ALBANY, Ga.—A 10-year-old boy sickened by peanut butter and relatives of women who died asked a federal judge Monday to impose a stiff punishment on a former peanut executive whose food was blamed for poisoning them and hundreds of others.
Former Peanut Corporation of America owner Stewart Parnell listened from his courtroom seat as nine victims testified about the terror and grief caused by peanut butter traced to the company’s plant in southwest Georgia more than six years ago. Parnell and two co-defendants were convicted a year ago in the first criminal trial of U.S. producers in a food poisoning case.
“You took my mom,” Jeff Almer said to Parnell during his testimony, saying his 72-year-old mother was battling back from cancer when she died in December 2008 after eating peanut butter from Parnell’s plant. “You kicked her right off the cliff.”
Young Jacob Hurley was just 3 when he was stricken by salmonella from peanut butter crackers that left him vomiting and rushing to the toilet for nearly two weeks.
