2 guilty in crime photo mailing Image of dead son sent to his mother

ROCKLAND – A judge and a jury found two Maine State Prison inmates guilty Friday of harassing a murder victim’s mother by sending her a crime scene photo of her dead son stuffed in the trunk of a car on what would have been his 26th birthday.

Steven Schoff and Michael Willings, both 32, will be sentenced Monday in Knox County Superior Court to maximum terms of six months in prison for the harassment convictions, which are misdemeanors.

Schoff is serving a 28-year sentence for the April 25, 1996, murder of 20-year-old Devin O’Brien of Kennebunk, whom he met in a Biddeford bar and pool hall that day. Willings is serving five years for aggravated criminal mischief.

On the day O’Brien was murdered, he apparently asked Schoff for a ride home.

On Friday, Debbie O’Brien said her son “never made it home.” He was shot in the head three times, once with a shotgun and twice with a handgun, his father, Jay O’Brien, said.

District Attorney Geoffrey Rushlau said the mailing of the letter to Debbie O’Brien was “designed to wound Mrs. O’Brien in a very deep way.”

The crime scene photo apparently was acquired from evidence obtained under a defendant’s right to legal “discovery.”

The correspondence, which O’Brien opened July 19, 2001, in the presence of a Kennebunk police officer, was a Thanksgiving-themed greeting that inside read: “P.S. Thinking of you. Happy birthday.”

According to testimony, Schoff got Willings to send the card because Schoff was already under court order not to have contact with the victim’s mother, to whom he previously had sent a harassing letter.

Under Maine law, “you can harass anyone once for free,” Jay O’Brien said outside the courtroom.

In court, Willings’ attorney, Lawrence Frier of Rockland, argued that his client could not be convicted of harassment because he had received no warning, which is required by law.

Rushlau said that even though Willings had not been warned not to harass the victim’s mother, he was an accomplice and therefore could be prosecuted.

In Schoff’s case, a jury trial was waived and Justice John Atwood decided his guilt. A jury deliberated a few hours before finding Willings guilty.

“What Michael Willings did can be viewed as an extremely nasty, mean thing. He thought, out of a perverse sense of humor, it would be funny to Steven,” Frier told the jury. “He never considered that it would be harmful to the family.” Waldoboro attorney Philip Cohen represented Schoff.

After the verdicts, the O’Briens, of Kennebunk, said they were pleased with the outcome and planned to be at Monday’s sentencings.

“Mr. Schoff still continues to blame Mrs. O’Brien for his problems, which is still outrageous,” Rushlau said, when court recessed.

Since her son’s death, Debbie O’Brien has become active in the victims rights organization Parents of Murdered Children, her husband said.

“We try to do good things in his name and his honor,” Jay O’Brien said.

“The story here is: It’s just a hateful thing to do,” he said of the crimes.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.