The verbal abuse only intensified as Marta Pinto settled into a relationship, and then a home, with a sweet-talking older man she met at synagogue more than two years ago.
Pinto and her daughter, then 13, so feared Marc Benayer that they would lock themselves in their rooms to get away from his constant tirades.
Their 18-month relationship soured after the first six months, leaving Pinto, 52, to the tumultuous task of breaking away from the unrelenting 79-year-old retiree, one of her employers said on Wednesday, a day after Benayer opened fire during Rosh Hashana services at Chabad Weltman Synagogue west of Boca Raton and critically wounded her other boss.
“She was always crying, always howling at her desk,” said Mark Levy, after his business partner and longtime friend Jonathan Samuels, 44, was shot twice in the back.
Samuels remains in critical condition at Delray Medical Center, Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Teri Barbera said.
Pinto was introduced to Benayer shortly after her husband of 16 years died of cancer. She described in court records Benayer’s promises to marry her, buy her a house and look after her.
She fell for his charm at a particularly vulnerable point in her life, said Levy, Pinto’s boss of four years.
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