A Windham man with a history of mental illness plans to use an insanity defense in his trial on federal charges that he mailed a poisonous chemical to a man in England who used it to kill himself.

An attorney for Sidney P. Kilmartin, 52, filed a notice in U.S. District Court in Bangor late Friday afternoon announcing the planned defense for his trial, now scheduled for jury selection on May 5.

Kilmartin has pleaded not guilty to charges of mailing cyanide and mailing cyanide resulting in the death of Andrew Denton, a depressed 49-year-old man in Hull, England, who was found dead on Dec. 31, 2012.

Kilmartin is not required to change his plea, but federal court rules require that he alert the court of his intention so all sides can prepare, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Donald Clark, whose office is prosecuting the case.

Kilmartin’s attorney, James Billings, could not be reached for comment.

If convicted, Kilmartin will face up to life in prison. Though the more serious of the two charges can carry a death penalty, prosecutors are not seeking it. He has remained in federal custody since his arrest Nov. 5.

Kilmartin, who had previously been committed to the Riverview Psychiatric Center in Augusta, is accused of sending two batches of cyanide to Denton in 2012.

The first, sent on Nov. 16, failed to kill Denton. The second batch, which investigators say Kilmartin sent by U.S. mail on Dec. 11, worked.

Denton and Kilmartin connected through comments that Kilmartin posted in an advertisement on a suicide blog offering potassium cyanide as “a painless and quick way to commit suicide” to anyone who could pay $250 a gram, according to court records.

Although Kilmartin has a history of mental illness, he obtained the cyanide by posing as a jeweler to persuade a California distributor to ship him 100 grams of the industrial-grade chemical for just $127.56, U.S. Postal Inspector Michael Desrosiers wrote in an affidavit in support of a search warrant.

Desrosiers’ affidavit outlines how authorities on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean found the connection between the two men through email exchanges, including one in which Kilmartin advised Denton to take the cyanide on an empty stomach to ensure its lethal effect.

Denton was found dead with 17 milligrams of cyanide per liter in his blood – more than three times the lethal dose of 5 milligrams per liter, according to Humberside police in England.

Denton had spent years struggling with depression and had tried to kill himself several times before taking the fatal dose of cyanide, according to an article last year in the Hull Daily Mail.

Potassium cyanide is a highly toxic, colorless salt, similar in appearance to sugar, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Used commercially for fumigation, electroplating and extracting gold and silver from ores, it is usually shipped as capsules, tablets or pellets.

It releases highly toxic hydrogen cyanide gas, which interferes with the body’s ability to use oxygen. Swallowing the chemical causes nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and irritation and corrosion of the lining of the esophagus and stomach. Ingestion can quickly result in death.

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