SNOW HILL — A local man, sentenced to six years in prison for his role in the death of a Pennsylvania man in Ocean City in August 2014, was sent back to jail for six more months last week for a probation violation.
In January 2015, Caleb Edwin-Earl Ochse, now 30, of Ocean City, pleaded guilty to affray, a common law charge essentially indicating he was guilty of participating in a fight in a public place, and had all but 18 months of his six-year sentence suspended. Ochse had been charged with manslaughter for his role in a fight on a downtown street that ultimately led to the death of Justin Cancelliere, 37, of North Whitehall, Pa. in 2014.
Ochse pleaded guilty to affray as part of a plea agreement and was sentenced to six years with all but 18 months suspended. Ochse served the sentence and was placed on supervised probation for two years which included routine drug testing. Ochse recently tested positive for a controlled dangerous substance (CDS), which violated the terms of his probation. As a result, the original case against him was reopened. Following a violation of probation hearing last Friday, Ochse was sentenced to another six months in jail.
Around 3 a.m. on Aug. 24, 2014, Ocean City Police Department (OCPD) officers and Emergency Services responded to a hotel parking lot on 2nd Street for a reported assault.
First responders from the OCPD and the Ocean City Fire Department initiated emergency lifesaving procedures on the victim and transported him to Atlantic General Hospital where he was later pronounced deceased. An autopsy was performed and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled the nature of Cancelliere’s injuries as head and neck trauma and the cause of death as homicide.
The investigation revealed an altercation between Ochse and his friend, Christopher Blake, now 24 of Ocean City, who also later pleaded guilty to affray, and Cancelliere and his group of friends occurred in the area of Talbot Street and Baltimore Avenue. The evidence included video surveillance tapes from Fat Daddy’s restaurant near Talbot Street where the defendants and the victim were seen prior to the incident.
A second video surveillance tape showed an unconscious Cancelliere being removed from a taxi in the parking lot of the Plim Plaza Hotel on 2nd Street where the victim and his friends were staying.
