Jerone Hunter and Troy Victorino were sentenced to death by the State of Florida for six murders
According to court documents Troy Victorino, Jerone Hunter, Robert Cannon and Micheal Salas would go into a home where they would murder six people inside: Erin Belanger, Michelle Nathan, Francisco Ayo-Roman, Anthony Vega, Roberto Gonzalez and Jonathan Gleason
Jerone Hunter and Troy Victorino were arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Jerone Hunter Photos
Jerone Hunter Now
DC Number: V26165
Name: HUNTER, JERONE
Race: BLACK
Sex: MALE
Birth Date: 05/31/1986
Initial Receipt Date: 09/22/2006
Current Facility: UNION C.I.
Current Custody: MAXIMUM
Current Release Date: PENDING
Troy Victorino Photos
Troy Victorino Now
DC Number: 898405
Name: VICTORINO, TROY
Race: HISPANIC
Sex: MALE
Birth Date: 12/11/1976
Initial Receipt Date: 09/22/2006
Current Facility: UNION C.I.
Current Custody: MAXIMUM
Current Release Date: PENDING
Jerone Hunter Case
On the morning of August 6, 2004, a coworker of two of the occupants of a residence on Telford Lane in Deltona, Florida, discovered the victims’ bodies. Belanger lived at the Telford residence with Ayo-Roman, Nathan, and Vega. Gonzalez and Gleason happened to be at the house the night of the murders. The six victims had been beaten to death with baseball bats and had sustained cuts to their throats, most of which were determined to have been inflicted postmortem. Belanger also sustained lacerations through her vagina up to the abdominal cavity of her body; the injuries were consistent with having been inflicted by a baseball bat. The medical examiner determined that some of the victims had defensive wounds. A dead Dachshund was also found in the house.
Following a call to 911, law enforcement officers responded to the scene. The front door had been kicked in, breaking a deadbolt lock and leaving a thirteen-inch shoe-print impression on the door. The victims were found throughout the house and blood was everywhere. A knife handle and knife blade were recovered at the scene, along with two playing cards with bloody shoe imprints, a bed sheet with footwear impressions, as well as a pay stub with a footwear impression.
Jerone Hunter, who at the time was eighteen years old and in twelfth grade, met codefendant Cannon two months before the murders. He knew codefendant Salas from high school. Hunter met codefendant Victorino during the end of June or beginning of July of 2004, and moved in with Victorino a few days later. Together Jerone Hunter and Victorino lived in three different residences, including a house that belonged to victim Belanger’s grandmother. No one had permission to stay at Belanger’s grandmother’s house, but Victorino testified that the owner’s grandson had given him permission to stay there.
Approximately a week before the murders, Belanger contacted police concerning suspicious activity at her grandmother’s residence. Victorino also reported to police that he had items stolen from the same house. He became angry when the police told him he would have to provide a list of the stolen property. Victorino told the police he would take care of the matter himself. Victorino also met with Belanger at her residence, seeking return of his property.
Brandon Graham, who was living with codefendants Cannon and Salas, met Hunter and Victorino when they went to Belanger’s house on Telford Lane a few days before the murders so that Victorino could pick up his belongings. Victorino wanted them to fight the people at the residence. Hunter yelled for the occupants to come out and fight.
On the morning before the murders, Graham, Salas, and Cannon drove to the house where Jerone Hunter and Victorino were living. Victorino discussed a plan to beat everyone to death at the Telford residence, asking them if they “were down for it” and saying to Hunter, “I know you’re down for it” because he had belongings stolen as well. All agreed. Victorino verbally described the layout of the Telford house and who would go where. Hunter asked if they should wear masks; Victorino said no because they would kill all of the occupants.
A witness testified that around midnight on August 5, 2004, she saw Jerone Hunter, Salas, Cannon, and Victorino near the murder scene.1 And Graham testified that the morning after the murders, he saw Victorino’s belongings in the back of Cannon’s SUV. On the day after the murders, Victorino was arrested on a probation violation.
In his statement to police, Jerone Hunter said that he had gone in Cannon’s SUV to the house on Telford on late Saturday or early Sunday to get his belongings that had been taken from Belanger’s grandmother’s house. He had an aluminum baseball bat with him. Hunter said he entered the house through the front door and found Gleason in the recliner in the living room. Hunter screamed, “Where’s my stuff,” and when Gleason said, “I don’t know,” he hit him with the bat. Hunter hit Gleason because he thought he was lying. Gleason attempted to get up from the recliner and Hunter hit him again. Jerone Hunter said he hit Gleason more than three times but less than twelve. Hunter said he then went to look for his belongings. Hunter also indicated that he encountered victim Gonzalez in one of the bedrooms. He claimed he hit Gonzalez because Gonzalez had swung at him with a stick. After Gonzalez dropped his stick, Hunter continued to hit him, three to five more times. Hunter then continued looking for his belongings. Eventually, Hunter and his codefendants left in Cannon’s SUV. Hunter, who wore a black shirt, black shorts, and blue and white Nike tennis shoes during the incident, stated that he washed his clothes afterwards.
Cannon’s SUV was seized on August 7, 2004. Salas admitted to being at the Telford residence the night of the murder and stated that Cannon had driven them there. Salas described what he had done while in the house and said the bats had been discarded at a retention pond. Based upon that information, law enforcement authorities recovered two bats from the pond and two bats from surrounding trees.
Salas testified about Jerone Hunter’s involvement in the murders. Salas explained that before the men entered the house on Telford, Hunter called Salas and Cannon “bitches” because they did not want to take part in the plan. Hunter ran into the house after Victorino. Salas ran in next and saw Hunter swing his bat. Hunter said to Gleason, “I don’t like you” and started hitting him. Hunter asked Salas if he had killed Gonzalez; Hunter called Salas a “pussy boy” when Salas said he was not killing anyone. Hunter then ran into the bedroom and began hitting Gonzalez in the face and head. Hunter hit Gonzalez between twenty and thirty times, saying he had to kill him. Salas left the house. When Hunter came out he described how he found Nathan hiding in one of the bedrooms and killed her when she pled for her life. Salas described Hunter as having a look of “ferule [sic] joy.”
Pursuant to a search warrant, numerous items were taken from the house where Jerone Hunter and Victorino lived. Among the items taken was a pair of size thirteen boots, a pair of size ten and one-half Nike blue and white tennis shoes without shoe laces, and a pair of shoe laces. These shoes, the laces, and other physical evidence were admitted at trial linking Hunter, Salas, and Victorino to the murders.2
The jury returned its verdicts on July 25, 2006. It convicted Hunter of six counts of first-degree murder, three counts of abuse of a dead human body, and one count each of conspiracy to commit aggravated battery, murder, tampering with physical evidence, and armed burglary of a dwelling. The jury acquitted Hunter of the two counts of abuse of a dead human body with a weapon (postmortem cutting of throats or stabbing) and one count of cruelty to an animal.
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/fl-supreme-court/1363589.html
