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Man Accused of Mailing Cyanide Pleads Not Guilty

BANGOR, Maine - A Maine man has pleaded not guilty to federal charges that he mailed a poisonous chemical to an Englishman who used it to kill himself.

The Portland Press Herald reports that Sidney Kilmartin, of Windham, entered his plea Wednesday. Authorities say Kilmartin mailed potassium cyanide to Andrew Denton of Hull, England, who died in 2012.

Kilmartin faces the possibility of life in prison. A Hull newspaper report from 2013 says Denton ordered cyanide on the Internet to kill himself.

It is unclear how Kilmartin allegedly obtained the potassium cyanide or whether he knew what Denton planned to do with it.

An attorney for Kilmartin said in court that he would like to return to court to amend the plea to not guilty by reason of insanity.