Jefferson Woman's Murderer Will Be Sentenced Friday

in January 2008 at her Nolan’s Point home.

Diaz-Bridges plead guilty in May to the murder. He is subject to 40 years in prison, and must serve a minimum of 34 years before he is eligible for parole, according to Morris County Prosecutor Robert Bianchi.

On January 30, 2008, police found O'Brien, 49, dead in a closet in her residence. The next day, an autopsy report determined the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head, according to the prosecutor's office.

Diaz-Bridges, a neighbor of O'Brien's and a friend of one of her sons, had stayed at the house the night before O'Brien was found, the prosecutor's office said.

In May of that year, detectives from the Morris County Prosecutor's Office, Morris County Sheriff’s Office and Jefferson Township Police Department located Bridges in Raleigh, North Carolina. Though he refused to waive extradition, he was ultimately lodged in the Union County Correctional Facility. The case was moved to Union County to avoid conflict of interest since O’Brien’s brother-in-law was an employee of the Morris County Superior Court.

Earlier this year, the state Supreme Court . In a 3-2 opinion written by Justice Helen Hoens, the Court held that the police committed no constitutional error as the defendant’s requests to speak to his mother were not assertions of his right to remain silent.

Diaz-Bridges had admitted hitting O’Brien after she allegedly asked him for marijuana and the two argued, according to a story in the Daily Record.