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Three participants died and 19 others were taken to hospitals after a sweat lodge session at a self-help retreat outside Sedona, Arizona, on Oct. 8, 2009, with the third death coming nine days later.

Yavapai County authorities said the group entered a 415-square-foot structure at the Angel Valley Retreat Center at about 3 p.m. Roughly two hours later, a woman at the property called 911 to report that two people had no pulse and were not breathing. "They're both unconscious, no pulse, they're not breathing," she told the dispatcher, adding, "There's a lot of people here." Deputies and Verde Valley firefighters found participants being pulled from the lodge with burns, dehydration, respiratory arrest, kidney failure and dangerously elevated body temperatures. Investigators ruled out carbon monoxide poisoning early on.

Kirby Brown, 38, of Westtown, New York, and James Shore, 40, of Milwaukee, died that evening. Lizbeth Marie Neuman, 49, of Prior Lake, Minnesota, was in critical condition for a week and died on Oct. 17.

The retreat was a five-day "Spiritual Warrior" event run by self-help author James Arthur Ray, who had rented the property. Participants paid up to $10,000 to attend, and between 55 and 65 people took part in the ceremony after fasting for 36 hours during a vision quest exercise. Property owner Amayra Hamilton said Ray had held the annual event there for seven years without a death.

Melinda Martin, a former employee of Ray's company, testified at his trial that she performed CPR on Brown outside the lodge and that Ray neither halted the ceremony nor helped afterward. Then-Sheriff Steve Waugh said Ray refused to speak with detectives and left Arizona.

Ray was arrested on Feb. 3, 2010, and indicted on three counts of manslaughter, with bond set at $5 million. On June 22, 2011, a Yavapai County jury acquitted him of the manslaughter counts and convicted him of three counts of negligent homicide, one for each death.

Judge Warren R. Darrow sentenced Ray on Nov. 18, 2011, to three two-year prison terms to be served concurrently. Prosecutors had sought consecutive three-year terms; Ray and his lawyers asked for probation. Darrow said the evidence showed "extreme negligence on the part of Mr. Ray" and that "a prison sentence is just mandated in this case." Virginia Brown, Kirby Brown's mother, told the court, "My heart's been ripped out. My life has been blown apart, and the pieces are yet to land."