, but St. Louis attorney Bill Margulis said he was Matthew Kerns, whom Margulis had been representing in a federal child pornography case.
Kerns, 44, pleaded guilty in December to two counts of receiving child pornography. Under a plea agreement, two counts of possessing child pornography were dropped. He was scheduled to be sentenced on March 9.
A sentencing memo submitted in federal court Friday for Kerns said he would probably serve 63 to 78 months in prison.
Margulis said the two had met earlier Friday in Kerns' office to discuss the case and go over the sentencing memo. Three hours later, he received a call that his client was dead.
"I didn't get any indication that this was coming today," Margulis said. "When I met with him, everything was fine." ..Source.. by Marlon A Walker
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