MELBOURNE, Fla. – A Melbourne man was arrested Wednesday on a charge of manslaughter after he beat his father to death, according to police.
In an affidavit, police said first responders got a call on the night of Jan. 19 about a man who was breathing “but not responding” at a home along Sacre Coeur in Melbourne.
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Investigators added that the man’s son — identified as Julien Welch-Beddoe, 19 — reported that he had been fighting with his father when his dad “became unstable,” prompting the emergency call.
“Welch-Beddoe stated he was making a plate of food, when (his father) got up from the couch and told him that he didn’t deserve to have it because he wasn’t working,” the affidavit reads. “Julien Welch-Beddoe stated he made himself a plate anyway, and as he was walking away toward his bedroom, (his father) pushed him.”
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Per Welch-Beddoe, the two began to physically fight until the father’s fiancée intervened, after which he went to his bedroom and his father returned to the couch, investigators said. But shortly after the fight ended, he allegedly heard the fiancée scream, “This isn’t a joke!”
Welch-Beddoe told investigators that he then walked back to the living room and found his father breathing, but he was unresponsive, the affidavit states.
Police said the father was taken to a hospital for treatment, but he died a few hours later. An autopsy revealed that he’d suffered three broken ribs and a cut spleen, which caused internal bleeding that led to his death.
In addition, officers explained that the father’s blood alcohol content was 0.391 — a level that could reflect alcohol poisoning — which might have impeded his ability to defend himself during his fight with Welch-Beddoe.
As a result, a warrant was issued for Welch-Beddoe’s arrest, and he was booked into the county jail on Wednesday night.
He faces a charge of manslaughter was being held without bond.
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