Years added to Dorsey killer's life term

A Montgomery County Court judge decided yesterday that life imprisonment was not sufficient punishment for Mark P. O'Donnell, who was convicted in June of first-degree murder in the rape and strangulation of 14-year-old Ebony Dorsey.

Judge William J. Furber Jr. sentenced O'Donnell to an additional 11 to 22 years in prison for charges of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and abuse of a corpse. Furber granted the prosecution's request that O'Donnell serve the sentences consecutively, though his murder conviction already meant he had no possibility of parole.

"The guy's going to rot in prison, and hopefully they'll keep his body there a little longer," said Kevin Steele, Montgomery County first assistant district attorney.

O'Donnell declined to speak in court, and his attorney, Thomas C. Egan III, walked away from reporters waiting outside the courtroom.

O'Donnell, 49, was dating Dorsey's mother, Danielle Cattie, at the time of the attack on Dec. 7, 2007. The two used crack cocaine at Cattie's Whitpain Township residence while Dorsey was babysitting O'Donnell's 4-year-old daughter at his estranged wife's apartment in Plymouth Township.

When O'Donnell arrived at the apartment about 5:45 the next morning, he beat and raped Dorsey and strangled her with her pajamas, according to prosecutors. He then stuffed the body into a plastic storage tub and left it outside the home of his nephew in Blue Bell.

Dorsey, a freshman honors student at Wissahickon High School, was not reported missing by her mother until the evening of Dec. 7. Her body was found two days later.

O'Donnell, whom police had interviewed Dec. 8, was arrested the next day, hiding at the home of other relatives in Lower Gwynedd Township.

Cattie is to be sentenced in March on drug and child-endangerment charges.

After O'Donnell's conviction, Furber decided against sentencing him to death on the murder charge, meaning he would serve life in prison. Yesterday, O'Donnell was formally sentenced on all charges.

Dorsey's mother and her father, Evan Dorsey, were at the hearing. Cattie declined to comment afterward, and Evan Dorsey, accompanied by several friends, walked away from reporters.

During the hearing, Barbara Ziv, a forensic psychiatrist, testified that she believed O'Donnell met the criteria of a sexually violent predator.

She based her evaluation on the record, which included statements from Cattie that O'Donnell was a "sex addict" and forced himself on her if she refused sex, Ziv said. O'Donnell also viewed pornography online right before the attack, according to prosecutors.

Egan disputed Ziv's analysis, arguing that it was based mostly on Cattie's testimony, which might be untrue.

Furber agreed with Ziv's assessment. As a sexually violent predator, O'Donnell must register with state police under Megan's Law if he ever leaves prison.

O'Donnell was convicted in 1985 of attempted murder in San Bernardino, Calif. He shot a man in the back three times after they argued over money and served five years in prison, Steele said.

He said O'Donnell is also a person of interest in the May 2006 slayings of three members of a Port Richmond family in their home, where O'Donnell had been working as a nurse. He has not been charged in the killings, said a spokeswoman for the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office. No further information about the investigation was available last night.

Egan said during the hearing that it didn't matter how Furber sentenced O'Donnell on the remaining charges because O'Donnell already had been sentenced to life without parole.

Steele said adding the extra years made a statement.

"Because he put her through this horrible death . . . that's the just thing to do to a man who has committed this evil, evil act."