Mom on phone with son hears him shot dead by his 'irritating' upstairs neighbor who liked to 'brag' about his 9 mm, sheriff says

A antheral successful cardinal Florida was smoking a cigaret portion connected the telephone with his parent erstwhile helium was abruptly changeable dormant by his upstairs neighbor, authorities say.

David Richard Morris, 48, has been charged with second-degree murder without premeditation and discharging a firearm successful a residential country successful the decease of 56-year-old Jeffrey Blevins, the Polk County Sheriff's Office said successful a press release. During Morris' archetypal quality successful tribunal connected Sunday, helium was ordered to beryllium held without bond.

On Thursday night, Blevins was extracurricular of his first-floor residence astatine Fountain Place Apartments successful Bartow, Florida, wherever helium lived with his sister, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said during a Monday property conference. Blevins was smoking a cigaret and speaking to his parent connected the phone.

"The parent heard a dependable arsenic if helium had fallen down, and she called retired to Jeffrey, and helium didn't respond," Judd added. The parent hung up the telephone and called the sister, telling her to "go extracurricular and find your brother. He's fallen down oregon something's happened to him. He won't speech to me."

The Bartow Police Department received a telephone astatine astir 11:20 p.m. "about idiosyncratic that was down," the sheriff stated. Officers arrived to find Blevins' assemblage extracurricular of the complex's fittingness halfway — adjacent to his flat — and "it was evident that helium died a convulsive death."

He had been changeable connected the apical of his forehead and appeared to person died immediately.

Authorities — including the Polk County Sheriff's Office — began investigating and learned that Blevins was known arsenic being "non-confrontational" and "well-liked." Investigators spoke with the victim's neighbors, starring them to Morris' door.

"He has been described to america arsenic a conspiracy theorist," Judd said of Morris, noting the fishy has lived with his parent his full life. "He's what we telephone a level Earther. He inactive doesn't judge the Earth is round. Well, the level successful the region jailhouse is flat, anyway, and that's wherever helium is."

"So we archetypal interviewed him, and we asked him … 'do you ain a firearm?' He says, 'Yes, I ain a 9 millimeter handgun,'" Judd recounted. "Little did helium cognize … is we had a 9 millimeter casing from wherever our unfortunate had been shot."

Detectives continued to investigate, and they spoke with idiosyncratic other who reportedly described Morris arsenic a "suspicious feline that, erstwhile helium was precocious connected meth, would brag astir his gun." The sheriff described however investigators recovered a idiosyncratic possessing meth who told them they had fixed the cause to Morris successful the past.

"Then we recovered different idiosyncratic who admitted to us, 'well, this feline is, he's benignant of an irritating guy. Doesn't origin a batch of problem, but he's just, he's conscionable truly strange,'" Judd added. Officers obtained a hunt warrant for Morris' location and erstwhile they searched it, they recovered a weapon with "the aforesaid nonstop casing, brand, and stamp arsenic the execution casing."

"David didn't bash a existent bully occupation cleaning the weapon due to the fact that we recovered evidence, humor grounds connected the gun," helium continued. "And past we were existent excited erstwhile we recovered that determination was humor grounds connected immoderate shoes helium had successful his house, arsenic good arsenic a towel."

"During the search, Morris refused to stay seated and interfered with detectives by yelling astatine them," the sheriff's bureau added, saying they arrested Morris astatine the clip and booked him successful the Polk County Jail connected a complaint of resisting. They besides charged him with interfering with a postulation power instrumentality due to the fact that "detectives recovered 2 thoroughfare signs that Morris illegally possessed."

Investigators learned that Morris "had been assertive toward different tenants," with 1 nonmigratory saying Morris had a confrontation with Blevins connected the nighttime earlier helium was killed.

Bartow, Florida, is located astir 45 miles eastbound of Tampa, Florida.