POINCIANA, Fla. -- The father of a 5-year-old boy is in jail in Osceola County. Detectives say he beat his son to death because of an argument over breakfast. The boy wouldn't eat his breakfast at his dad's Poinciana house on Friday and, deputies say, his father beat him to death.

The father's girlfriend is also in jail. Detectives think she may have been the first to hit the little boy with her belt and, when the boy hit back, they say his father went over the edge.

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911 CALL: Woman Reports Stepson Unresponsive (Spanish)

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The incident happened at a house on Burnley Court and they say no one called for help until it was too late.

Melvin Ortiz, 28, faced a judge for the first time Wednesday in a cage separated from other inmates. He's charged with killing his own son.

"He told detectives he was angry because the child would not eat his breakfast," said Twis Lizasuain, Osceola County Sheriff's Office.

But investigators say Ortiz didn't come clean right away.

"Uh, yes my stepson fell," 24-year-old Frances Rodriguez told a 911 dispatcher on July 24 (listen to full call).

Rodriguez, Ortiz's girlfriend, made that 911 call four hours after 5-year-old, Kenyon Ortiz, was beaten and first tried to say he'd been hurt while playing a day earlier at a playground. Finally, late Tuesday, she told investigators what really happened.

"She took him into the bathroom, hit him with a belt on his legs. When he tried to strike her back, the father got upset and began repeatedly striking the child, pushing him down," Lizasuain said.

The medical examiner ruled on July 26 that the victim died from blunt force trauma to the abdomen and chest that caused internal and external bleeding. Now Ortiz is charged with murder and the girlfriend is locked up for battery. Child services removed two of her children from the Poinciana home.

Neighbors just down the street still can't believe the reason for killing a boy so young who couldn't defend himself.

"There's no reason for something like that, there's no reason for that. If he doesn't want to eat, he doesn't want to eat. You don't beat a kid because he doesn't want to eat," neighbor Mario Pedrazo said.

Even sadder, the little boy had only been at the Poinciana home for a month. Investigators say he was living with his mother in Puerto Rico and was only visiting his dad.