Tainted food company owner convicted

• The government accused Stewart Parnell of knowingly marketing tainted food


• He and his brother were found guilty Friday on federal conspiracy charges


• A deadly salmonella outbreak was traced to peanut butter made by Parnell's company


• Parnell's indictment became a landmark case in food safety in America

(CNN) -- A jury in Georgia convicted a former peanut company owner Friday of conspiracy, fraud and other federal charges in a groundbreaking case stemming from a deadly salmonella outbreak almost six years ago.

The guilty verdict marks the first federal felony conviction for a company executive in a food safety case.

Prosecutor Michael Moore said he hopes the trial will send a strong message to the food industry that its officials are now on notice that they'll be held accountable for foodborne illnesses.

Jeff Almer breaks down after testifying before Congress about his mother Shirley, who died in late 2008 after eating salmonella-laced peanut butter with her toast. Almer became an advocate for stronger food safety regulations.

U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Oregon, holds up a jar of peanut products while questioning Stewart Parnell, owner and president of the Peanut Corp. of America, at a salmonella hearing in 2009. Parnell stands accused of deliberately shipping tainted food from his plant in Georgia.

Lab tests found salmonella in a 5-pound container of King Nut peanut butter at a Minnesota nursing home. It was manufactured at Peanut Corp. of America.

Peanut Corp. of America owner Stewart Parnell, right, and former plant manager Samuel Lightsey testify before Congress about the 2008-2009 salmonella outbreak linked to their company. They were both indicted later on criminal charges that resulted in a groundbreaking trial.

Stewart Parnell exercised his Fifth Amendment rights and refused to answer lawmakers' questions about Peanut Corp. More than five years later, he is on trial with his brother and a former employee.

Peanut butter trial

The jury's verdict came after a seven-week trial for Stewart Parnell and his brother and food broker, Michael Parnell, both charged with 76 federal counts linked to intentionally shipping out salmonella-laced peanut products.

Michael Parnell was also found guilty on multiple counts. A third defendant, former plant quality control manager Mary Wilkerson, was convicted on one count of obstruction of justice.

Is your chicken safe to eat?

Each year one out of every six Americans is sickened by a foodborne illness, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Here are some of the biggest foodborne illness outbreaks since 2001. Click here for tips on how to keep your food safe.

In 2013, Foster Farms chicken infected 634 people in 29 states with a multidrug-resistant strain of Salmonella, according to the CDC. Of the 634 cases, 38% involved hospitalization.

A salad mix and fresh cilantro from Mexico ended up infecting 631 people with the parasite Cyclospora cayetanensis in summer 2013. The parasite triggers watery diarrhea, nausea, bloating and cramping.

A hepatitis A outbreak was attributed to Townsend Farms Organic Antioxidant Blend frozen berries in September 2013. A total of 162 cases were reported, and 71 people were hospitalized, according to the CDC. Severe hepatitis cases can cause liver damage. The blend's pomegranate seeds came from a company in Turkey, which was the source of contamination.

Cantaloupes tainted with salmonella infected more than 260 people across 24 states in October 2012. Three people in Kentucky died and 94 were hospitalized. Investigators determined Chamberlain Farms Produce Inc. of Owensville, Indiana, was the source of this outbreak.

Salmonella in a frozen raw yellowfin tuna product, known as Nakaochi Scrape, sickened 425 people and hospitalized 55 in the spring and summer of 2012. The product was used most often to make "spicy tuna" sushi, according to the CDC.

Twenty-two cases were reported of a Listeria monocytogenes infection from the Frescolina Marte brand of ricotta salata cheese in 2012, but 90% of those people were hospitalized, and four people died, according to the CDC.

In September 2011, listeria in cantaloupes left 30 people dead in what was the deadliest U.S. outbreak of a food borne illness since the CDC started keeping track of listeria cases in 1973, according to the agency.

Between February and August 2011, the Cargill Meat Solutions Corp. recalled more than 36 million pounds of ground turkey after tests revealed a strain of salmonella. The outbreak killed one person and sickened more than 130.

In summer 2010, more than 1,900 people were reportedly sickened by salmonella found in eggs produced by Iowa's Hillandale Farms, which voluntarily recalled about a half-billion eggs nationwide.

Authorities shut down a processing plant in Texas in October 2010 after four deaths were tied to listeria-infected celery produced at the site. The Texas Department of State Health Services ordered SanGar Fresh Cut Produce to recall all products shipped from its San Antonio plant.

Between April and August 2008, 1,442 people in 43 states were infected with salmonella from Mexico-grown jalapeño and serrano peppers. At least 300 people were hospitalized, and the infection may have contributed to two deaths, according to the CDC. Walmart stores in four states recalled jars of serrano peppers as a result.

Nine people died from salmonella-infected peanut butter between September 2008 and April 2009. The Peanut Corp. of America had sold the tainted peanut butter in bulk to King Nut, which recalled its products. More than 700 people were infected and 166 hospitalized.

In the summer of 2006, more than 200 people became infected with E. coli from spinach grown on a single California field. Investigators traced the prepackaged spinach back to Natural Selection Foods and baby spinach sold under the Dole brand name. Five deaths were linked to the outbreak.

During 2005 and 2006, four large outbreaks of salmonella infections hit 21 states in the United States. Tainted tomatoes being served in restaurants were found to be the cause. Investigators linked the produce to fields in Florida, Ohio and Virginia.

Pre-sliced Roma tomatoes purchased at deli counters in Sheetz gas stations infected more than 400 people in the summer of 2004. Two other smaller outbreaks in the United States and Canada also occurred that summer and were linked back to a tomato-packing house in Florida.

Listeria-infected sliced turkey killed eight and infected 46 others in 2002. Three pregnant women had fetal deaths. Two processing plants recalled 30 million pounds of meat following the outbreak.

In 2001, cantaloupe was again the culprit. Salmonella tainted the fruit that killed two, hospitalized nine and infected 50 in an outbreak that started in Mexico.

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Photos: Worst food-borne illness outbreaks

The Parnell brothers, Moore said, "could easily spend the rest of their lives in prison."

Both men were taken into custody pending sentencing. Bond was set at $150,000 for Stewart Parnell and $100,000 for his brother, Moore said. A sentencing date has not been set.

Stewart Parnell's lawyer, Thomas Bondurant, said he will appeal the verdict.

"We think it was the wrong decision and we will continue to fight on behalf of Stewart Parnell," he said.

Jeff Almer, whose mother, Shirley Almer, died after she ate peanut butter that came from Parnell's processing plant, Peanut Corp. of America, said he felt relief as the clerk began to read the verdict. He had prepared to hear the worst -- that the Parnells would be acquitted. Instead, he heard the word "guilty" over and over again.

"It was validation," said Almer, who traveled from Minnesota to Georgia for the trial. "It was emotional."

After about the 14th "guilty," the words began to fade and Almer thought of his mother, who died four days before Christmas in 2008.

"I don't think these people are devils," he said, "but they let greed take over their morals."

Food safety lawyers also applauded the jury's decision.

"If anybody deserved it, he did," Minnesota-based trial lawyer Fred Pritzker said of Stewart Parnell.

"I am not at all surprised he was found guilty given the evidence against him," said Pritzker, who represented some of the victims of the outbreak.

Federal prosecutors presented more than 1,000 documents and called 45 witnesses to the stand to make their case that Parnell, his brother and Wilkerson cut corners on safety in order to make a bigger profit for Peanut Corp. They were accused of covering up lab results that tested positive for salmonella in their peanut products.

The prosecution's blistering opening statement contained three now-infamous words Stewart Parnell penned in a March 2007 email to a plant manager about tainted products: "Just ship it."

Defense statements and witnesses, which took all of 104 minutes, portrayed Parnell as a small business owner who was scapegoated by the government.

At one point, the jury was shown a photograph of peanut butter made at Peanut Corp. sitting on Parnell's dining table at home. Defense attorneys said Parnell would not have had the peanut butter in his own home had he known it to be compromised.

The trial opened August 1 in Albany, Georgia, less than an hour's drive from the Peanut Corp. plant in the small town of Blakely, raided and shuttered in 2009 by federal food inspectors.

The 2008-2009 salmonella outbreak killed nine people, sickened at least 714 others nationwide and resulted in a huge food recall that cast a pall over one of America's favorite foods: peanut butter.

Food safety advocates said the trial was groundbreaking because it's so rare corporate executives are held accountable in court for bacteria in food.

Never before had a jury heard a criminal case in which a corporate chief faced federal felony charges for knowingly shipping out food containing salmonella.

Pritzker praised public health officials whose sleuth work eventually traced the outbreak's origins back to the Peanut Corp. plant in Blakely.

"I don't view (Parnell's) conduct as any different than poisoning people or drunk driving," Pritzker said. "My strong suspicion is that this happens much more often than is known."

However, Parnell and his co-defendants were not on trial for poisoning people or causing any deaths stemming from the outbreak, and prosecutors did not mention the deaths to the jury.

Bill Marler, a Seattle food safety lawyer who also represented several victims of the outbreak, said the government would have had the added burden of proving the deaths were linked to Parnell had they mentioned them. Those facts were not necessary, Marler said, to prove the charges at hand.

Marler said he hopes Friday's verdict will send a message to corporations that they cannot get away with this kind of behavior.

The prosecution was unprecedented, Marler said, because the Department of Justice charged the Parnell brothers with felonies. Prior cases involved misdemeanors.

"Prosecutors took a risk and fortunately, the jury believed them," Marler said. "The jury saw this for what it was. The emails and documents told a story of a company that was more interested in shipping out products than products that were safe."

Salmonella is America's most common cause of foodborne illness and sickens up to 1.4 million people every year.

Former employees of Peanut Corp. described filthy conditions at the Georgia plant. Federal inspectors found roaches, rats, mold, dirt, accumulated grease and bird droppings during their raid. They also found a leaky roof.

Salmonella is often associated with meat, poultry, eggs and raw milk -- products from animals that are carriers of the bacteria. It also thrives in the intestines of birds and can be found in fruits and vegetables and in ingredients made from them.

The presence of water in what is supposed to be a dry processing facility for peanuts is like adding gasoline to fire for salmonella, food safety experts say.

Health officials discovered similar poor conditions at Peanut Corp.'s other processing plant in Plainview, Texas. The company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy shortly after it was shut down.

Two former plant managers worked out deals with the government in exchange for their testimonies against Parnell.

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