Toms River man who killed his mother resentenced
By DONNA WEAVER
Staff Writer, 609-978-2015
Published: Saturday, November 22, 2008
TOMS RIVER - Convicted murderer Peter O'Brien was resentenced Friday for the May 2004 shooting deaths of his mother, Josephine S. O'Brien, 54, and Anthony J. Napoleon, 57.Appellate judges said Su-perior Court Judge James N. Citta incorrectly sentenced O'Brien in 2006 after he was convicted. The appellate judges said Citta interpreted the offenses as ones committed against victims O'Brien knew were disabled or 60 years old or older. The couple, however, was under age 60 and O'Brien had to be resentenced.O'Brien was convicted for fatally shooting his mother and her longtime companion after the couple's return from their winter stay in Florida, Executive Assistant Prosecutor Michael Paulhus said Friday. O'Brien stole $30,000 to $40,000 from the couple while they were away during the winter, Paulhus said. Paulhus set the scene by reminding the court how O'Brien picked up the couple from Newark Liberty Inter-national Airport like nothing was wrong, drove to their home in the Silverton section of Toms River, carried their luggage into the freshly cleaned house and then proceeded to kill them. "He could have left a note that said, 'Mom and Dad, I took the money. Maybe one day we can get past this,' but instead he killed them," Paulhus said.
Paulhus reconstructed the shootings in the courtroom Friday, telling the court how O'Brien shot Napoleon with a .38-caliber revolver twice in the back and his mother under arm, the bullet ripping through her lungs, lodging in her liver and killing her instantly. "He pressed the muzzle of that gun against her flesh - his own flesh and blood, the woman who bore him," Paulhus told the court.According to Paulhus, Na-poleon managed to make two 911 calls and in one of those calls for help identified his killer. With three .38-caliber bullets in his body, Paulhus said, Napoleon dragged himself to a portable phone, made the second call and told dispatchers he was shot by O'Brien. "To add insult to injury, what does O'Brien do? He comes and takes the phone from a dying man and hangs it up," Paulhus said. Anthony Napoleon Jr., the son of the victim, sat on the edge of his seat in the courtroom, waiting for his turn to address his father's killer one more time. He said O'Brien has no remorse."My mother died of a heart attack in 2001 and he killed my father. Now I have no parents. I have to live the rest of my life with no parents," Anthony Napoleon Jr. of New York said. "He killed them in cold blood. He couldn't even face them. He shot them in the back when they weren't looking."Hodgson agreed with Citta's findings four years ago and handed down two life sentences for the murders and a five-year consecutive sentence for theft. Hodgson said O'Brien must serve 85 percent of both life sentences before he is eligible for parole. E-mail Donna Weaver:DWeaver@pressofac.com
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