A man who killed his older lover in the victim’s posh Hawaii home in 2022 was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to his murder.

Juan Baron, 26, heard his sentence through a translator as he appeared in court on Wednesday to learn his fate three years after he strangled 73-year-old Gary Ruby, placed him in a bathtub, and covered him with concrete while he was still alive. A year after pleading guilty to second-degree murder, first-degree theft, and identity theft, Baron was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 20 years.

During the sentencing hearing, Ruby’s relatives laced into Baron, calling him “evil” for the way he killed their loved one.

On March 7, 2022, Ruby’s brother, Lorne Ruby, requested a welfare check after he had not heard from his brother for three weeks. Officers from the Honolulu Police Department responded to the multimillion-dollar mansion on Hawaii Loa Ridge. When they arrived, Baron was inside the home and told officers that he had bought the home from his older lover five years earlier. Since Gary Ruby had purchased the home just two years earlier, Baron found himself caught in a lie. He changed his story.

As Law&Crime previously reported, police conducted a more thorough search of the home the next day and found “a bathtub in the master bathroom was filled with a concrete-plaster substance with a layer of coffee grounds on the surface.” Encased at the bottom of the tub was Gary Ruby’s body.

Baron fled to Anaheim, California. U.S. Marshals and officers from the Los Angeles Police Department found him on March 9, 2022, hiding under a bench on a bus headed for Mexico. After he was arrested, he granted detectives an interview the next day.

According to the affidavit, “Baron stated he had sex with Gary but became angry after Gary informed Baron that Gary was HIV positive. Baron stated that soon after, he noticed Gary choked on food, and Baron reacted by placing a belt around Gary’s neck and tightening the belt until Gary lost consciousness. Baron then dragged Gary to the bathtub and used a kitchen knife to slit Gary’s wrists in an effort to stage a suicide.”

Local NBC affiliate KHNL was in the courtroom for the sentencing hearing, where Lorne Ruby addressed Baron directly, saying, “You buried him alive. That fact and my awareness of his final suffering continue to haunt me. It was not enough for you to murder him. You inflicted horrible, unnecessary suffering upon him. How cold, how cruel, how inhumane, how evil such an act.”

Gary Ruby’s niece, who appeared via Zoom, said, “The medical examiner found particles of cement in my uncle’s lungs. I have to live knowing that he was still breathing when you poured cement on him. You have to live with that, too, Mr. Baron. What a horrific way to die.”

Baron also impersonated Gary Ruby after his death by hijacking his social media accounts. The victim’s niece said this act “killed the memories that were mine and were no longer there for me.”

Baron, a native of Colombia, will be deported back to his home country if he is released from prison.