Man, 29, gets 90-year prison term for murder-kidnap incident

MOUNT HOLLY — A 29-year-old man has received a 90-year prison term for killing a man with a baseball bat.

Larry Smith of Burlington Township was convicted earlier this year of the murder of 34-year-old Cecilio Luciano in a Beverly residence in June 2021, according to the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office.

A jury in March also found Smith guilty of kidnapping and other charges related to barricading himself inside the home with a woman and four children.

The standoff began after police arrived at a Bentley Avenue home around 1:15 a.m. on June 14, 2022. The woman and children emerged unharmed over the next several hours, and Smith came out about 8:30 a.m.

Luciano, a resident of Highland Park in Middlesex County, was found dead inside the home.

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A petition on Change.org had asked the prosecutor’s office to pursue murder charges against Brown, rather than accepting a plea deal to a lesser charge.

It alleged Luciano was targeted because he was in a relationship with the mother of Smith's children.

“While he was jealous of the relationship between Cecilio and the mother of his three children, he did not unknowingly walk into the home and catch the two together,” claimed the petition, which drew more than 1,200 signatures.

"Instead, when he saw Cecilio was in the home, he fixated on the thought and premeditated on committing a crime of murder,” the petition claimed.

Smith was sentenced Aug. 20 in the Mount Holly courtroom of Superior Court Judge Gerard H. Breland.

He must serve 73 years before parole eligibility, the prosecutor's office said.

Jim Walsh is a senior reporter with the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal. Email: Jwalsh@cpsj.com.

This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Man, 29, gets 90-year prison term for murder-kidnap incident