The state files notice to seek the death penalty against Troy Victorino and Jerone Hunter, who are on death row for the 2004 murders of six people in Deltona.
Volusia County prosecutors will again seek the death penalty for two men convicted in the 2004 murders of six people in Deltona whose sentences were thrown out because jurors in their original trial did not vote for death unanimously.
Troy Victorino, 40, and Jerone Hunter, 31, were found guilty of the six murders and sentenced to death in 2006.
But the jurors who voted for them to get the death penalty were not unanimous in their decision, and in 2016 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Florida’s nonunanimous sentences are unconstitutional because they gave too much power to judges and not enough to juries.
Victorino and Hunter’s death sentences were vacated, and they are entitled to new sentencing proceedings in which new jurors will decide whether they should be put to death or get life in prison, courts have ruled. The jurors will not have to decide whether Victorino and Hunter are guilty, only what sentence they should get. The trial date has not been set.
Victorino and Hunter were convicted in the murders of six people in a home on Telford Lane: Jonathan Gleason, 17; Michelle Nathan, 19; Erin Belanger, 22; Roberto Gonzalez, 28; Francisco Ayo Roman, 30; and Anthony Vega, 34.
A co-worker of two of the home’s residents went to check on them the morning of Aug. 6, 2004, and found them dead, court records show. Law enforcement found the front door kicked in, the deadbolt broken, and a 13-inch shoe print on the door. There was blood everywhere.
All six were beaten to death with baseball bats. They also had their throats cut, likely after they died, court records show. Officers also found a dachshund named George dead in the home.
Prosecutors said Victorino was angry about a missing Xbox video game console, which he claimed was stolen from him. He brought Hunter, Michael Salas and Robert Cannon to the home to get the Xbox and other items back, prosecutors said.
Cannon and Salas both got life in prison for their roles in the attack, and Victorino and Hunter were sentenced to death.
At the time, it was Central Florida’s deadliest mass killing in two decades.
Until January 2016, Florida law required seven or more of 12 jurors to vote for capital punishment in order for a judge to sentence a defendant to death.
But after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that was unconstitutional, Florida’s legislature since passed a law saying defendants can only be sent to death row if the jury vote is unanimous.
Dozens of death row defendants whose cases were finalized after 2002, including Victorino and Hunter, are now entitled to new sentencing hearings.