A jury recommended the death penalty for two men involved in the notorious 2004 Deltona home invasion and murder case, colloquially known as the "Xbox murders." As reported by FOX 35 Orlando, the recommendation was made on Wednesday after Troy Victorino and Jerone Hunter were found guilty of brutally murdering six people and a dog in a home in Deltona, Florida.
Victorino, now 48, and Hunter, 38, originally received death sentences in 2006 for their roles in the killings. The convictions were for the first-degree murders of Erin Belanger, 22; Jonathan Gleason, 17; Roberto Gonzalez, 28; Francisco Roman, 30; Michelle Nathan, 19; and Anthony Vega, 34, as well as for the death of a dog. According to a statement in My News 13, their original death penalties were overturned after the Florida courts mandated that jury recommendations for the death penalty must be unanimous.
However, in a development that could very well be described as a judicial seesaw, a mistrial ensued in 2023 when Governor Ron DeSantis enacted a law allowing for a death sentence with a jury vote of 8-4, circumventing the previous requirement for unanimity. After reconvening under the new mandate in April 2024, the jury arrived at a non-unanimous recommendation for the death sentence once again this past month. The decision, while weighted, is not final until the presiding judge issues a sentence, and the date for this has not yet been announced.
