ATTLEBORO — The case against a man charged with killing his roommate last month in a Mansfield house is expected to be presented to a Bristol County grand jury next month, a prosecutor said Thursday.
The suspect, William J. O’Brien, 22, was scheduled for a probable cause hearing Thursday in Attleboro District Court, but the case was continued to July 27.
A prosecutor told Judge Neil Hourihan that the case is expected to be presented to a grand jury by then and asked for the continuance.
O’Brien is being held without bail on a murder charge stemming from the May 20 killing of Samuel Waters. He has pleaded innocent.
O’Brien, of Manchester by the Sea, was not in court Thursday but appeared via Zoom from jail.
Waters, 23, was fatally shot in the head at a house he rented at 42 West Church St., where he, O’Brien and two other men were living, according to prosecutors.
O’Brien, wearing a bullet-proof vest, was arrested nearby soon after police were called for the shooting.
The murder weapon has not been found and prosecutors have not disclosed a motive in the case.
Prosecutors say O’Brien admitted to the killing. There was also an eyewitness to the shooting and another resident of the house was upstairs in the shower and heard it.
O’Brien’s lawyer, John Brinkman of Quincy, filed a request for $3,000 to pay for a forensic psychologist to examine his client.
O’Brien is indigent and cannot pay for the examination. Hourihan took no action on the request, citing the likelihood of a grand jury indictment.
Murder cases are sent to superior court for trial once a grand jury hands up an indictment. A grand jury meets in secret to consider whether there is enough evidence to indict a defendant.
It is not uncommon for murder cases to be continued in district court while awaiting grand jury action. Brinkman did not object to the continuance.