Democratic political donor Ed Buck was convicted Tuesday of nine charges related to the deaths of two Black men who died in his Los Angeles apartment.
The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California found Buck guilty on all felony counts, which included two counts of distribution of controlled substances resulting in death. Each of these changes comes with a minimum sentence of 20 years in prison and a maximum of life without parole, although an exact sentence has yet to be handed down.
As multiple news outlets have reported, Buck has a well-documented pattern of picking up financially vulnerable Black men and injecting them with methamphetamine, and many overdosed as a result. The guilty verdict came on the four-year anniversary of the first death to take place in Buck’s West Hollywood home: 26-year-old Gemmel Moore, who was picked up by Buck in 2017. The second death, of 55-year-old Timothy Dean, occurred in 2019.
“Finally, Ed Buck will never harm anyone else, and I thank god for that,” said Dean’s sister, Joyce Jackson, in a press conference held on the Los Angeles courthouse steps after the guilty verdict was handed down.
In comments to members of the media, former advocates and family members of both deceased men described the trial as grueling and said the defense shamed victims who took the stand. “I thank everybody who has helped keep us strong throughout the three weeks we have been here,” a tearful Jackson said in comments reported by the local news outlet KTLA.
In a Tuesday press release, the U.S. District Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said that Buck “exerted power and control over his victims.” Many of the young men he targeted were struggling with addiction and lacked housing at the time of their interactions with Buck.
“He exploited the wealth and power balance between them,” the release continued.
In their filing, prosecutors claim that Buck drugged and assaulted at least 10 men, who he found through social media and gay dating sites, sometimes using a recruiter to scout and proposition them. He then engaged in what the Department of Justice (DOJ) called a “pattern of ‘party and play,’” picking up men and injecting them with methamphetamine in a process known as “slamming.”
If his victims were not interested in using drugs, Buck would refuse to pay them.
Accusations of this behavior had been directed at Buck for years and began to pick up steam after Moore’s death. Jasmyne Cannick, a local Black political strategist, became a vocal advocate for Buck’s victims and their families after a local journalist investigating the case connected her with Moore’s mother. Cannick had previously published a diary of Moore’s online in which he described in detail the abuse to which he had been subjected by Buck, according to the New York Times.
The fact that Buck was a Democratic donor subsequently drew the attention of right-wing media figures like Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson, who helped make the story national news.
Cannick celebrated long overdue justice on Tuesday. “The lives of Black gay men matter, and the lives of Black gay people matter, and the lives of Black people matter — no matter if they’re homeless, addicts, survival sex workers, or escorts,” she told reporters at the press conference. “Their lives matter.”
Moore’s mother, LaTisha Nixon, described feeling a sense of “relief” at the verdict. “This is what we wanted from the beginning,” she told KTLA. “He can’t hurt anybody else. That’s all we wanted.”
The District Judge has yet to schedule his sentencing.
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