SAN DIEGO — The man accused of killing Dr. Clark Kelly at Boulevard Animal Clinic in Rolando on June 15 was in court Thursday for a mental competency hearing.
CBS 8 cameras were not allowed in the courtroom and the hearing was closed to the public, but 37-year-old Patrick O’Brien, the man charged with Dr. Kelly’s murder, called CBS 8 from the jail before his hearing.
“I’m a very kind person. I’ve never been in trouble,” said O’Brien. “I’ve never had any violent history, never any violent crime in my life.”
O’Brien was first arraigned in June and pleaded not guilty to charges including first-degree murder. When asked whether he had ever met the victim, he said this.
CBS 8 Assignment Manager, Mario Escovedo asked, “Do you remember meeting Mr. Kelly?”
O’Brien responded, “I don’t remember meeting anybody. I spoke to a woman.”
O’Brien claimed he was looking for an apartment to rent, but said he didn’t enter the animal clinic.
“It looked like apartments there. It didn’t look like a veterinarian clinic,” said O’Brien. “At a clinic, you hear animals barking, ‘Roof, roof.’ It was quiet. You could hear a pin drop.”
When asked further whether he had ever met Dr. Kelly or entered the veterinary clinic, he described an encounter with someone.
“I heard shuffling from the inside and I thought, ‘Oh, maybe this is the manager, so I started ringing the bell again, ‘Ding, ding, ding,’” said O’Brien. “And from a distance I heard, ‘Hey, you gotta get out of here. You’re not welcome.’ I was like, ‘Ok, that was rude.’ So I just turned and walked away towards the gate.”
Police say 88-year-old Dr. Clark Kelly was physically attacked inside the clinic and suffered a serious head injury, which he later died from at a nearby hospital.
According to police, they arrested O’Brien after a concerned citizen detained him behind the clinic.
“On that day, my leg was so swollen I was barely able to walk and I was just trying to find a place to sit down,” said O’Brien.
At his private mental competency hearing Thursday, O’Brien’s defense attorney requested an additional mental health evaluation from a private doctor. He will be due back in court on September 19.
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