BurlCo man sentenced to 90 years in prison for baseball bat murder and police standoff

BEVERLY, NJ — A man who killed a victim with a baseball bat and then barricaded himself in a Beverly home with a wife and four children was sentenced to 90 years in prison Tuesday.

Larry Brown, 29, must spend 73 years behind bars before he is eligible for parole, according to the Burlington County Superior Court ruling. He would be 102 years old at the time.

A jury convicted Brown in March of the June 2022 murder of Cecilio Luciano and the subsequent blockade that led to an hours-long standoff with law enforcement.

In the early morning of June 14, 2022, Beverly City Police received word that Brown had killed 34-year-old Luciano at a home on Bentley Avenue and was still inside the home with the wife and children. When Brown refused to leave the home, authorities called in state police crisis negotiators.

According to the Burlington County District Attorney's Office (BCPO), the woman and children emerged unharmed over the next few hours. Brown emerged around 8:30 a.m. that day and was arrested.

Officers then entered the home and found Luciano's body. An autopsy conducted by the county medical examiner determined Luciano, of Highland Park, had been beaten to death with a baseball bat, the BCPO said.

According to authorities, Brown was living primarily with a relative in Burlington Township at the time.

Due to the standoff, classes in the Beverly School District were canceled for the day.

A jury deliberated for several hours over three days and found Brown guilty:

• premeditated murder
• First degree kidnapping (five counts)
• second degree illegal possession of a handgun
• Endangering the welfare of a child in the third degree
• Third degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose
• Third degree certain persons are not allowed to possess weapons
• terrorist threats of the third degree
• fourth degree illegal possession of a weapon