On Friday, a Pennsylvania man pleaded guilty to fatally punching a chiropractor in the head for failing to treat his severe jaw pain.
In the following months, Joseph O'Boyle, 23, will be punished for criminal murder, criminal trespassing, and possession of a criminal instrument. He also admitted to two charges of aggravated assault, reckless endangerment of another person, resisting arrest, and simple assault for hitting a detective investigating the chiropractor's death.
Video Captures Brutal Killing of Chiropractor in Pennsylvania
On November 2, 2021, Dr. James Sowa, 64, was discovered dead inside his house and chiropractic business in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, a town about 20 miles northeast of Philadelphia. According to his relatives, O'Boyle had been a patient of Sowa's for two months and blamed the chiropractor for exacerbating his jaw problems.
Surveillance video shows O'Boyle coming up to Sowa's office without an appointment on the morning of the murder and spending only one minute inside before departing the area. According to authorities, O'Boyle struck Sowa three times on the back of the head, breaking his skull. O'Boyle then repeatedly assaulted Sowa's jaw region with a blunt instrument while he was on the ground.
As reported by Fox News, after the murder, O'Boyle's father questioned him about Sowa's death, and the 23-year-old grew irritated and began massaging his jaw. O'Boyle later confessed to his father that he killed Sowa.
Investigators issued a search warrant at O'Boyle's residence eight days after the homicide, and O'Boyle lunged at a detective and hit him in the head many times. O'Boyle is scheduled to return to court on June 6 for a hearing to decide the level of homicide. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled later.
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Suspect Claims He Killed Chiropractor For Self-Defense
The white Nissan Altima in which the defendant fled was tracked down to O'Boyle's mother. Police acquired a search warrant for the O'Boyle residence. When attempting to serve the warrant, the defendant charged Bensalem Detective David Nieves, repeatedly punching him in the head until he was taken by other cops.
O'Boyle also pled guilty to aggravated assault, resisting arrest, and simple assault in connection with the punching incident on Friday. The pleas, however, came as open pleas and were not part of a plea bargain or agreement for leniency in a sentence.
According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, O'Boyle consented to murder Sowa but argued that the degree of homicide for which he should be imprisoned was too low. Prosecutors contend that the charge should be murder in the first degree or, at the absolute least, murder in the second degree-because he also broke into the doctor's office and residence that day.
Both would result in mandatory life sentences in jail. The defense, on the other hand, contends that he did not break into Sowa's home office and is arguing for third-degree murder.
Public Defender Joseph Haag stated during the plea hearing that his client suffers from schizophrenia. According to court records, he stopped taking his medicine three months before Sowa was slain. A sentencing hearing is now scheduled on June 6, Law & Crime via MSN reported.
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