A Long Beach, Calif., man was convicted on drug charges filed in connection to the death of Zachary Kennedy, a Butler native whose body was found buried in the defendant’s backyard in 2018.

A Los Angeles Superior Court jury found Scott Leo, 55, guilty of furnishing GHB, furnishing methamphetamine and maintaining a drug house, according to Kennedy’s father, Jeff Kennedy, and published reports.

Jeff Kennedy said he traveled from his home in Florida for the trial that lasted two weeks, and plans to return with family members for the March 30 sentencing.

He said he is disappointed that prosecutors didn’t charge Leo with killing his 31-year-old son, but he was pleased with the outcome of the trial.

“Just to see him getting handcuffed and pulled out of court was a blessing,” Kennedy said.

“Very stressful” is how he described the trial, which ended Feb. 1 with the jury verdict. “I heard the good and the bad. I knew my son was gay and had a drug problem.”

Kennedy was last seen at Leo’s home in October 2017. Detectives in May 2018 went to Leo's home with a search warrant to excavate the property, where human remains were dug up. The Los Angeles County Coroner's Office later identified the remains as those of Zachary Kennedy.

His body had been wrapped in plastic and placed in a large storage container. The container was covered by cement before being buried.

“Oct. 22, 2017 was the last day my son was seen alive,” Kennedy said.

According to published reports, a witness told police that Zachary Kennedy and Leo engaged in sexual activities that night.

Leo sent a text to another man saying Kennedy was overdosing on the so-called “date-rape drug” GHB, according to published reports.

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 Kennedy later “popped up like nothing happened,” according reports. Investigators said nobody saw Kennedy after that night, according to reports.

Leo lured drug-addicted younger men to his home to use drugs so he could use them for sex, Deputy District attorney Simone Shay said, according to a published report. She described Leo’s basement as a dungeon where police found sexual apparatuses and drugs, according to a report.

In her closing argument, Simone said Leo cut off Kennedy’s feet probably to fit his body in the plastic bin, according to a report.

Leo’s attorney Matthew Kaestner argued to the jury that prosecutors relied on partial text messages from Leo obtained from an online backup and an eye witness account of two drug parties to argue that drug parties occurred regularly at his home, according to a report. Police were not able to access his phone or test the drugs they claim Leo provided on specific dates in 2017 and 2018, according to a report.