The father of a man who is accused of stabbing a homeless man to death said his son had a history of mental illness.
"They must hate me. They must hate my family. I don't blame them -- I would probably hate them," said Richard Stabile.
Richard Stabile's son John is charged with first-degree murder. John Stabile, 23, is accused of stabbing a homeless man in the alley between Rattlesnake Jake’s and the Sea Girl shop with a butcher knife and then waiting for him to die before calling to report the murder Saturday morning.
"He said to them I didn't want to hurt nobody that had a family. I didn't want somebody that was raising their wife and kids to suffer through this," said Richard Stabile.
When Broward Sheriff's Office deputies arrived, they said John Stabile confessed to stabbing the man.
"Forty-eight hours before this murder was committed, my son told me he had bad thoughts in his head," said Richard Stabile.
BSO said Stabile denies knowing or having had any problems with the victim. He told detectives he had seen the homeless man around the area and had been thinking about killing him for a couple of weeks.
Richard Stabile said his son was a songwriter who loved music but never received the help he needed.
"If anything good comes out of this, maybe we don't lose nobody else," said Richard Stabile.
John Stabile is being held on no bond.
