2006 GoErie.com archive: Shauna Howe's killers have 15-30 years added to life sentences

Editor's note: This story was originally published on April 7, 2006.

FRANKLIN — James and Timothy O'Brien's crimes brought them to this courthouse many times before.

James O'Brien tried to force a woman into the trunk of his car. He stole a truck and crashed it. He hid his income from the state Department of Public Welfare.

Timothy O'Brien molested children and stole things.

What they did to an 11-year-old Girl Scout more than 13 years ago earned them what likely will be their last trip to Venango County Court.

Judge Oliver J. Lobaugh on Thursday finished what an Indiana County jury started last fall, sentencing the O'Brien brothers to spend the rest of their lives in prison for kidnapping, sexually assaulting and murdering Shauna Howe in 1992.

Behind Lobaugh hung a golden-hued mural of the Allegheny River, which cuts this rural county in two. Just downriver from the area depicted in the painting, a small mountain stream spills out from a wooded valley.

It was on that stream that the O'Briens finished off the crimes that finally ended their criminal careers, which between them included convictions for child molestation, attempted kidnapping, burglary, welfare fraud and theft.

In October, a jury found the O'Briens had kidnapped Howe from an Oil City street corner as she walked home from a Halloween party on Oct 27, 1992, sexually assaulted her in a shabby house on the outskirts of town, then threw her, still alive, from a Rockland Township railroad trestle to her death on the streambed below.

The jury convicted them of charges that included second-degree murder and kidnapping. The case against a third defendant, Eldred "Ted" Walker, is pending.

"What a horrible way for anyone to die, especially a young child," Lobaugh said.

The discovery of Howe's "broken and battered" body on Oct. 30, 1992, spread terror that affects the community to this day, Lobaugh said. Oil City children still go trick-or-treating in the daytime because of what happened to Howe.

"Youth activities were restricted, even eliminated. The effect continues for more than a decade," Lobaugh said.

He called the O'Briens dangerous predators who have shown "absolutely no remorse for despicable conduct." Society must be protected, he said.

"While Shauna Howe was a member of the Girl Scouts enriching the lives of senior citizens at a convalescent home, you were lurking in the shadows plotting to ruin her life. You ended up taking her life. This world was a better place because of Shauna, and it will be a better and safer place without the both of you walking free ever again," he said.

James O'Brien, 34, and Timothy O'Brien, 39, had nothing to say before the judge announced their punishment.

Both said their lawyers told them not to talk.

Venango County District Attorney Marie Veon, a veteran prosecutor, said she was happy to see the pair get the maximum sentence and be rid of them.

"It seems like I have talked about James and Timothy O'Brien over and over," she said.

With Veon by her side, Howe's mother, Lucy Howe Brown, stood and read a letter written by her mother-in-law, Donna Brown. Lucy Brown said the letter said much of what she felt.

"I want you to know you took her innocence, her childhood, her dreams, which is unforgettable because she was a child," she said.

The letter remembered Howe with "brown hair and blue-blue eyes," a child who wore little gold earrings and loved Sunday school, the Girl Scouts and Halloween.

"I hope you live a long life in which you'll be as frightened as Shauna was on the night she died. I also hope you love someone in your life and know you'll never be able to hold or touch or even see them again, ever," she said.

Lucy Brown said she knew the words would not matter to the O'Briens.

"I know you don't care and you don't know us," she said, still reading from the letter.

"But you also ruined your life, wasted life behind bars. You killed Shauna. But you also took your own life," she said.

When Brown tried to speak her own words, she could not. She sat down and wept in the arms of her husband, Jon Brown.

For a long moment, little else could be heard in the courtroom but the sound of her catching her breath.

Lisa Thompson Sayers can be reached at lthompson@timesnews.com.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: GoErie.com archive: Shauna Howe's killers have 15-30 years added to life sentences