Jury Recommends 3 Months for Lee Cena in Road Rage Confrontation Leading to William O'Brien's Death

A Fairfax County jury recommended a sentence of three months in jail and a $2,500 fine for a former church official convicted in a road rage confrontation that led to another man's death.

A judge will sentence Lee Cena May 9.

Cena, a former education director at St. Leo the Great Catholic Church, was found guilty Tuesday of assault, but not assault and battery.

Cena said in court Monday that it was "righteous indignation," not road rage, that drove him to confront 63-year-old William O'Brien in a Best Buy parking lot April 16. Cena admitted he wanted to yell at O'Brien for "honking incessantly" at him as they drove along Pickett Road.

Prosecutors played security video from the Best Buy parking lot that showed Cena driving in behind O'Brien, parking and walking quickly toward him. Cena said he approached O'Brien, yelling, "Don't ever honk at me like that again or one day you're going to get your a** kicked."

The two scuffled, but it's unclear from the video who threw the first punch.

Witnesses separated the two men. O'Brien went inside Best Buy store and told a cashier he'd been attacked, while Cena got in his car and left.

Two hours later, O'Brien called 911 from home complaining of excruciating head pain.

When emergency crews arrived, O'Brien was unresponsive. Paramedics forced their way into the home and found O'Brien on the floor.

He died 10 days later from a subdural hemorrhage.

In an interview with police two days after the fight, Cena said he only intended to exchange words with O'Brien and insisted O'Brien punched first, prompting Cena to defend himself.

Cena's defense maintained that O'Brien died because he was taking a prescription blood thinner called Pradaxa that made the injury severe.

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