DA: Alleged Stony Brook Rapist Also Conspired to Kill Victim, Witness

The man accused of raping a woman and robbing a house in Stony Brook last November now stands accused of attempting to hire a hitman to kill the woman and a witness who was to testify against him, Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota said Wednesday.

Patrick O’Sullivan, 21, of East Moriches, was arrested last December after he allegedly broke into a home in Stony Brook on Nov. 20, bound, raped and sodomized a woman who was house-sitting, and burglarized the house. O’Sullivan was charged with predatory sexual assault, first-degree rape, first-degree criminal sexual act, first-degree sexual abuse, first-degree burglary, and criminal use of a firearm, each a felony, and was held in lieu of $100,000 cash or $1 million bond.

Since then, Spota said, an informant came forward to tell detectives that O’Sullivan attempted to hire him to kill the victim and a witness who was to testify against him in court, believing that without their testimonies he would not be convicted of rape. He is now also charged with two counts of second-degree conspiracy, a felony, after a further indictment was unsealed Wednesday. O’Sullivan, who faces life in prison, will be arraigned Oct. 8.

Spota said the new charges are based on information from an inmate whom O’Sullivan met while incarcerated on the same tier at the jail. O’Sullivan allegedly tried to hire this fellow inmate to commit the murders because he was set to be released from prison soon – “before the holidays,” Spota said. The fellow inmate came forward in mid-September, Spota said, and provided “kites,” a term for written notes sent from one inmate to another, that O’Sullivan had sent him. The kites, along with a letter the fellow inmate provided after his release, allegedly contained detailed descriptions of the victim and the witness, as well as getaway routes via the Long Island Expressway and Sunrise Highway, and contained instructions to throw the woman’s body into the water and bury the witness’s body.

Spota read part of the letter, saying O’Sullivan wrote: “After you kill the victim, dump her body in the water. After you kill the witness, bury the witness so that after the case against me collapses and I get out of jail, I can dig the body up, cut his head off and mail it to his family for the holidays.”

Spota also released the following transcript of a kite between the victim and the fellow inmate who came forward to tell authorities that O’Sullivan wanted to hire him for murder:

Defendant: “Yo cuz without a vic on the case I could get a mistrial right? But without a vic’s statement the DA’s case against me would lose all the power right? Write me back. Use this sheet … I’ll flush it when it’s full.”

Inmate: “I’m sure they won’t be able to get you for her which would hock a decent chunk of time off but did use gloves cause finger prints (sic) and DNA can still put you there.”

Defendant: “Gloves yes, rubber...no...but fingerprints were there cuz it happened at my dudes house...so yeah we can fight the ‘R’ charge but yea the DA needs a crying bitch 2 really get a conviction right?”

Inmate: “Yeah without her no one can say you were there when it happened.”

Defendant: “That’s good LOL….As long as you get that done, I should be Gucci. Keep in mind my lips are sealed. Once you do it I consider myself in debt to you. You save my life I have 2 save your life. And until I do I’ll stay in debt 2 you. You have my word cuz. I don’t snich (sic) and I never will.”

Spota said O’Sullivan offered the fellow inmate $23,000 – $10,000 each per murder and $3,000 for a gun to use – and said he believed O’Sullivan had the means to pay a hitman that much money.

The victim has since been told that she was the potential target of a hit, and Spota said law enforcement agencies took steps to keep her safe. “We spent quite a bit of time with her,” he said. Authorities do not believe O’Sullivan is attempting to hire another hitman to kill her and the other witness.

The inmate who came forward as an informant did so through his attorney, signed a cooperation agreement with the DA’s office and was released from prison ahead of time.

Around the time O’Sullivan was arrested, the rape and robbery had become controversial after rumors of their occurrence spread through the community and police waited 10 days to confirm that the incidents had taken place.