The heir to a century-old engine company will spend the rest of his life behind bars after he killed his friend with an ax and power washed the victim's blood off his patio.

Matthew Weldon was found guilty earlier this month of first-degree murder in the brutal May 2024 slaying of Carroll Edwin Bryan Jr, 49, according to WTSP.

Weldon, 39, was sentenced on Friday to serve life in prison without the possibility of parole, as Judge Christopher LaBruzzo labeled him an 'ax murderer.'

Prosecutors had argued in court that Weldon approached Bryan from behind as he sat on the patio of the trust-funder's $1 million house in Palm Harbor, Florida and struck him with an ax – then dealt more blows after Bryan fell to the ground, the Tampa Bay Times reports.

He then walked into his next-door neighbor's backyard and told the neighbor: 'He's dead,' as he pointed over to the million-dollar Mediterranean-style waterfront home his father had bought in 2007.

'I killed him,' Weldon then admitted to the neighbor.

But Weldon claimed at his murder trial that he struck Bryan with an ax in self-defense, after Bryan came at him with a knife – angry that Weldon had called the police on him. 

Weldon, then 37, had met Bryan, who went by Ed, just two weeks prior to the deadly encounter, the Pinellas County Sheriff's Department said. 

Neighbors then started seeing Bryan at the five-bedroom, six-bathroom waterfront home that had become Weldon's full-time residence after his father got sick.

When Paul Weldon, the third-generation owner of Ohio-based Van Bergen & Greener Inc, a century-old company that manufactures components for engine starter motors, died of multiple myeloma in 2021, the property remained under the ownership of a trust in his name. 

On the day of the murder, next-door neighbor Robert Futch said he heard Bryan and Weldon 'bickering' and said Weldon told him that Bryan had been 'taking my car into the hood and buying drugs and bringing them back here for us,' according to records obtained by the Tampa Bay Times.

Just one day prior, on May 20, 2024, Weldon had reported to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office that Bryan hadn't returned the Jaguar SUV Weldon had lent him days earlier.

When Futch then came home shortly before noon on May 21, he said he saw Weldon's white Jaguar in the driveway.

But soon, Futch said he heard Weldon and Bryan arguing, saying it sounded as if they were about to get into a fight.

Moments later, Futch said he saw Weldon power washing in the back patio area. 

About one hour later, at around 3.30pm, Weldon showed up in Futch's backyard, he recounted in his deposition.

He said Weldon was acting strangely, so he decided to record the conversation – when Weldon said he had killed someone, claiming the victim 'came at me.'

Futch immediately went back inside to his house to call 911, while Weldon asked another neighbor to call emergency services as well.

When a sheriff's sergeant then arrived at the scene, he found Weldon sitting on the driveway with his plaid pants stained with blood.

'He's in there, he's dead,' Weldon told the deputy, according to officials.

The sergeant then found Bryan's body on the back patio with blood pooled around his head, a silver kitchen knife lying on the ground near his stomach, as his right arm and hand were draped over the handle of a black ax in his abdomen.

Meanwhile, Weldon was taken into custody and treated for an elevated heart rate and injuries that included puncture wounds to his lower left leg and right hip.

He then claimed that he and Bryan had struggled, but declined to provide any details, and was arrested that evening.

Weldon was then booked into the Pinellas County Jail on a second-degree murder charge, which was later upgraded to a first-degree murder charge by a grand jury.

As he then languished behind bars, authorities discovered damning surveillance footage from the million-dollar home.

It showed Bryan arriving at the home at 10.11am on May 21, 2024 in 'what appeared to be a friendly manner,' according to court documents.

Hours later, at 1.47pm, Weldon could be seen pacing in the pool area and getting into a 'shoving match' with Bryan. 

By 2.22pm, Weldon could be seen carrying an ax as he walked along the side of the house to the pool area, and at 2.43pm, Weldon was seen retrieving the ax from the pool area and walking toward the front of the house.

Seven minutes later, Weldon was caught on camera power washing around the pool area. 

None of the surveillance footage captured the murder, as Weldon claimed Bryan became angry that he went to the police, armed himself with a kitchen knife and said he was going to kill him. 

Weldon said he then picked up the ax, hit Bryan a couple times, causing him to drop the knife – and when he then went to pick the weapon back up, Weldon said he hit him on the head and then the chin. 

But an autopsy found that Bryan died from blunt and sharp-force injuries, including four 'chop' wounds to his head and neck.

Weldon was later caught in calls from the jail saying he had tried to kill Bryan and would do it again, prosecutors argued.

Sheriff's Detective Compton Persaud further provided damning testimony when he argued that the blood splatter suggested Bryan was sitting at a table on the patio when Weldon came from behind and struck him in the head with an ax, then hit him again after he fell.

Persaud also testified that the puncture wounds to Weldon's legs appeared to be self-inflicted.  

Cynthia Navarette, Bryan's ex-wife and the mother of his three kids, told police in the aftermath that Bryan was once a talented rapper who seemed like he was going to have a career in the music industry before he suffered from mental health issues that became worse during a stint in state prison.

Records obtained by the Tampa Bay Times showed Bryan was released in 2022 after serving a little over five years for second-degree murder.

According to news reports at the time, Bryan shot and killed another man while chasing him down a street in Pine Hills, west of Orlando, amid an ongoing dispute.

But at Weldon's sentencing on Friday, his family members instead remembered him as a loving and kind man.

His daughter, Sapphire Bryan, described him as a 'magician, an artist, a comedian, a dork [and] a visionary.

'But most of all, he was a loving father,' she said, noting he would have had the opportunity this year to meet his grandson if he were still alive. 

'There are some wounds that I cannot erase and some things that simply cannot be forgiven,' she said. 

Bryan's sister, Nikki Giovanni Bryan, also said her brother made friends easily and was very trusting, as Bryan's mother recounted how her son trusted Weldon.

'He said "Don't worry, Mom, Matthew is a good person,"' the grieving mother testified over Zoom, her voice hoarse and wavering.