DELTONA -- One of the killers in the Deltona Xbox murders lost an appeal to get off death row with the majority of the Supreme Court Justices describing the six killings as "especially brutal" and that this particular convict, Jerome Hunter, was a willing participant.
"The murders were especially brutal, with all of the victims having been beaten to death with baseball bats," the justices wrote in a 46-page opinion in September.
It was the first such appeal heard for one of the so-called Xbox murderers, the four men involved in the the Aug. 6, 204, bloodbath that started with an argument over a missing video-game system taken from a Deltona residence where Troy Victorino had been staying as a squatter.
Victorino was the mastermind of the killings and was sentenced to death, along with Hunter, who was 18 at the time of the killings. Michael Salas and Robert Cannon, two other participants in the murders, also got life sentences.
Those killed were Erin Belanger, 22; Jonathan Gleason, 17; Michelle Nathan, 19; Tito Gonzalez, 28, Flaco Ayo-Roman, 30; and Anthony Vega, 34.
Justice Harry Lee Anstead was the lone dissenter in the September ruling, citing concerns about Hunter's legal representation in his appeal. Hunter, who was convicted at tral of six murders and given four death sentences, argued he should have been tried separately.
Photo courtesy of Florida Dept. of Corrections. Cutline: Jerome Hunter, sits on death row for his part in the Xbox murders.