HOWELL, Mich. (WXYZ) — The former owner of the New England Compounding Center in Massachusetts appeared in a Michigan courtroom Friday where he was sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison for the deaths of 11 people in Livingston County.
"He forced me into being a widow," said Penny Laperriere, whose husband Lyn died from one of the mold-tainted shots that came from Barry Cadden's compounding center.
Cadden remained quiet during his sentencing Friday with terms previously agreed upon by Cadden, his attorney and prosecutors from the Michigan Attorney General's Office in exchange for Cadden pleading no contest to 11 counts of involuntary manslaughter earlier this year.
Watch the full sentencing hearing:
It was a plea deal Penny Laperriere welcomed. Her husband died at 61, a short time after receiving the tainted injection in 2012.
"This has been going on too long. I need it to stop," she said.
But Gene Keyes was not on board with the plea deal for Cadden whose tainted injections sparked a fungal meningitis outbreak across the country, resulting in an estimated 64 deaths and permanent injury to others.
"What do you say to someone who killed your mother? I see a body without a soul," Keyes said, referring to Cadden.
Investigators have said Cadden put profits over lives when he disregarded basic safety rules and practices.
Cadden has been in federal prison since 2017 when he began serving a 14.5 year sentence for federal crimes including fraud.
His sentence of 10 to 15 years in prison for the Livingston County deaths will be served at the same time. Cadden is also being given credit for the time he's already been in federal prison, where he will now serve both sentences concurrently.
"This is hard because Mother's Day is two days away," said Keyes, who compared Cadden's sentence to that of the Oxford High School shooter who received life in prison for the killing of four students.
"The Oxford School shooter got life for shooting four victims with a gun. Barry Cadden used a needle and killed 77 people," Keyes told the court. "I feel like there's no justice. It's been 12 years since this nightmare began and every day I'm frustrated, angry, disgusted, sad and disappointed."
Cadden declined to say anything to the court or the relatives of those killed. Some speculate it's because he fears possible prosecution from other jurisdictions across the country where others also died as a result of his tainted injections.
