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[Editor’s note: Okay, folks, another attempt at abbreviating a bit of unusual news. see my haiku at the end of the article. You try it and post your reply in the Leave a Reply area below the posting.]

Suspect bunked with dead man for six days — warrant

Stayed on after tenant died

Source: http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2012/may/08/suspect-bunked-with-dead-man-for-six-days-151/?partner=popular

By Jamie Satterfield

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Sure, there was a dead man in the bedroom, but the rent was free.

So explained James M. O’Brien, 58, when Knoxville police showed up at Isabella Towers to discover O’Brien had been bunking with a dead tenant, according to an arrest warrant.

O’Brien is set for a preliminary hearing Wednesday in Knox County General Sessions Court on a charge of abuse of a corpse in connection with the April incident.

According to a warrant filed by Knoxville Police Department Investigator Brian Moran, O’Brien, who is homeless, had been staying with Clarence Stephens III, 47, at Isabella Towers, a low-income apartment complex on Isabella Circle near KPD headquarters. On April 21, Stephens died.

O’Brien knew he was dead but continued to stay in the apartment, the warrant stated.

“The defendant said he covered (Stephens) in clothing and blankets and opened the windows due to the increasing foul smell of (Stephens) decomposing in a manner offensive to the sensibilities of an ordinary person,” Moran wrote.

O’Brien spent six days in the apartment with the deceased before a manager at the complex noted a noxious smell and alerted police, the warrant stated.

Moran wrote that O’Brien said he hit Stephens in the throat, “at which time (Stephens) laid in his bed and never regained consciousness.” However, KPD spokesman Darrell DeBusk said an autopsy showed no signs of “blunt force trauma,” and a preliminary report suggested Stephens died of natural causes.

“The medical examiner said the deceased was on medications for several things, had seizures and was a heavy drinker,” DeBusk said.

O’Brien is being held in jail in lieu of a $5,000 bond. Abuse of a corpse is a low-level felony and carries a penalty range of one to two years in prison.

&&&&

“Homeless now”

Home window wide. Smell
the fragrance of the long sleep.
Body homeless now.