Ex-Volusia County worker sentenced to life for killing another worker in love-triangle

Damian DeRousha walked into a bay last year at the Volusia County Fleet Maintenance Facility and killed a man who was having an affair with his wife. DeRousha will now spend the rest of his life in prison.

On Thursday, a jury of seven women and five men took about two hours to find DeRousha guilty of first-degree premeditated murder in the killing of Donald Geno, 31, who worked as a mechanic for the county.

Circuit Judge Karen Foxman sentenced DeRousha, 44, to the mandatory life in prison without the possibility of parole. DeRousha, who was a special projects coordinator for the county, sat between his attorneys and looked straight ahead as the judge pronounced his sentence.

Before sentencing, Geno's mother, Mary Geno, her voice filled with emotion, made a statement to the court, saying she would never see her son again because of DeRousha.

"He destroyed me. He took a part of me that is never going to come back," Mary Geno said.

She referred to the video of Geno getting shot.

"I see my son fall to the ground taking his last breath," she said. "I wish it could have been me instead."

After the sentencing, Mary Geno hugged Assistant State Attorneys Andrew Urbanak and Ashley Terwilleger, who prosecuted the case.

On the day of the murder, Feb. 4, 2021, DeRousha had confirmed that his wife, Shauna, was having an affair with Geno. It was the third time she had cheated on him. Shauna DeRousha was an inventory control specialist for Volusia County. She was terminated on April 21, 2021, according to the county.

After learning of the affair, DeRousha became upset and left work to go to his brother's. But he returned to the maintenance facility at 1270 Indian Lake Road, Daytona Beach, and killed Geno.

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'He's like a shark'

In his closing argument, Urbanak said that Geno’s killing was not a case of self-defense as DeRousha contended, but rather it was an “unprovoked cowardly murder.”

Urbanak said DeRousha sat in his pickup for 40 minutes at a RaceTrac gas station and then drove about 5 miles to the maintenance facility.

"The defendant doesn't hesitate when he walks through that gate," Urbanak said. "He's like a shark in the water going after his prey. He walks straight to that bay where he knows Donald Geno will be."

Urbanak said DeRousha fired eight times, wounding Geno 14 times, including two gunshots to the back and one to the face. DeRousha then dropped his empty 9 mm Walther pistol to the ground next to the dying Geno.

While DeRousha testified that Geno bowed up, raised his voice, threw a punch and then threw a wrench, neither of the two other co-workers in the area testified to that, Urbanak said.

Instead, they saw a normal conversation, Urbanak said.

Then DeRousha fired.

"This is not one shot. This is not him not intending to do it and not thinking about it," Urbanak said. "This is emptying every single bullet in his gun into a human being."

Urbanak said there was a pause after the initial shot or two.

“If you don’t think he meant to kill with the first shot or two, he sure as heck meant to kill with the rest of the shots that he put into the front of Donald Geno's body, including into his face,” Urbanak said. "That is evidence of premeditation."

Matt Metz, 7th Circuit public defender, worked the case along with Assistant State Attorney Larry Avallone.

In his closing argument, Metz said DeRousha had not planned to kill Geno.

“How did the state describe Mr. DeRousha to you? A shark. A shark," Metz said. "That’s strong imagery. That’s a pretty good line. They're sleek. Rows of teeth. Predators.

"You know what sharks do? They attack," Metz said. "Sharks don’t have a two-minute conversation. Sharks don’t come up to you politely with their hands in their jacket off their firearm and say please stop having sex with my wife. That’s not what sharks do. Damian DeRousha, he’s no shark, he’s a regular guy.”

Metz said that no one saw the beginning of the shooting. And he said that it was a large building with people using power tools on heavy equipment, which would explain why no one heard any raised voices.

Metz said DeRousha kept firing to protect himself.

"The state would like to make a mountain out of the fact that he shot all the bullets in his gun. But who wouldn’t? Once Mr. DeRousha decided that his life was in danger, why in the world would he stop pulling the trigger?” Metz asked.

He said there was no premeditation.

"This is happening in real life, real time. There’s argument: 'Stop having sex with my wife.' There’s a response: 'Absolutely not. I’m going to keep having sex with her.' Swing. Pull gun. Pop. Pop. Pop. This isn’t time for calculated thought. These are reactions.”

Metz said the two bullets in Geno's back could have been ricochets.

But in his rebuttal portion of the closing, Urbanak said that was not possible.

Urbanak said, "These two bullets in really close proximity did not both ricochet off items and end up in Mr. Geno's back."

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Damian DeRousha sentenced to life in Volusia love-triangle killing