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SALT LAKE CITY — A federal judge sentenced a Bountiful exterminator to three years probation Friday for misusing a pesticide at a home that caused the death of two young girls.
Coleman Nocks, 64, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to one misdemeanor count of unlawful use of a registered pesticide. He admitted to applying Fumitoxin pellets into a burrow system within 15 feet of Nathan and Brenda Toone's home in Layton. The application was inconsistent with product's labeling and exceeded the required dosage. The poison was aimed at voles, a species of small rodents.
Prosecutors had recommended Nocks spend six months in a halfway house and six months on home confinement. But Judge Dee Benson opted for the probation and 100 hours of community service.
Five of the six members of the Toone family became ill after Nocks, who worked for Bugman Pest and Lawn Inc., spread the poison outside their house in February 2010, and 4-year-old Rebecca Kay Toone and 15-month-old Rachel Ana Toone died.
"I can't even imagine how a family begins to deal with such a terrible thing," Benson said.
Benson also barred Bugman Pest and Lawn from doing pest control for three years and fined the company $3,000.
Read the family's statement here.
Email:dromboy@ksl.com
