Gemmel Moore, 26, and Timothy Dean, both Black men, reportedly suffered a fatal meth overdose in Ed Buck’s apartment, leading to the political party donor being arrested in September 2019. After facing nine federal counts, KTLA reported that Buck was found guilty of them all this past Tuesday, including two counts of distribution of methamphetamine resulting in death and four counts of distribution of methamphetamine.
Moore reportedly died in 2017, while Dean, 55, later died in 2019.
According to the United States Department of Justice, Buck had a history of soliciting men for sex and providing them with drugs, stating in a recent press release, “According to evidence presented at his nine-day trial, beginning no later than 2011 and continuing through September 2019, Buck engaged in a pattern of “party and play,” or soliciting men to consume narcotics that he provided and perform sexual activities at his apartment,”
New: Ed Buck, a longtime fixture of West Hollywood politics, was convicted Tuesday of charges that he supplied the methamphetamine that killed two men during “party-and-play” encounters at his apartment.
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) July 27, 2021
“Buck exerted power and control over his victims, typically targeting individuals who were destitute, homeless or struggling with drug addiction. He exploited the wealth and power balance between them by offering his victims money to use drugs and to let Buck inject them with narcotics, the release continued, adding that the 66-year-old “prepared syringes containing methamphetamine, sometimes personally injecting the victims with or without their consent. Buck also injected victims with more narcotics than they expected and sometimes injected victims while they were unconscious.”
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Speaking on whether she is satisfied with this week’s guilty verdict, Moore’s mother LaTisha Nixon told KTLA, “Four years ago, I got the worst news that I ever could’ve imagined. But today, four years later, I got the best news that I ever could’ve imagined,” adding, “This is what we wanted from the beginning. So he can’t hurt anybody else.”
No word yet on when Buck will be sentenced, however, according to KTLA, he could be facing life in prison over the convicted crimes.
