A man has been convicted of beating his 70-year-old mother to death after a jury rejected his insanity defense at trial. Benjamin Avrut, 38, was found guilty of first-degree murder when the jury returned the verdict on Oct. 18, the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office said on Tuesday.
Deliberations lasted about a day-and-a-half. He entered his mother’s condo on the night of Jan. 4, 2021, and beat her with a series of punches, prosecutors said.
When police arrived at the luxury condo, located on South Orange Avenue in Maplewood, Avrut’s mother, Gwen Avrut, was unresponsive. She was pronounced dead about 30 minutes later, officials said. Authorities also accused Avrut of plotting an elaborate cover-up to make it look like his mom assaulted him and then committed suicide.
This included a text message sent from Gwen’s phone to another one of her children, claiming that she attacked her son. Prosecutors argued that the text was sent by Benjamin. The prosecution also theorized that Benjamin had a history of drug abuse and gambling addiction and that he killed his mother for a $9 million inheritance.
His sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 13. Stories by Nicolas Fernandes Pedestrian suffers internal bleeding after being struck by car on N.
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