According to reports, Ed Buck, 67, was sentenced last week by U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder less than a year after he was found guilty of nine felony counts that involved the overdose deaths of the two men.
"This defendant preyed upon vulnerable victims – men who were drug-dependent and often without homes – to feed an obsession that led to death and misery," said U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Tracy Wilkison in a statement.
"Mr. Buck continues to pose a clear danger to society, as evidenced by him continuing to lure men to his apartment, even after he killed two men with lethal methamphetamine injections. The sentence imposed today will protect other potential victims and hopefully will bring some solace to the families of two men who needlessly died in Mr. Buck's apartment," Wilkison added.
The Epoch Times reported further: "According to court papers, Buck for years through 2019 engaged in what authorities called a pattern of “party and play,” which saw the businessman solicit men, some of whom were homeless and struggling with drug addiction, to consume drugs he provided and engage in sexual activities at his apartment in Los Angeles. In some cases, Buck injected victims with drugs."
The Los Angeles Times reported that Buck was found guilty of "maintaining a drug den, distribution of methamphetamine and enticement to cross state lines to engage in prostitution."
The Daily Wire reported: "Buck had been exchanging drugs for sexual favors, which led to the overdose deaths of two black men in his West Hollywood, California, apartment." NBC News reported that prosecutors sought a life sentence for Buck, noting that he preyed on the vulnerable to fulfill his sexual fetish.
"U.S. District Judge Christina A. Snyder said Thursday in downtown Los Angeles that the sentencing decision was difficult because she had to balance the good Buck did in his life with ‘horrific crimes’ that she called 'more than just an accident,'" NBC added.
During Buck's trial, prosecutors argued to Snyder that the defendant "is a proven recidivist" who "remained undeterred after his reckless actions resulted in a first death, a second death and a third overdose requiring hospitalization.
"Life imprisonment is the only way to ensure the community's safety from Buck's criminal conduct," they said.
LaTisha Nixon, the mother of Gemmel Moore, a man who was found dead in Buck's home, told the court in a letter that she was devastated by her son's death and called for giving Buck the longest sentence allowed by law.
But attorneys for Buck argued that he had a "highly traumatic and difficult childhood and adolescence" that involved sexual abuse by his father and church clergy members, while he spent the majority of his life "dedicated to political and charitable causes" before he became drug-addicted, which they said vastly contributed to his crime.
"Thus, the court should impose a below-guidelines sentence to give Mr. Buck the opportunity to rehabilitate and obtain treatment for the underlying issues which led to his involvement in the instant case, and to eventually reintegrate into society rather than receiving a sentence that effectively amounts to him dying in prison," his lawyers argued.
Buck donated a lot of money to Democrats over the years. Since the mid-2000s, for instance, he gave more than a half-a-million dollars to various political candidates and causes, nearly all of them belonging or linked to the Democratic Party. The Times noted that 40 politicians holding office now in California, ranging from Los Angeles City Hall to Congress, have received money from Buck.
Some Democrats gave back their donations or donated them to charity after learning of the allegations against Buck, but not Obama or Clinton.
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