Murder suspect's court hearing postponed for the second time

SANDUSKY — A scheduled court hearing for a man who allegedly killed and sexually assaulted a 3-year-old girl in Sandusky last year has been postponed for the second time this month. A planned court hearing for Devin S. O'Brien, 30, of the 4000 block of Venice Road (U.S. 6) for 1:30 p.m. Monday was postponed to a later date. The hearing scheduled for Monday was a continuation of a pretrial hearing originally set to take place on Dec. 1. Erie County prosecutor Kevin Baxter previously said that last week's hearing was rescheduled because one of O'Brien's defense attorneys was at trial for another case. It wasn't immediately clear why Monday's hearing was pushed back again, nor was it immediately clear what day the hearing would be postponed to. As of late Monday, O'Brien remains at the Erie County Jail on no bond. Background The investigation into O'Brien first began on the evening of Sept. 12, 2024, after he allegedly made a phone call to police and told a dispatcher that he believed his "girlfriend's daughter and dog have been taken." O'Brien was arrested by Sandusky police shortly after they found the girl's body, and he was booked into Erie County Jail the next day. The Lucas County Coroner's Office performed an autopsy on the girl's body the next morning, and the autopsy found that the child died as a result of strangulation and experienced blunt force trauma and sexual assault, Sandusky police Chief Jared Oliver previously told the Register. Authorities have not identified the victim, citing the victim protection bill, Marcy's Law. But in the form of online postings and a vigil hosted shortly after her death, others have identified the victim as Charlotte Willow Patterson. As a result of O'Brien's arrest, he was indicted by an Erie County grand jury in October 2024 on the following charges: • Four counts of aggravated murder, each an unclassified felony • Two counts of rape, each a first-degree felony • One count of attempted rape, a second-degree felony • One count of kidnapping, a first-degree felony • One count of felonious assault, a second-degree felony • One count of strangulation, a second-degree felony • One count of tampering with evidence, a third-degree felony • One count of gross abuse of a corpse, a fifth-degree felony