A man who was convicted this summer of murder and forcible sodomy, among other charges, stemming from a series of assaults of women in 2021 and 2023, was sentenced to 58 years in prison Friday as the family of one of his victims looked on.

Thomas O’Bryen, 44, sat flanked by two sheriff’s deputies clad in helmets and facemasks as he listened to testimony in Norfolk Circuit Court from one of the survivors of his assaults and Monte Joyner, the eldest son of Angela Renee Joyner, who died after jumping from O’Bryen’s car as he repeatedly stabbed her.

The survivor, who now works as a custodian in Hampton, said she lives with severe trust issues since the assault and doesn’t go out much, and said she continues to experience memory loss and neuropathy issues in her hands as well as periodic pain in her ankle.

Of O’Bryen, she said, “I hope he finds God.”

Joyner, who was supported by several rows of family members, was emotional as he took questions from the prosecution. Their family didn’t know what happened to his mother for two years as the investigation stalled – O’Bryen had cleaned the car used in her assault and sold it to a buyer in West Virginia, and kept Joyner’s driver’s license.

Joyner said his mother “was my everything,” and described her last words to him asking that he not leave.

“I’m her protector and I wasn’t there,” Joyner told the court. Asked what he wanted to tell the judge as she considered sentencing O’Bryen, Joyner said, “Give him what he deserves.”

“He’s a coward,” Joyner continued. “He killed my mother, but I forgive him.”

O’Bryen was arrested in 2023 at his residence after the third victim called police and described the vehicle used during the assault. Investigators found Joyner’s driver’s license in his home, as well as a gun that matched a bullet casing in the vehicle.

The story was the same with all three women: picking them up in his car, demanding sexual favors and later assaulting them, and all three forced their way out of his moving car, according to the prosecution.

James Garrett, O’Bryen’s attorney, sought leniency based on O’Bryen’s traumatic childhood, which he said included “severe sexual abuse” and led to a life of abusing drugs and alcohol without treatment and two suicide attempts.

Judge Devon Paige said she “100% agrees” with the commonwealth’s assessment of O’Bryen, adding that he “chose a population he thought no one would miss” and treated them like “disposable commodities.” Paige said that while there is “no excuse” for the abuse O’Bryen suffered as a child either, the community is not safe if he is walking free.

Paige sentenced O’Bryen to 128 years in prison though 70 years of that sentence were suspended, for a total of 58 years of active imprisonment. He was convicted in July of one felony count each of second- degree murder, forcible sodomy, abduction and attempted forcible sodomy along with two felony counts each of malicious wounding and use of a firearm in the commission of malicious wounding.

Gavin Stone, 757-712-4806, gavin.stone@virginiamedia.com

https://www.dailypress.com/2025/11/08/murder-assault-sentence/