For killing a woman who had let him stay at her Anne Arundel County home, Christopher Perkins O'Brien was sentenced to a decade in prison - but all but a year and a half behind bars and an equal amount of time on house arrest were suspended.
Now he is accused of running afoul of the conditions set for doing time outside of prison.
O'Brien was ordered yesterday to be held at the county detention center until an August court hearing, where he could be ordered to serve the balance of his suspended sentence.
Since he was released from prison and began an 18-month stint on house arrest earlier this year, O'Brien has returned late several times from court-approved outings to the Annapolis home where he has been staying, according to court documents.
Sometimes he left without permission at all, according to records. O'Brien, who was allowed to leave the home only to work, attend medical appointments and treatment, and to visit his probation agent, claimed he left the house to avoid cigarette smoke and was at times late because of a car breakdown.
O'Brien, 35, was found guilty last year of manslaughter in the June 4, 2006, strangulation death of Katherine Randolph White, a 32-year-old Maryland City archaeologist. The two had become friends during a stay at a substance abuse rehabilitation center, and upon their release, White offered O'Brien a place to stay, according to trial testimony.
White gave O'Brien three times the prescribed amount of a sedative in the days leading up to her death, the man's lawyer later said. The two argued during that time, and O'Brien strangled White and left her body on the kitchen floor, according to testimony.
O'Brien continued to live in the house, stepping over the woman's body, watching television and eating, prosecutors have said. White's mother, Rebecca Randolph, came to the home after not hearing from her daughter and found the body.
Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Paul F. Harris Jr.'s sentence for O'Brien disappointed prosecutors and outraged the victim's family.
Randolph, who attended yesterday's hearing, said afterward, "He's a man who's been out of control for a very long time. ... I did not feel that the original sentence was at all in keeping with the horror of the crime, and I think most people agree."
Prosecutor Kelly M. Poma and Kristin Fleckenstein, a spokeswoman for the state's attorney's office declined to comment.
