Former Correctional Officer Timothy Sean O’Brien has been sentenced to nine years in state prison for shooting a patron at a McKinleyville bar.

O’Brien.=

This morning Judge Kelly Neel sentenced the 56-year-old O’Brien to the low term of five years for attempted murder, plus the middle term of four years for use of a firearm. He also was ordered to pay $350,000 in restitution to the victim, Ethan S. Jacobs.

Last Sept. 27 Jacobs was sitting in Central Station tavern when O’Brien walked in and shot him for no apparent reason. Other bar patrons attacked O’Brien, and during the scuffle he was not only beaten up but somehow shot in the head with his own gun.

Deputy District Attorney Roger Rees said Jacobs was hit in the left arm and left bicep, is permanently disabled and will have to undergo rehabilitative therapy for the rest of his life.

Defense attorney Kathleen Bryson first disputed the amount of restitution, although $350,000 was part of the agreement when O’Brien pleaded guilty in March. She wanted to see some invoices for the victim’s medical bills. Rees refused, saying O’Brien had already agreed on the $350,000.

“I don’t know how you’re going to repay it when you’re in prison,” Bryson said, adding that “this is most likely a death sentence for my client.”

O’Brien is an alcoholic with mental health and other medical problems, she said. Also, other prison inmates will learn he was once a correctional officer.

O’Brien spoke briefly, saying he was sorry for what he did. The problem is, he doesn’t remember either the shooting incident or the hours preceding it.

Rees pointed out there are a lot of guns in the world that are not taken into bars and used to shoot people. There also are many alcoholics — such as O’Brien — who don’t shoot people.

“He is unable to stop drinking,” Rees said. The longer O’Brien is in prison, he said, the longer the public will be protected and O’Brien himself will be protected.

Rees had asked for a prison term of 10 years.

Neel, speaking to O’Brien, said “You have no explanation for what happened that day. I can’t make sense of it … you take a gun into a public establishment and shoot someone.” Neel said it seems O’Brien has a death wish.

Was O’Brien intoxicated when he shot Jacobs? Was he angry?

“I don’t know and you don’t know either,” the judge said. “That’s what’s troubling.”

Neel said she chose the lower term for attempted murder because O’Brien has no criminal history.

He was given credit for 272 days of time served, including “good time” credit. Because he committed a violent offense, he will receive just 15 percent credit on the remaining eight-plus years.

O’Brien was in a wheelchair when he made his first court appearance after his October arrest. He is no longer in a wheelchair but could not stand during the sentencing this morning.

“He can’t rise,” Your Honor,” Bryson said. “He does have several ailments.”

O’Brien was fired from his correctional officer’s job after assaulting an inmate.

###

PREVIOUSLY: