MELBOURNE, Fla. – A 62-year-old man, who police said repeatedly stabbed his roommate with a butcher knife over his messy bathroom habits and waste of food, now faces a murder charge after the roommate succumbed to his injuries, News 6 partner Florida Today reports.
Anthony Henry Cannone was initially charged with attempted murder, but that charge was refiled as second-degree murder this month after the 62-year-old alleged victim, Charles Burke, died of complications stemming from the Jan. 25 attack, police said. Both shared the 411 Rutgers Avenue home where the stabbing took place, records show.
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Cannone remains held on a $200,000 bond at the Brevard County Jail Complex in Sharpes.
Cannone called 9-1-1 to report the attack, at times chuckling and clearing his throat as he told a dispatcher, “I just killed somebody… they’re in there breathing their last breath,” records show.
Police said Cannone pointed to his roommate's hygienic habits, including failing to clean up the bathroom, as a motive in the deadly stabbing.
Cannone complained to detectives that he carried out the stabbing because he was fed up with his roommate defecating on the floor. The roommate also wasted food, he told officers. Burke, who was sleeping in his bedroom at the time of the attack, had multiple stab wounds to the chest and face along with defensive wounds to his hands and wrists, inflicted as he struggled to ward off the thrusts from the knife, records show.