Ed Buck, a wealthy, gay, white California political donor, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for injecting two men with lethal doses of methamphetamine, reports to the Associated Press. Buck, 67, told neighbors that a series of young Black men leaving his Hollywood apartment were social work clients. They actually were victims of a deadly fetish. Even after two men died at his apartment, he continued administering massive dosages of meth to victims. "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 federal prosecutor Tracy Wilkison. “Mr. Buck continues to pose a clear danger to society.”
Buck was convicted of distributing drugs that killed Gemmel Moore in 2017 and Timothy Dean in 2019. He escaped arrest for more than two years. Buck apologized during the trial. His defense team argued that his philanthropic work and the abuse he suffered as a child ought to play a role in reducing the sentence. Moore's mother, LaTisha Nixon, sought the maximum prison sentence for Buck. “All I can think about is how my son died naked on a mattress with no love around him,” she said. “No one to hold his hand or tell him good things.”