The Annapolis man who was convicted in 2007 of strangling a woman and then released from jail in January must now serve more than three years in prison for violating the conditions of his house arrest.
Christopher O’Brien, 35, was sentenced to 18 months in jail and another 18 months on house arrest for manslaughter in the death of Katherine White in 2006 during a drunken argument at her Maryland City town house. He was released from the Ordinance Road Detention Center in January and placed on house arrest at a sober living facility in Annapolis.
But Anne Arundel Circuit Judge Paul Harris ruled Tuesday that O’Brien violated his probation and ordered him to serve 3 1/2 years in prison followed by five years of supervised probation.
Prosecutor Kelly Poma had asked Harris to impose the remaining 8 1/2 years of O’Brien’s sentence, saying he left his residence without permission and returned late from several authorized trips between April 29 and June 7. He also failed to obtain employment and pay supervision fees, she said.
O’Brien, a large man chained at the ankles, hunched over his notes during testimony Tuesday and offered several excuses for his tardiness and unexplained absences. He cited car trouble, Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and accidentally overstepping the boundaries of his ankle monitor.
O’Brien said he twice stepped outside his front door in April to escape cigarette smoke from his roommates and was unaware that he overstepped the boundaries.
He also blamed probation agent Edward Smith for authorizing trip extensions and forgetting to enter the change into the computer, making it appear as if O’Brien was unaccounted for during that time.
“I never left any residence without permission — it never happened,” O’Brien said. “I was surprised by this lengthy list of alerts. … Mr. Smith never gave me any idea that I was in violation.”
O’Brien was initially charged with second-degree murder, which carries up to 30 years in prison. A judge acquitted him of that charge, ruling that evidence showed the killing was unintentional.
Police said White, 32, lay dead on her kitchen floor for nearly two days while O’Brien never called for help. Her body wasn’t discovered until her worried mother visited the house.
[email protected]
