PUNISHMENT

Hedge-Fund Heir Gets 30 Years to Life in Prison for Killing Father Over Allowance

Princeton grad Thomas Gilbert Jr. murdered his father after he cut back his weekly allowance.

Thomas Gilbert Jr., who was convicted of murdering his hedge-fund founder father in 2015, was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison on Friday. According to NBC New York, the 34-year-old Princeton graduate was found guilty of second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon earlier this year after his father was found dead in his family’s Manhattan apartment. Gilbert Jr. shot his father—a founding partner of hedge fund Wainscott Capital—and put the gun in his father’s hand to make it look like a suicide. Hours before his father was killed, Gilbert Jr.’s weekly allowance was cut to $300—compared to the $1,000 allowance he originally had. Shelley Gilbert, his mother, said at his trial that his weekly allowance was lowered in order to force him to get psychiatric help. Gilbert Jr.’s trial had been delayed for years due to questions about his mental competency. “The defendant has finally been held accountable and he will serve a life sentence for this unconscionable crime,” Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance said in a statement.