Background: The 1300 block of Wembley Drive in Charlotte, North Carolina, where the victim died (Google Maps). Inset: Christian Caraballo (Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office).
A North Carolina man is accused of beating and strangling his uncle to death in the backyard of a family home in Charlotte.
Christian Heredia Caraballo, 19, has been charged with the murder of his uncle, 50-year-old Ernesto Caraballo Toledo, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department announced. The suspect was arrested on Tuesday, but the death occurred back in October.
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On Oct. 18, shortly before 2 a.m., Caraballo, Toledo, and at least two other members of their family were at their home on the 1300 block of Wembley Drive in the state's largest city. At one point, Caraballo and Toledo were outside in their backyard, while the other two family members were inside in bed.
According to an affidavit reviewed by Law&Crime, Caraballo came inside the home and told the two other family members that "something happened and they needed to come outside." The suspect had "numerous cuts to his hands and a possible injury to his ear that he could not explain."
The police were called, and officers responded to the home. Once there, they found Toledo "suffering from head trauma on the ground outside of the residence." Paramedics also arrived and pronounced the man dead at the scene.
In the backyard near Toledo's body lay a "broken rock like paver" in two pieces, per the affidavit. The furniture in the yard was "broken and overturned" and "[b]lood drops and handprints were located throughout the rear of the house, in the kitchen and the living room."
The other two family members at the scene gave "consistent statements" that they were inside in bed when Caraballo told them they needed to go outside, authorities said. The suspect, however, "had a different story."
Caraballo claimed Toledo was outside by himself for about five minutes when he went to check on his uncle and found him dead. He said, "He did not know how the blood got everywhere and did not know how the furniture got broken."
An autopsy performed on Toledo determined that, in addition to trauma to his head, "he also had been strangled." According to the police, Caraballo's DNA "matched swabs taken from the murder weapon, under the victim's fingernails, and on a suspected bite mark on the victim's arm."
Authorities have not released what they believe led to the alleged violent confrontation.
Caraballo was placed in the Mecklenburg County Detention Center and is being held without bond. His next court date is scheduled for Dec. 23.
