VOLUSIA COUNT, Florida (WESH) — Two of the four men convicted in the 2004 Deltona mass murders are back in a Volusia County courtroom for resentencing.
A jury sentenced Troy Victorino and Jerone Hunter to death but a judge overturned those sentences because the jury recommendations were not unanimous.
That’s what the prosecution wanted.
The new law allows juries to recommend death with an 8-4 vote but Judge Randall Rowe, presiding, ruled this hearing started before the new law was passed so the jury will have to be unanimous to recommend death.
“They thought about it, intended to do it, killed 6 innocent victims,” prosecutor Andrew Urbanek said.
The killers took metal bats and knives into the house on Telford Lane in August of 2004, murdered Erin Belanger, Michelle Nathan, Francisco Ayo-Roman, Anthony Vega, Roberto Gonzalez and Jonathan Gleason.
Their dog was stomped to death. It’s a massacre so horrific, there was blood evidence in every room.
Prosecutors say when Hunter suggested wearing masks, ring leader Victorino had a chilling answer.
“Victorino told them that would not be necessary because they were not leaving any evidence behind and no one alive,” Urbanek said.
Victorino had been squatting in the Telford Lane house and was evicted by the owner’s granddaughter, Belanger.
He was angry she hadn’t returned some of his property, including an X-box game.
The murders have often been called the “Xbox killings.”
Victorino, Hunter, Michael Salas and Robert Cannon were convicted of the murders.
Salas and Cannon got life sentences and Victorino and Hunter were sentenced to death.
The death sentences were overturned in 2017 but the state is again asking a jury to impose that ultimate punishment.
“The evidence you will hear and you will see what two men are capable of doing to others, it will be hard to digest,” Urbanek said.
Despite Florida’s new 8-4 jury death recommendation law, Rowe has ruled the jury can’t rely on that.
They will have to be unanimous in a death penalty recommendation or the convicted killers will be sentenced to life without parole.