Troy Miguel Victorino and Jerone Lamar Hunter received recommended sentences of death by a Volusia County jury on Wednesday, May 7, 2025, at the Volusia County Courthouse in DeLand, Florida. Circuit Judge Dawn Nichols will pronounce the life or death sentences after another hearing later. LEFT: The six victims of the Deltona home massacre nearly 21 years ago.
By HENRY FREDERICK / headline Surfer
DELAND, Fla. -- After a week and a half of a resentencing hearing at the Volusia County Courthouse, a jury voted in favor of the death penalty on all counts for Troy Victorino and Jerone Hunter for the deadliest mass murder in the county's history.
Victorino and Hunter, now 48 and 38, were convicted and originally sentenced to death in 2006 for breaking into a Deltona home, stabbing and beating six people and a dog to death with baseball bats in 2004. Their two co-defendants, Michael Salas and Robert Cannon, were sentenced to life in prison.
While Victorino and Hunter’s convictions stood, their death sentences were nullified in 2018 after Florida Courts began requiring unanimous jury recommendations in death penalty cases.
On April 20, 2023, a jury was seated for the defendants' resentencing. However, on the very same day, Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill authorizing a new non-unanimous sentencing standard of 8-4 in capital cases, which caused a mistrial.
Last month, a new jury was seated for this resentencing and proceeded under the new law.
Although the jury makes this recommendation, the judge will make the final sentencing decision. The Honorable Dawn Nichols will pronounce the sentence after another hearing at a later date.
“We are one step closer to making justice a reality for the victims and their families,” State Attorney R.J. Larizza said about the case.
“We are one step closer to making justice a reality for the victims and their families,” State Attorney R.J. Larizza said about the case.
Assistant State Attorneys Heatha Trigones and Andrew Urbanak successfully argued for the death penalty for the state.
Background:
The Xbox jury verdicts in the 2004 Deltona massacre case were reached at the Richard O. Watson Judicial Center in St. Augustine. The trial was moved there from Volusia County due to concerns about excessive media coverage.
The trial concluded on Aug. 2, 2006, with Judge William Parsons sentencing Troy Victorino and Jerone Hunter to death and Christopher Cannon and Brandon Salas to life in prison without parole.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Headline Surfer was recognized with a Breaking News Award for three stories in the 2025 statewide Florida Press Club Journalism Competition (2nd-place among small daily news outlets):
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