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Ray was also ordered to pay restitution of $57,514.12 to the victims' families and a fine of $20,000, plus a surcharge.
Ray, who stood while the sentence was pronounced, did not flinch. Afterward authorities immediately took custody of Ray, who will serve his time with the Arizona Department of Corrections. His parents, Joyce and Gordon Ray, said they hoped to get a chance to meet with him briefly after the hearing. They declined to comment further.
A jury in June found Ray guilty on three counts of negligent homicide. He faced a maximum sentence of three years in jail on each count.
The dead were among 56 participants who paid nearly $10,000 each to take part in Ray's "Spiritual Warrior" retreat, and were crammed into a four-foot tall sweat lodge, packed with superheated rocks, at the ceremony.
Shore and Brown were pronounced dead at the scene, while Ms. Neuman died several days later at a hospital in Flagstaff, Arizona.
The courtroom was silent as the sentence was handed down. The victims' families held hands, as did Ray's parents and brother.
Ray showed little emotion during his four-month trial in Camp Verde, and stared straight ahead while several of the victims' family members gave statements to the court.
"Does he still not realize it was too damn hot? Mr. Ray is selling something that is faulty and needs to be recalled," Ginny Brown, Kirby's mother, told the court. "Please take him off the market," Brown begged Judge
Darrow.
Liz Neuman's cousin Lily Clark, who has attended most of the proceedings in the case, said that Neuman considered not attending Ray's "Spiritual Warrior" seminar at the Angel Valley Spiritual Retreat Center near Sedona, Arizona. She added she was aware that her cousin was becoming disillusioned with Ray's ever-more-competitive activities.
Still, Clark said, "We never imagined that James Ray would put her in a life-threatening situation and then refuse her all help when she needed to make the life-saving decision that she couldn't make for herself."
Family members of the three had been especially bitter about Ray's seeming indifference, saying they found out either from police or from calling around to area hospitals on their own, after hearing news reports about the disastrous turn of events.
Prosecutors aggressively made the case that Ray had ignored plenty of warning signs that his events were becoming dangerous, and that his stated desire to become the world's first "self-help" billionaire led him to become increasingly careless at his events, a contention contested by Ray's defense team.
Ray spoke through tears as he delivered his own statement.
"At the end of the day, your honor, I lost three friends and I lost them on my watch. Whatever errors in judgment or mistakes I made, I'm going to have to live with for the rest of my life."
Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk told the court that a manual on sweat lodge facilitation calls for the person in charge to be "the first to enter and the last to leave." Testimony during the trial indicated that Ray was the first one out of the lodge.
Throughout the trial and the presentence proceedings, Polk said while asking the court for the maximum sentence of nine years in prison, "The defendant continues to portray himself as the victim of the overzealous state. Mr. Ray is the defendant; he is not the victim. The defendant led the life of a pretender and he is dangerous."
Ray's attorney Luis Li said he never intended to diminish the loss and anguish of the victims' families by arguing for Ray's rights in court. But he asked the court for mercy for his client in the face of Ray's public perception.
"Mr. Ray is not the monster that the media has made him out to be," Li said, "not the monster the state has made him out to be."
Several civil suits still remain in the courts against Ray, whose insurance companies have already paid out more than $3 million to the families of the victims.
Defense attorney Luis Li said an appeal was likely. "We just hope the process of healing can begin and the victims' families can find some peace," he said.
Yavapai County Prosecutor Sheila Polk said she was disappointed that the judge didn't give Ray the maximum sentence of nine years in prison. She said she made a strong case for accountability, justice and deterrence - "all the reasons a more significant prison sentence should have been imposed."
But, Polk added, "certainly some prison over probation is better than no prison at all."
Ray had faced probation to nine years in prison after being convicted on a trio of negligent homicide counts. Authorities originally charged Ray with manslaughter, but jurors rejected arguments that he was reckless in his handling of the October 2009 ceremony.
Prosecutors urged Darrow to hand down the maximum sentence to keep Ray off the self-help circuit and from harming others. Ray's attorneys said probation was best for a man who showed remorse, lacked prior criminal history and is the sole caretaker for ailing parents.
Ray's motivational mantra drew dozens of people to a retreat nestled in the scrub forest near the spectacular Red Rocks of Sedona, Arizona with a promise that the sweat lodge ceremony typically used by American Indians to cleanse the body would help them break through whatever was holding them back in life. It was the culminating event of his five-day "Spiritual Warrior" seminar.
Participants began showing signs of distress about half way through the two-hour ceremony. By the time it was over, some were vomiting, struggling to breathe and lying lifeless on the ground. Two people - Kirby Brown, 38, of Westtown, N.Y., and James Shore, 40, of Milwaukee - were pronounced dead. Liz
Neuman, 49, of Prior Lake, Minn., slipped into a coma and never regained consciousness. She died more than a week later at a Flagstaff, Arizona hospital.
The trial was a mix of lengthy witness testimony and legal wrangling that lasted four months. Witnesses painted conflicting pictures of Ray, with some describing him as a coach who encouraged participants to do their best to endure the heat but never forced them to remain in the sweat lodge. Others said they learned through breathing exercises, a 36-hour fast, and a game in which Ray portrayed God that they dare not question him and lost the physical and mental ability to care for themselves or others.
Prosecutors contended that Ray ratcheted up the heat to dangerous levels, ignored pleas for help and watched as participants were dragged out of the sweat lodge. Ray's attorneys suggested that toxins or poisons contributed to the deaths, but jurors said that theory was not credible.
Ray's attorneys made at least nine requests for a retrial or mistrial based on what they say were errors by the prosecution. While Darrow ruled that prosecutors broke disclosure rules, he rejected each of the defense requests.
Ray's attorneys said they will file an appeal.
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