Because he resented his chiropractor for making his own jaw problems worse, a patient killed him by clubbing his jaw multiple times with a harsh weapon.
On November 2, 2020, Dr. James Sowa, 64, was discovered dead at his home and chiropractic practice in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, a town about 20 miles northeast of Philadelphia.
In September, Joseph O’Boyle, 23, was a patient of Dr. Sowa’s, but he blamed him for exacerbating his jaw discomfort and told relatives he planned to sue the chiropractor.
O’Boyle visited Dr. Sowa’s office on November 2 without an appointment and only stayed for a minute, according to surveillance footage.
He attacked Dr Sowa by hitting him three times on the back of the head with a blunt object and fractured his skull, according to investigators.
While Dr Sowa was on the floor, O’Boyle repeatedly struck his jaw area killing him.
County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub called the killing ‘poetic perverse irony’ as O’Boyle inflicted deadly injuries to the jaw, the same area of the body he sought treatment, Fox 29 Philadelphia reported.
According to the district attorney, O’Boyle’s father confronted him about Dr Sowa, and he became agitated and began rubbing his jaw.
When detectives served a search warrant at O’Boyle’s residence, he lunged at one and punched him in the head multiple times.
He subsequently confessed to his father that he had murdered Dr Sowa.
O’Boyle entered an open guilty plea to criminal homicide, criminal trespassing, and possession of an instrument of crime.
He also pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated assault and one count each of recklessly endangering another person, resisting arrest and simple assault.
O’Boyle is due to appear in court on June 6 to determine the degree of homicide and a sentencing hearing will be set at a later date.