A Long Beach, Calif., man was sentenced to serve six years and eight months in state prison on drug charges filed in connection with the 2017 death of Zachary Kennedy, a former Butler resident whose body was found buried in the defendant’s backyard.

Scott Leo, 55, was sentenced Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court after he pleaded guilty earlier this month to felony charges of furnishing GHB, furnishing methamphetamine and maintaining a drug house, according to published reports.

Leo initially was charged with murder and later an involuntary manslaughter charge for the death of Kennedy, 31, but those charges were dismissed by a judge.

Zachary Kennedy, a former Butler man, went missing in October 2017. Scott Leo was sentenced to serve six years and eight months in state prison on drug charges filed in connection with his death in Long Beach, Calif.

Zachary’s father Jeff Kennedy, who traveled to California for the sentencing along with Zachary’s sister and mother, said he wishes Leo would have faced the murder charge, but is glad for the sentence he was given.

“Other than the murder charge, were very happy with what he got. A predator is of the street. We can’t get Zachary back, but we got the best we could get,” Kennedy said Thursday.

He said Zachary’s partner also attended the sentencing with his mother.

Zachary was last seen Oct. 22, 2017, at a party at Leo’s house, according to published reports.

Police found his body in a plastic bin buried in Leo’s yard while executing a search warrant in May 2018. His feet were severed.

Judge Daniel Lowenthal gave Leo the maximum sentence for the charges he faced. The judge called Leo’s residence a house of horrors and "’The Silence of the Lambs’ of Long Beach,” according to published reports.

Leo lured young, vulnerable men to his home with a promise of drugs in exchange for sex, Lowenthal said. Leo failed to call 911 when Zachary overdosed, “only thinking for himself,” he said, according to published reports.

Leo continued to have parties at his “drug house,” feet away from Zachary’s buried body, Lowenthal said. His actions showed a “fundamental breakdown of human decency,” the judge said.

Matthew Kaestner, Leo’s attorney, said he disagreed with the maximum sentence because his client wasn’t convicted of Kennedy’s death or the disposal of his body. Kaestner also argued that there was no evidence that Leo supplied Zachary with the drugs that led to his death, according to published reports.

On the day Zachary was last seen alive, Leo sent a text to another man saying Zachary was overdosing on GHB, referred to as the “date-rape drug,” according to published reports from the trial.

In one text, Leo allegedly sent a photo of the victim with his face resting against the side of a bathtub, possibly unconscious or already dead, according to reports.

The defendant texted that he couldn't find a pulse for a while, but that Zachary later “popped up like nothing happened,” according reports.

Kennedy, who also attended Leo’s two-week trial that ended Feb. 1 with a jury verdict, said Kaestner filed an appeal of the sentence.

He said he, his ex-wife and daughter, and Zachary’s partner read victim impact statements before the sentence was imposed.

The group gathered with some of Zachary’s friends after Wednesday’s sentencing and celebrated the outcome.

Kennedy, who lives in Florida, said he was glad he got to meet all the detectives who worked on the case. He said the detectives kept him up-to-date on developments throughout the five-year investigation.

“The detectives were all there. It was nice to put a face to name. I talked to them for five years,” he said.