Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn announces that 50-year-old John Avent of the Town of Tonawanda has been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison by Erie County Court Judge Kenneth F. Case for killing his girlfriend. 

In March of 2017, a jury found Avent guilty of Murder in the Second Degree following a nearly weeklong trial. 

The panel convicted the defendant of fatally stabbing his girlfriend, 51-year-old Roberta Rybinski in their Newell Avenue apartment in the Town of Tonawanda between March 3 and March 8, 2016. 

DA Flynn commends Town of Tonawanda Police Detectives Timothy Connolly, Jeffrey Campanella, Gary Reinhardt, Thomas Oswald and Brian Moline for their thorough investigative work. 

Assistant District Attorneys Gary W. Hackbush and Matthew S. Szalkowski prosecuted the case.