A Winchester retiree who was beaten to death with a rubber mallet may have been dead in her Parkview Condominiums home — along with her beloved cats Pumpkin and Puffy — for two weeks, court documents show.
Matthew Paul McAveeney, 46, pleaded not guilty yesterday to murdering his mother, Barbara McAveeney, and to assault and animal cruelty charges. As ?officers from the Middlesex Sheriff’s Department led him from Woburn District Court to a waiting prisoner transport van, McAveeney said, “My apologies to any family, friends, acquaintances my actions may have harmed.”
Tuesday night, a shackled McAveeney told media representatives asking what had happened to his mother that he had “murdered her,” and apologized to both his mother and her cats.
“Sometimes I get out of control,” he said.
The battered body of Barbara McAveeney, 70, was discovered Oct. 14 in the Swanton Street apartment they shared. However, a criminal complaint filed with the court alleges she was beaten to death with a rubber mallet on Oct. 1.
No details of the gruesome crime were provided by Middlesex Assistant District Attorney John McEvoy in court because McAveeney’s public defender, Cheryl McGillivray, did not argue for him to be released on bail. McGillivray declined to discuss McAveeney or his case.
All investigative reports in support of McAveeney’s arrest, as well as search warrants, were ordered impounded by Judge Michael J. Brooks, as were the reasons for the impoundment.
McAveeney, wearing an ill-fitting, soiled T-shirt, frequently tried yesterday to interrupt Brooks, then left the courtroom saying, “Your Honor, have a good day.”
Brooks ordered McAveeney to return for a probable cause hearing Nov. 25.
There was no court ?record of Barbara McAveeney ever taking out a ?restraining order against her son.
