A man has been convicted of He beat 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 Tuesday. The deliberations lasted approximately a day and a half.

He entered his mother’s condo on the night of Jan. 4, 2021, and hit her with a series of blows, prosecutors said.

When police arrived at the luxury condominium, located on South Orange Avenue in Maplewood, Avrut’s mother, Gwen Avrut, was unresponsive. She was pronounced dead about 30 minutes later, authorities said.

Authorities also accused Avrut of planning an elaborate cover-up to make it appear that his mother assaulted him and then committed suicide. This included a text message sent from Gwen’s phone to another of her children, alleging that she attacked her son. Prosecutors argued that the text was sent by Benjamín.

Prosecutors also theorized that Benjamin had a history of drug abuse and gambling addiction and that he killed his mother to obtain a $9 million inheritance.

His sentencing is scheduled for December 13.