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M. Arnold, 19; Q&A; Website’s Self-Styled Expert

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Times Staff Writer

Marcus Arnold, who created an Internet sensation when at age 15 he became the resident legal expert on askme.com, has died. He was 19.

Arnold, who lived with his parents in Perris, Calif., died May 1 at a hospital in Sun City. His mother, Priscilla Arnold, confirmed her son’s death in a recent interview with The Times. She said he had been taken to the hospital April 30 and died the next day.

The Riverside County coroner’s office gave the cause of death as “diabetic ketoacidosis due to new onset diabetes mellitus.”

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Arnold’s death was first publicly disclosed in The Times in late December by Opinion section columnist Michael Lewis, who included Arnold’s story in his 2001 book, “Next: The Future Just Happened.” An article based on the book also appeared in the New York Times Magazine.

Lewis, who had received word of Arnold’s death in an e-mail from Arnold’s identical twin, Marc, said this week that he thought that Arnold’s death was overlooked because “other than his brief flurry of glory,” Arnold was an obscure figure.

“He did create a sensation on the Internet,” Lewis said. “It’s kind of amazing what he did.”

Arnold, whom his mother described as “my big teddy bear,” at 6 foot 1 and 300 pounds, had started answering questions on askme.com when, while doing biology homework, he noticed a legal question he could answer. Other opportunities followed.

Soon, he had signed himself up as an expert, claiming to be 25 and giving himself the handle LawGuy1975.

Askme.com rated experts by the number of questions they answered, the speed at which answers were given and the quality of the advice. Several months after Arnold launched himself on the site, he was ranked 10 out of 150 or so experts.

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Once that happened, Lewis related, Arnold wanted to do even better, so he began calling himself “a law expert with two years of formal training in the law” and gave himself a new name: Justin Anthony Wyrick Jr., which he thought had a more authoritative ring. Over two weeks, “Wyrick” received and answered more than 900 questions, Lewis said. Soon he was the site’s No. 3 rated expert in criminal law, answering questions like, “Can a parole officer prevent a parolee from marrying?”

“In a few weeks, Arnold had created a new identity for himself: legal wizard,” Lewis wrote. “Why grown-up people with grown-up problems took him seriously was the great mystery Arnold didn’t much dwell on -- except to admit it had nothing to do with his legal training,” which, of course, was nonexistent.

When people began asking for his phone number and fee structure, Arnold decided to tell the truth. He changed his profile on askme.com to read: “15-year-old intern attorney expert.” This confession unleashed a barrage of criticism from some quarters. But others came to his defense, and within two weeks, he was ranked the No. 1 legal expert on the site.

“The legal advice he gave to a thousand or so people along the way might not have withstood the scrutiny of the finest legal minds,” Lewis wrote. But, he said, a lot of what lawyers do is to give out simple information, “and this Arnold did well.” His mother said that her son answered questions for a couple of years.

Lewis originally interviewed Arnold in his small brick house in Perris, where he had commandeered the family’s only computer in an alcove between the dining room and living room. Arnold continually checked the askme.com site as they talked.

“He had an outsized sense of himself,” Lewis said. “He was not a completely reliable character. I remember how hellish it was to figure out what was true and was not true.”

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After Lewis wrote about Arnold, the youth’s story was optioned by a Hollywood production company, although nothing apparently came of it. Bellevue, Wash.-based AskMe Corp., which operated askme.com, closed its free expert-advice website in late 2002.

At the time of his death, Arnold was a student at the University of Redlands, which he had entered as a sophomore after graduating from Perris High School with college credits. His mother said he planned to study law.

One of his teachers at Perris High, Bob Ellingsen, said Wednesday that Arnold “was a delightful student to have, he paid attention. I could see the wheels turning.”

“He was the kind of kid, whatever I said in class, he would challenge me,” Ellingsen said. “He had a mind like a lawyer. He was very articulate, very smart.... He had a mind like a sponge.”

Priscilla Arnold said that she and her husband had moved from Belize to Los Angeles in the 1970s and for a time lived in the neighborhood at West 23rd Street and South Normandie Avenue. They moved to Perris, which is 70 miles southeast of Los Angeles, after the Arnolds’ older son, Melvin, was shot to death by a neighbor at a family barbecue.

Police said at the time that the shooting was not gang-related. Priscilla Arnold and her sister also were injured in the fray. The man held responsible for the shooting is now in jail. Part of Marcus Arnold’s motivation to be a lawyer, the family said, stemmed from the shooting.

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Besides his mother and twin brother, Marc, Arnold is survived by his father, Melvin, and two sisters, Tammy and Nallini.

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