Florida man charged with ‘severe and gruesome’ murder of his father after fight over TV escalates, cops say

A Florida man called 911 and said he didn’t know if his father was alive or dead after he allegedly beat him when the two got into a fight over a television, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.

On Nov. 28, investigators said, Mario Tarabillo-Justiniano, 32, was at his apartment when the argument started with the victim, Mario Enrique Tarabillo, 59. The fight then escalated and became physical.

Officers responding to Tarabillo-Justiniano's call for help found his father dead from a severe beating on a bedroom floor — his arms and hands covered in blood and his eyes swollen shut, WESH reported.

According to an arrest affidavit obtained by WKMG-TV, Tarabillo-Justiniano claimed he wanted to buy a new television and asked his father for help. His father, however, insisted on giving him an older TV, sparking the fight between the two.

The affidavit alleges Tarabillo-Justiniano said his father cursed at him and tried to walk past him but he refused to move.

The victim, Tarabillo-Justiniano claimed, punched him in the face, and he allegedly responded by punching him back multiple times before throwing his father down “as hard as he could," the records show.

Officers noted that bruising on both the father and son’s faces were consistent with punches, but that the victim’s were “severe and gruesome” and did not support a claim of self-defense, according to WESH.

Records also show the son said he gave his father chest compressions for 15 minutes, but then changed the account to 30 minutes.

According to sheriff’s deputies, the victim was scheduled to undergo surgery related to complications from a kidney transplant he had two years ago and he was in a weakened state.

Tarabillo-Justiniano faces a second-degree murder charge.