Tom Gilbert Jr. - Police in New York have arrested and charged a 30-year-old man with murdering his 70-year-old father after an argument over his reduced monthly allowance.
Reports indicate that Thomas Gilbert Jr., a Princeton graduate, was arrested in his Manhattan apartment at 10:30 p.m. on Sunday after he shot his father Thomas Gilbert Sr. in the head and staged the crime to look like a suicide.
Gilbert Jr. visited his parents at their Beekman Place apartment on Sunday afternoon to talk to his father about his monthly allowance, which had been cut back.
Robert Boyce, the chief of detectives for the New York police Department, says soon after arriving at his parent's house, Gilbert Jr. asked his mother to go and buy him a sandwich while he and his father ironed out their differences.
67-year-old Shelley, Gilbert Sr.'s wife, left the house only to rush back 12 minutes later because she had a bad feeling.
"She found Senior on the floor with a bullet hole in the head," Boyce said. "She also found a gun resting on his chest with his left hand covering it."
Reports indicate that investigators have confirmed that the crime scene was staged to look like suicide after close examination.
Authorities obtained a search warrant for Gilbert Jr.'s one room apartment, where they found loose bullets, magazines and a shell that matched the gun found at the scene of his father's murder.
Tom Gilbert Jr. is currently in custody and has been charged with criminal possession of a weapon and homicide. Authorities are still investigating how he got the weapon.
Thomas Gilbert Sr. was a reputed businessman who worked on Wall Street for over 30 years. He founded several companies including Syzygy Therapeutics, a biotech asset acquisition fund and Knowledge Delivery Systems Inc., an online company.
Local sources say Gilbert Sr had threatened to stop paying Tom's $2,400 monthly rent and cut his allowance to $300. However, Tom, who was arrested last May on drug charges, is reportedly in debt and wanted to have his way.
Tom Gilbert Jr. also has a pending case in Southampton where he was charged with criminal contempt on Sept. 18.
