JUSTICE DONE

Jacqueline Avant’s Killer Sentenced to 150 Years in Prison

Aariel Maynor, who pleaded guilty last month to killing the wife of a man dubbed “The Godfather of Black music”, bragged about the slaying to a friend in a jailhouse call.

A two-time convict who fatally shot a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee’s wife in a brutal December home invasion was sentenced Tuesday to 150 years to life in prison for the slaying. Aariel Maynor, 30, shot the “highly vulnerable” 81-year-old philanthropist Jacqueline Avant in the back after he broke into the home she shared with husband Clarence Avant, Judge Kathryn Solorzano said in her pre-sentencing remarks. Maynor pleaded guilty to Avant’s murder last month in a hearing that also saw him admit that he’d also attempted to kill a security guard as he escaped the Beverly Hills property. Before sentencing, prosecutors played a recording of Maynor laughing about Avant’s death on a jailhouse call to a female friend. During the call, Maynor crowed that he was “all over the news,” explaining to her that he’d expected a $50,000 payday from targeting the Avant home. “I’m gonna get out of jail,” he said, according to a sentencing memorandum. “I’ll probably do 20, 25, get out, you feel me?” Sat in a wheelchair in court on Tuesday, Maynor did not react as the recording was played. He was similarly emotionless as the sentence was later handed down, according to the Los Angeles Times.