Sheriff’s office: Florida man decapitates his mother

OLDSMAR, Fla. (AP) – A Florida man is charged with first-degree murder after his mother was found decapitated outside their home on New Year’s Eve.

According to the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, Mario Gomez called 911 on Wednesday evening and told dispatchers that his brother Christian had killed their mother and cut off her head.

Deputies found Maria Suarez-Cassagne’s body outside the Oldsmar home, near some garbage cans.

Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said Thursday that Gomez had planned his mother’s murder for two days.

Gomez was upset with his mother because she wanted him to move boxes around the house, and he was jealous of the attention Suarez-Cassagne paid to his brother, Gualtieri said.

The 23-year-old attacked his mother in the garage with an ax, severing her head, Gualtieri said. Gomez then allegedly dragged his mother’s remains from the garage to the garbage cans.

Gualtieri told reporters that the crime was one of the worst his department had ever seen.

Gomez then fled the scene, but he was arrested a few blocks away after another 911 call reported a suspicious person riding a bicycle in the area.

Gomez confessed to killing his mother, Gualtieri said.

Investigators recovered the ax. Mario Gomez, 27, was not injured.

According to the sheriff’s office, Gomez had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and previously was held under the Baker Act. Gomez also had other arrests in Pinellas County for loitering and prowling, resisting an officer without violence and disorderly conduct.

Pinellas County jail records did not show whether Gomez had an attorney.