Annapolis, MD - Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney Anne Colt Leitess announced that Vincent Bunner, 27, and Calvin Lockner, 35, were sentenced to 30 years each for the second degree murder of another prisoner, John O’Sullivan, 43. Bunner and Lockner were already serving time for violent crimes when they killed O’Sullivan at the Maryland Correctional Institute in Jessup, Md. The Honorable Stacy W. McCormack imposed the maximum sentence consecutively to Bunner’s current life sentence and Lockner’s current 30 year sentence.
A jury convicted the defendants of O’Sullivan’s stabbing murder on January 20, 2020.
Investigators learned that O’Sullivan had been attacked as retribution for a gang-related assault, not involving any of the parties, at another prison. Bunner, Lockner and Hare were all members of the Aryan Brotherhood, a white supremacist gang.
“John O’Sullivan had tried to make peace with the rival gang members. In return, they savagely attacked him in retribution for an incident between members of their opposing gangs and made him pay with his life,” said State’s Attorney Anne Colt Leitess, who prosecuted the case on behalf of the citizens of Anne Arundel County. “The defendants’ savagely murdered Mr. O’Sullivan and will likely be spending the rest of their lives in jail. Both men have demonstrated during the course of their lives their extreme dangerousness to the community.”
On August 14, 2016, at the Jessup Correctional Institute, inmates located in Building F were returning to their cells after their recreation break. Shortly after, an inmate, identified as John O’Sullivan, entered his cell to retrieve his belongings to take a shower when he was attacked by three inmates, identified as Vincent Bunner, Calvin Lockner and Brian Hare. The trio stabbed O’Sullivan with homemade metal knives. Video surveillance captured the three defendants attacking O’Sullivan as he attempted to flee his cell and run for help toward the control booth area of the tier.
Correctional officers entered the tier in response, and using pepper spray, disarmed the suspects and ordered them onto the ground. O’Sullivan succumbed to his injuries and died at the scene. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled that O’Sullivan died from blood loss due to 54 stabbing and cutting wounds.
Vincent Bunner had previously been convicted in Anne Arundel County of two murders during botched robberies. In August 2010, Bunner shot and killed a clerk at a 7/11 store in Glen Burnie. In November 2010, he and another man shot a bystander at Mr. Wings and Pizza in Severn. Bunner was convicted of both crimes and was serving a life sentence plus 30 years in prison at the time of his attack on O’Sullivan.
Previously, Calvin Lockner had been convicted in Baltimore City for a second degree sexual offense on a woman who he attacked and beat with a flashlight in 2000. He served eight years in prison, with an additional two years added on for a violation of probation for that crime. In 2009, Lockner used a sledgehammer to beat and attack a 76-year-old African American man who was fishing with his wife. Lockner carjacked the victim’s car and stole his wallet. He plead guilty to armed carjacking, first degree assault and a hate crime and was serving a 30 year prison sentence at the time of his attack on O’Sullivan.
Brian Hare pleaded guilty to first degree murder in the attack of O’Sullivan and testified against his co-defendants at trial. He is waiting to be sentenced.
A fourth man, Joseph Leissler, is awaiting trial that is scheduled for May 2021.