Man killed father during argument over television
A 32-year-old Orange County man faces a second-degree murder charge in the killing of his 59-year-old father, who died Sunday after a “severe beating” during an argument with his son at a Hunter’s Creek apartment complex, according to an arrest affidavit.
Mario Tarabillo-Justiniano called 911 multiple times around 3 p.m. and told dispatchers that he fought with his dad over a TV, hit him in the face and didn’t know whether he was alive, the report said.
Orange County Sheriff ’s Office deputies arrived to Urbana Apartments, at 4301 Urbana Dr., and found Mario Enrique Tarabillo on his back, covered in blood on the bedroom floor, the affidavit said. Paramedics pronounced Tarabillo dead at the scene.
OCSO Detective Kevin O’Malley wrote in the affidavit that Tarabillo’s eyes were swollen shut and there was blood splatter on the walls and a mattress near where his body was found.
Tarabillo-Justiniano told O’Malley during an interrogation that he wanted to buy a new TV for his apartment, but his father wanted to give him an older model for free.
The two men argued and Tarabillo tried to move past Tarabillo-Justiniano, but his son wouldn’t move so he punched him in the face, the affidavit said.
Tarabillo-Justiniano said he hit his father several times, dodged a punch and then put Tarabillo in a chokehold before slamming him to the ground “as hard as he could,” O’Malley wrote in the affidavit.
When he realized his dad was unconscious, Tarabillo-Justiniano said he did chest compressions, then called 911.
Tarabillo-Justiniano, whose knuckles were injured and had faint bruising under his right eye, told O’Malley he hit his father in self-defense, the report said.
But O’Malley wrote in the affidavit that Tarabillo’s injuries were “gruesome” and he “appeared to have been the victim of a severe beating.”
Tarabillo’s wife told deputies that he received a kidney transplant two years ago and was in a weakened state because of an infection, according to the report.
Tarabillo-Justiniano is currently being held in the Orange County Jail without bond.