ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Investigators said three teenagers are facing first-degree murder charges after an elderly man died after being beaten during a burglary.
The victim's four brothers want to know why he was attacked.
Esteban Calderon, 67, was the oldest brother of five and worked for Orange County for 20 years.
Investigators said Victor Wriden, Ronald Edouard and Luner Axcius, all 16, decided to burglarize Calderon and attack him at the home he shared with his brother in Pine Hills.
Investigators said it's possible the teens may have been casing the neighborhood for victims.
The victim's brother told WFTV the night before the home invasion, he saw a teenager fitting the description of one of the suspects walking by and then lurking around between a neighbor's house and the home where all of this happened.
Calderon's family can't make sense of the violence that took his life.
Calderon was frail, fighting a heart condition, and defenseless.
"There's was not going to be any fight from him, he was too weak so I can only imagine this was pure evil," said Calderon's brother, James Calderon.
Detectives said Edouard, Wriden and Axcius barged into Calderon's home last Wednesday night to rob him. But they also beat him so severely that he died in the hospital four days later, according to detectives.
James Calderon found him in the home they shared moments after the violent home invasion.
"There was blood all over the floor and he was standing over the sink all bloody, trying to clean himself. He was incoherent," said James Calderon.
"His head and his face was swollen with welts and bloody," he said. "He was basically unrecognizable."
On Tuesday, Wriden appeared in juvenile court with his mother at his side.
"It's a tragedy, a horrible situation for everyone," said Mercedes Andrews.
Before the hearing, she told WFTV she's in shock.
"Is your son capable of something like this?" WFTV asked.
"Um, I can't answer that," Andrews replied.
Andrews told WFTV her son and the other two suspects are childhood friends.
All three are facing first-degree murder charges.
Calderon's family members said they want justice and answers.
"I want answers from the three individuals. Why did they do this? What was their reason to exercise such brutality?" said James Calderon.
In the end, a DVD player and two televisions were taken from the home. Police said they identified the suspects through fingerprints taken from one of the TVs found dropped in the yard.
WFTV’s legal analyst says all three suspects will likely be tried as adults because the crime was so vicious.
Two of teens the already have felonies on their records.
WFTV
