Prescott, Arizona -- A charismatic self-help author who led an Arizona sweat lodge ceremony that turned deadly will serve two years in prison.
James Arthur Ray was sentenced Friday to three, two-year sentences in the deaths, to run concurrently. Yavapai County Superior Court Judge Warren Darrow also ordered him to pay more than $57,000 in restitution.
"I see and I find that the aggravating circumstance of emotional harm is so strong and such that probation is simply unwarranted in this case," Darrow said.
Defense attorney Luis Li said an appeal was likely. "We just hope the process of healing can begin and the victims' families can find some peace," he said.
Ray had faced anything from probation to nine years in prison after being convicted on a trio of negligent homicide counts. Authorities originally charged Ray with manslaughter, but jurors rejected arguments that he was reckless in his handling of the October 2009 ceremony.
Prosecutors urged Darrow to hand down the maximum sentence to keep Ray off the self-help circuit and from harming others. Ray's attorneys said probation was best for a man who showed remorse, lacked prior criminal history and is the sole caretaker for ailing parents.
Ray's motivational mantra drew dozens of people to a retreat nestled in the scrub forest near Sedona with a promise that the sweat lodge ceremony typically used by American Indians to cleanse the body would help them break through whatever was holding them back in life. It was the culminating event of his five-day "Spiritual Warrior" seminar.
Participants began showing signs of distress about half way through the two-hour ceremony. By the time it was over, some were vomiting, struggling to breathe and lying lifeless on the ground. Two people — Kirby Brown, 38, of Westtown, N.Y., and James Shore, 40, of Milwaukee — were pronounced dead. Liz Neuman, 49, of Prior Lake, Minn., slipped into a coma and never regained consciousness. She died more than a week later at a Flagstaff hospital.
The trial was a mix of lengthy witness testimony and legal wrangling that lasted four months. Witnesses painted conflicting pictures of Ray, with some describing him as a coach who encouraged participants to do their best to endure the heat but never forced them to remain in the sweat lodge. Others said they learned through breathing exercises, a 36-hour fast, and a game in which Ray portrayed God that they dare not question him and lost the physical and mental ability to care for themselves or others.
Prosecutors contended that Ray ratcheted up the heat to dangerous levels, ignored pleas for help and watched as participants were dragged out of the sweat lodge. Ray's attorneys suggested that toxins or poisons contributed to the deaths, but jurors said that theory was not credible.
Ray's attorneys made at least nine requests for a retrial or mistrial based on what they say were errors by the prosecution. While Darrow ruled that prosecutors broke disclosure rules, he rejected each of the defense requests. The case is bound for appeal.
