A federal judge has sentenced a wealthy California Democrat donor to 30 years in prison for injecting two men with lethal doses of drugs.
Prosecutors on Thursday asked for a life sentence for Ed Buck, 67, but his defense attorneys sought a decade behind bars, saying he was sexually abused as a child and health problems led to his drug addiction.
Federal prosecutors said Buck had an unrelenting fervor to satisfy a fetish by preying on vulnerable men, often young and Black.
The 67-year-old Buck — who contributed to Democratic, LGBTQ and animal welfare causes causes — was convicted last summer in the deaths of Gemmel Moore and Timothy Dean.
Buck told the judge on Thursday that he had loved the men and said he wished he could turn back time but insisted he was not responsible.
“Their deaths were tragic but I did not cause their deaths," Buck said.
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