He didn’t like his roommate’s frozen rat — so out came a baseball bat, Keys police say
A Florida Keys man attacked his roommate with a baseball bat after finding a dead rat in their freezer, police said.
“I’m going to have to kill you,” Javier Francisco Arellano, 59, told his roommate while hitting him with the bat, according to the arrest report.
Arellano was arrested on a felony charge of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. On Wednesday, he remained in the county jail on Stock Island on a $250,000 bond.
The roommate, 57-year-old Spencer Blanton, was airlifted from Fishermen’s Hospital in Marathon to a Miami hospital with head injuries, including one that required staples, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office said.
The attack happened at about 5:10 a.m. Oct. 18. Deputies arrived to find Blanton covered in dried blood, the report states. He told them Arellano attacked him with a bat.
Blanton told deputies he had found a dead rat on the floor and wrapped it in plastic and put it in the freezer as food for his pet snakes.
After 5 a.m., Arellano entered Blanton’s room and said he wanted to talk about the dead rat in the freezer. Blanton said he tried to leave the room but Arellano began hitting him with a wooden bat.
The attack continued into the kitchen. Blanton was able to run out of the home and go to a neighbor’s house for help.
“Blanton said he does not want to press criminal charges,” the arrest report states.
Arellano said Spencer attacked him and that he defended himself with the bat — the same bat he had used to kill a rodent earlier, police said. But deputies said Arellano only had a scratch on his elbow and no other visible injuries.
Deputies also said they found about 40 firearms at the home.
The sheriff’s office said the weapons were taken into custody for safekeeping until their owner is identified.
This story was originally published October 21, 2020 at 4:01 PM.
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