NYC man who killed mom for inheritance admits she ‘deserved a better son’
A Manhattan man who admitted he slit his mother’s throat to try to speed up his multimillion-dollar inheritance said she “deserved a better son” as he was sentenced Wednesday to 22 years-to-life for the gruesome crime.
Jared Eng, 25, spoke slowly and appeared to choke back tears in Manhattan Supreme Court as he learned his fate for the brutal January 2019 murder of 65-year-old Paula Chin.
“My mother deserved a much better fate than what she got,” he said, taking deep breaths during his comments in front of Justice Maxwell Wiley. “She deserved happiness, she deserved grandchildren, but most of all she deserved a better son.”
Eng had initially denied killing his mother – who was worth about $11 million — — but he pleaded guilty on September 16 to one count of murder in the second degree.
He told the court he was ashamed and “overwhelmed with guilt” over what he’d done — which included dumping his mom’s body in New Jersey with the help of two women he was dating at the same time.
“What happened can be no other way to describe as evil, terrible and horrific,” he said.
“I was quite delusional and I struggled with coming to terms with the fact I did such a terrible thing.”
Eng was itching to get his inheritance early, with he and his brother set to get their cut of the family fortune when they turn 35. Eng’s father, who died of lung cancer in 2008, had left his possessions to his wife but the two brothers would split her money if she died.
On Jan. 31, 2019 Eng beat and slashed his mother in their Tribeca apartment, then called up the women he was in a “throuple” with to help him dispose the body and clean up the evidence.
Prosecutors said texts between the three showed how they planned for the coverup –while Eng allegedly conducting web searches for “DIY bone meal.”
“He was upset with her [Paula Chin] for being grounded,” assistant District Attorney Joshua Adam Steinglass said in court. “He saw his mother as a neuence and a meal ticket. But when he felt she was exercising too much control over his lifestyle he figured out a way to get money.”
Eng and girlfriend Jennifer Lopez allegedly cleaned up the bloody apartment after the killing, then used a duffel bag to transport Chin’s body in the trunk of her own SUV to her weekend home in Morristown, New Jersey.
Eng’s other girlfriend, Caitlyn O’Rourke, met the other two in New Jersey days later to help clean up the scene and stuff Chin’s body into a trash can – where it was found decomposing after Eng’s brother reported the matriarch missing.
“If there was anyone who deserves leniency in what happened, its Caitlyn and Jennifer,” Eng said of his lovers, who are facing charges of concealing the corpse. “Their biggest mistake was to fall in love with me.”
Chin denied killing his mother multiple times after his arrest, telling The Post in a 2019 jailhouse interview, “I want to clear my name.”
In court on Wednesday, he said he had to “atone for the crime committed” and understood why he’d spend a large chunk of his life in prison.
“I know there are no words that came to make this right but I understand that I have to atone for the crime I committed,” he said.
“I have come to terms with it and I have to take this responsibility,” he added. “I’m not sure how I can atone for these crimes besides doing time in prison and it scares me that I don’t know how I can balance the scale, I just know I have to.”
Distract Attorney Alvin Bragg said: “This sentencing finally closes a challenging chapter for this family and their loved ones,” he continued, “I thank our prosecutors for their diligent work and commitment to ensuring accountability.”
