The scene that greeted police officers Oct. 10 when they arrived at a domestic disturbance call in East Arlington’s Cobblestone neighborhood was one of mayhem, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office report.

Joyce Ann Courson, 69, was sitting in a puddle of blood in the hallway, her right eye split open as fist- and foot-sized holes filled nearby walls in the home on Ashridge Drive, the report said.

It all started with her hiding her grandson’s beer, she was able to tell police.

Courson’s 18-year-old grandson has been charged with murder after she succumbed to her injuries a week after being pummeled repeatedly, according to police. Dylan Nicholas Broughman had initially been charged with aggravated battery, but the murder charge was added Thursday after the Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the death a homicide.

Tracey Lynn Broughman, his mother, was briefly in tears Thursday morning after learning of the new charge as she stood in a home that bears the scars of the attack. Calling her mother "my best friend" who took care of them, she looked at holes kicked or punched in three walls near the kitchen and said she felt overwhelmed.

"I am sick for the loss of my mother. I am sick for the loss of my son. I don’t feel he deserves to go to prison. I don’t feel in my heart that he meant to do this to the severity that he did," Broughman said, burying her face in her hands before continuing.

"It’s just so hard. I am so emotional," she said. "I am lost without Mom. We were everything together."

The initial incident occurred just before 8 a.m. Oct. 10, according to the arrest report. Broughman was in the shower when Courson confiscated his beer. Her grandson became enraged when he couldn’t find his beer and began yelling, "It’s all your fault, everything is your fault!" she told police.

From her hospital bed, Courson told them her grandson caved in chunks of the walls and shoved her to the floor as he followed her into a hallway, the report said. That’s when he held her down and punched her in the face with his fist over and over again, then started kicking her.

Dillon Ross, a 22-year-old roommate, said he had just gone to bed after his night job when he heard the argument, then some banging. He said the grandmother and grandson sometimes argued in the mornings, so he stayed out of it at first.

"She took the beer and he just flipped out and I guess she wouldn’t tell him where she put it, so he started punching holes in the wall, then destroying the house pretty much and then blaming her," Ross said. "I didn’t think anything of it until I heard this ridiculous crash. That’s when it was like this turned into something crazy. After the crash, I heard the grandmother screaming for help."

Ross said he ran into the foyer and found Courson on the floor, and the 18-year-old was gone.

Officers searching the area found Broughman walking nearby on Kernan Boulevard and took him into custody. He told the officer that when he gets upset, "he blacks out in rage and does not remember what he does," according to the report.

Broughman’s mother admitted her son "has some issues." She also said she has since learned that her mother told her intensive care unit doctor not to blame him for her death.

The attack left Courson with severe cuts and bruises on her face and more on her stomach and chest. She died Oct. 18.

In a June 6 battery arrest report of Courson’s daughter, the 18-year-old told police he witnessed his mother batter Courson on more than one occasion. The case was later dropped. This month it was the grandson being charged.

Dan Scanlan: (904) 359-4549