New London — When he was first asked about the violent beating death of his roommate or why his hands were cut and swollen, Sebastian Tzampop told police he didn’t remember and must have blacked out after a night of drinking on Christmas Eve.

It wasn’t until police detectives showed Tzampop crime scene and autopsy photos of the lifeless body of his roommate, Antonio Chajon, that Tzampop allegedly confessed to the crime.

Charged with murder, Tzampop was arraigned in New London Superior Court on Monday and ordered held in prison on $1 million bond.

Chajon, 39, was asleep in bed on Christmas morning when Tzampop, 29, said “he felt something overtake him.”

“Tzampop stated there might be an evil, spiritual presence in the house that possessed him,” according to the arrest warrant affidavit in the case.

Tzampop saw Chajon on the bed and for no apparent reason punched him twice in the face and head, pulled him off the bed onto the floor and started kicking him, police said. The next thing Tzampop said he remembered was being woken up in bed by another roommate who had discovered Chajon’s body.

It was shortly before 11 a.m. on Christmas Day that police were called out for reports of a dead body on the second-floor apartment at 15 Hope St. shared by Chajon, Tzampop and several other roommates. They found Chajon on the floor of his second-floor bedroom with obvious signs he had been beaten about the face and head. His room was in disarray as if a struggle had occurred, according to the police report.

The medical examiner later ruled that Chajon died of neck compression “with blunt injuries of head and trunk.” Chief Medical Examiner James R. Gill added that Chajon sustained multiple rib fractures, a lacerated liver, a broken hyoid bone in his neck and broken tracheal cartilage.

One roommate, Jose Antonio Osorio Simaj, told police he had found Chajon on the floor and when he had called police, Tzampop said he had to leave before police arrived. Tzampop, according to the police report, explained to his roommates that the injuries to his hands may lead police to believe he was the one who killed Chajon.

Police said they noted not only were Tzampop’s hands swollen but he had scratches on his arm, wrist and chest along with abrasions on both elbows and one knee. He also had spots of blood on his pants and shoes, police said.

Simaj said he and his roommates were all drinking together on Christmas Eve but that he had left Chajon, Tzampop and others when he went to bed at 1 or 1:30 a.m.

Chajon, who is from Guatemala, had worked at Jasmine Thai Restaurant for the past five years and co-workers said he never seemed to be in a bad mood and always willing to work.

Tzampop’s case was transferred to Part A court for serious felonies where he is expected to appear on Jan. 14

g.smith@theday.com