A judge today ruled prosecutors could not reinstate murder or manslaughter charges against a defendant accused of letting a man die in his bathtub and then mutilating his body in order to bury it in his Long Beach yard.
The ruling means Scott Leo, 55, will likely go to trial this month facing only charges of maintaining a drug house as well as providing methamphetamine and the party drug GHB to 31-year-old Zach Kennedy, who authorities say died of an overdose in Leo’s bathtub in 2017.
“The fact that the defendant didn’t call 911 when Mr. Kennedy lost consciousness—and subsequently defiled his body—shocked the conscience, but my role is to apply the law, not to be an arbiter of morality,” Long Beach Superior Court Judge Daniel Lowenthal said during a hearing Friday.
Lowenthal’s decision comes after years of wrangling over whether Leo could be held legally responsible for Kennedy’s death.
Kennedy, who’d moved to Long Beach from a small Pennsylvania town, disappeared in October 2017 after going to Leo’s house for a drug-fueled party, according to witness testimony.
After friends, family and police spent months searching for Kennedy, police unearthed his body in Leo’s yard. His feet had been cut off and his body had been wrapped tightly in plastic in an apparent attempt to avoid cadaver-sniffing dogs, according to police.
During previous hearings, prosecutors have shown text messages from Leo that they say prove he knew Kennedy was overdosing but decided against calling for help out of concern that he’d get in trouble with police. Leo’s attorney has conceded that point, saying his client was panicked and made a bad decision, but that doesn’t make him a killer.
In December, Long Beach Superior Court Judge James Otto ruled there wasn’t enough evidence to charge Leo with murder or manslaugther. It was the second time a judge had thrown out murder charges in the case.
Prosecutors were seeking a way around Otto’s ruling Friday, but Lowenthal denied their motion, saying he could not overrule the findings that Kennedy died from a voluntary overdose and Leo did not have any special duty to care for him as a parent of a child or doctor with a patient would.
The murder charge could have carried a sentence of 15 years to life in state prison. According to the prosecution, the current charges carry a maximum of only about six years.
Lowenthal told Deputy District Attorney Simone Shay and defense attorney Matthew Kaestner that he expects the trial could begin on or shortly after Feb. 16.
Leo remains free on $100,000 bail.
For years, a father pressed for justice; now the lurid details of his son’s death are a trial issue