Peanut salmonella trial in Albany goes to closing arguments

ALBANY — Closing arguments are set to begin at 8 a.m. Thursday in the trial of three people in the salmonella tainted peanut butter case involving the now defunct Peanut Corporation of America that resulted in nine deaths nationally and hundreds of illnesses.

By this afternoon, all evidence had been presented in the trial in U.S. District Court in Albany. The defendants are Stewart Parnell, former owner of Peanut Corporation of America; Mary Wilkerson, a former PCA employee, and Parnell’s brother, Michael Parnell.

Only Michael Parnell’s defense team mounted a brief defense against the case presented by government prosecutors.

The trial, which began Aug. 2, stems from the government’s contention that over a period of years, unsanitary conditions at PCA’s peanut plant in Blakely culminated in a 2009 outbreak of the food-borne pathogen salmonella, which caused the deaths of nine people and sickness of hundreds more.

In the 2013 indictment by the U.S. Department of Justice, the Parnell brothers, along with Samuel Lightsey and Daniel Kilgore, both former PCA production managers, were charged with mail fraud and wire fraud, the introduction of adulterated and misbranded food into interstate commerce with the intent to defraud or mislead and conspiracy.

Stewart Parnell was also charged with obstruction of justice, as was Wilkerson.

Kilgore and Lightsey previously pleaded guilty to the charges against them.

Attorneys for Stewart Parnell and Mary Wilkerson elected Wednesday to rest their cases. Edward Tolley, attorney for Michael Parnell, called two witnesses to the stand, including Michael Parnell’s wife, Jean, who had been president of PP Sales, a company established by the couple to facilitate the brokering of peanut sales.

In his opening statement to the jury, Tolley said that one of his objectives was to “put a face” on Michael Parnell. Tolley said that he intended to show that Michael Parnell was a buyer of peanuts rather than a broker, and that he had neither owned nor directed any part of PCA. He said Michael Parnell never received a paycheck from the company.

Tolley maintained that Michael Parnell and his company, PP Sales, had no business dealings with PCA until 2007, years after the beginning of alleged violations at PCA.