ALBANY, Ga., Sept. 21 (UPI) -- A former executive of a peanut company responsible for a deadly salmonella outbreak in 2008 and 2009 was sentenced Monday to serve nearly 30 years in federal prison -- the harshest punishment ever handed down in a foodborne illness case.
Stewart Parnell, the former owner of Peanut Corporation of America, was convicted last year of knowingly shipping tainted peanut butter and faking the results of lab tests intended to detect salmonella.
Two others were prosecuted along with Parnell in the first criminal trial of food producers linked to a deadly outbreak. Parnell's brother, Michael, 56, was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Former quality control manager Mary Wilkerson, 41, received a five-year term.
Before the 28-year sentence was read Monday, relatives of the nine people who died during the outbreak in 2008 and 2009 spoke in court to express their losses.
"It should be enough to send a message to the other manufacturers that this is not going to be tolerated anymore and they had better inspect their food," said Randy Napier, whose 80-year-old mother died after eating peanut butter that originated in a PCA plant in Georgia.
Parnell's defense attorney slammed Monday's punishment, saying it amounts to a life sentence for his 61-year-old client.
Prosecutor Michael Moore, though, said the sentence is "a landmark with implications that will resonate not just in the food industry but in corporate boardrooms across the country."
The judge in the case also rejected bond for Parnell and ordered he be remanded into custody.
Nine people died and hundreds of others were sickened in the outbreak tied to PCA's Georgia plant.
