Left to right: Troy Victorino, Jerone Hunter (Florida Department of Corrections).
A Florida judge has sentenced two men to death more than 20 years after they busted into a home armed with baseball bats in search of a missing Xbox and murdered six people and a dog.
Troy Victorino, 48, and Jerone Hunter, 39, will receive the ultimate punishment for the 2004 massacre in Deltona — the deadliest mass murder in Volusia County's history. A jury in May recommended the two receive the death penalty after a week-and-a-half resentencing hearing. On Monday, Volusia Circuit Judge Dawn Nichols went along with the jury's recommendation and officially sentenced the men to death.
The two were convicted of murder, armed burglary, cruelty to animals and abuse of a corpse, and sentenced to death in 2006. But that was thrown out in 2018 when the Sunshine State required a unanimous jury recommendation in death penalty cases. A jury was seated for a resentencing hearing on April 20, 2023, however that happened to be the same day Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill that only required 8 of 12 jurors to recommend death for the ultimate punishment to be imposed. The judge called a mistrial, which led to the resentencing hearing earlier this year.
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Volusia County Sheriff's deputies responded on Aug. 6, 2004, to a home in the 3100 block of Telford Lane. When they went into the home they found the bodies of Jonathan Gleason, 17; Michelle Nathan, 19; Erin Belanger, 22; Roberto Gonzalez, 28; Francisco Ayo Roman, 30; and Anthony Vega, 34. There also was a dog that had been beaten to death.
Cops identified Victorino and Hunter as suspects and took both into custody a day after the murders.
Hunter initially denied being inside the home at the time of the murders but later admitted that he, Victorino, Robert Cannon and Michael Salas drove to the home in a Ford Expedition. Dressed in all black with scarves over their faces, they walked up to the home. Victorino kicked down the door, and the rest of the men followed and they all proceeded to bash the victims with baseball bats until they were dead. The victims also suffered stab wounds.
Cannon and Salas also were convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
The brutal massacre became known as the "Xbox murders" because the quartet of suspects was in search of a missing gaming console along with other items that apparently belonged to Victorino.
Victorino and Hunter showed no emotion when Nichols handed down the sentence, according to a courtroom report from the Daytona Beach News-Journal.