Former Cannibal Corpse guitarist Pat O'Brien has been sentenced in connection with his arrest in December 2018 for burglary and assaulting a police officer.
O'Brien broke into a neighbor's home, threw a woman in the residence to the ground, and ran to their backyard where he hid behind a fence. When cops surrounded him, he tried to charge at them with a knife, but was tasered with a stun gun and arrested.
As this was happening, the home he was renting was engulfed in flames, and live ammunition was going off. There were "military-grade flame throwers" also causing the fire to get even bigger, resulting in his entire home burning down. Firefighters worked for hours to put out the blaze. There are no charges against O'Brien as a result of the blaze. Upon inspection of O'Brien's home, police found a cache of weapons, rounds of ammunition, and potentially explosive devices.
O'Brien was sentenced on March 16th, according to Blabbermouth. The sentence included time served and five years probation. O'Brien was ordered to pay $23,793.45 in restitution and render 150 hours of community service. He was ordered to get drug and alcohol evaluations and must abstain from alcohol and controlled substance use during his probation. He will be subject to random drug testing.
Shortly after his arrest, O'Brien appeared in court wearing an anti-suicide vest, with his ankles chained together, and bail was set at $50,000. He was told by a judge that he would need to pass a drug test if he were to be bonded out of jail. He eventually posted the surety bond.
While O'Brien is not currently a member of Cannibal Corpse, in a 2019 interview, frontman George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher said the band was "100% behind" O'Brien in dealing with his struggles. Speaking to The Jasta Show, Fisher said "We love him. We want him back. But when I saw him in the court with the vest, dude, I cried. Because we just got home from tour… We wish the best for him, and we're just waiting to see [what happens]. He's got a road ahead of him still with legal issues, and that's out of our hands. We support him 100 percent; we're behind him 100 percent."
"When people were seeing [TV reports about] it — I think on the Tampa news, they were pretty good with him. They just said he was one of the best guitar players in death metal in America, and in the world, and he's highly respected. And they didn't really trash him at all. And they showed him on TV."
"In the metal world, I think in general, everyone was, like, 'Get well soon. I didn't spend too much time reading stuff online, because that's when you get people who just wanna say nasty stuff just to be nasty."
