California man convicted in scheme to buy and sell body parts donated to UCLA medical school

Man convicted in scheme to buy, sell body parts

LOS ANGELES — A man has been convicted in a lucrative scheme to buy and sell human body parts donated to a University of California medical school.

A jury found Ernest Nelson of Rancho Cucamonga guilty of conspiracy to commit grand theft, grand theft by embezzlement and tax evasion.

It deadlocked on two special enhancement allegations that could have added prison time.

Prosecutors say the 51-year-old Nelson and Henry Reid, the former director of the Willed Body Program at the University of California, Los Angeles, devised the $1.5 million scam in 1999.

Reid has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit grand theft and was sentenced to more than four years in prison.