Ed Buck, a wealthy political donor and former male model, has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for injecting two men with lethal doses of methamphetamine, and nearly doing the same with several others.
The first of Buck's victims, 26-year-old Gemmel Moore, was found dead in Buck's Los Angeles apartment on July 27, 2017. Just over a year later a second victim, 55-year-old Timothy Dean, died in a similar fashion. In September 2019 Buck was arrested for their deaths, and several other near misses, and in late July 2021 he was found guilty on nine felony counts.
"Today is bittersweet," LaTisha Nixon, Moore's mother, said after the verdict in a quote used by NPR. "We got victory today."
Related: Alleged Portland protest shooter identified and charged with murder
Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.
"Buck's lack of remorse is aptly captured in one image: As he was hiding out in a hotel, evading arrest for Gemmel Moore's death, he was injecting Dane Brown, another young Black man, with back-to-back slams of methamphetamine," Assistant U.S. Attorney Chelsea Norell said.
"All I can think about is how my son died naked on a mattress with no love around him," Moore's mother, LaTisha Nixon, said in a letter to the court. "No one to hold his hand or tell him good things."
Buck, 67-years-old at the time of sentencing, is said to have acquired his wealth by "selling an Arizona company he rescued from bankruptcy," according to the CBS News report. In addition to aiding in a 1987 campaign that led to Arizona Gov. Evan Mecham getting kicked out of office, Buck was a heavy and frequent donator to LGBTQ and animal rights causes.
Read more:
