Xbox mass murder: State seeks to stop trial to challenge judge's ruling on death penalty
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The attorney for one of the killers in the Xbox mass murder on trial in DeLand is demanding records that she says may show that Gov. Ron DeSantis’ signing of the new death penalty law was timed so that it could be applied in the trial.
Meanwhile, prosecutors and the Attorney General’s Office filed an emergency motion Tuesday asking the 5th District Court of Appeal in Daytona Beach to stop the trial so they can challenge Circuit Judge Randell Rowe III's denial of their request to use the new death penalty statute.
DeSantis signed Senate Bill 450 on Thursday, the same day attorneys finished picking a 15-member jury, including three alternates, to hear the penalty phase retrial of Troy Victorino and Jerone Hunter for the 2004 Deltona murders in which six people were beaten to death with baseball bats.
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Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Victorino, 46, and Hunter, 35.
The new law did away with the requirement for a unanimous jury recommendation for death. Instead, the law requires at least eight jurors recommend death for the judge to have the option of sentencing someone to death.
The prosecutors' motion states that the new death penalty law took effect when it was signed by DeSantis and the jury had not been sworn in yet, so the trial should proceed under the new law, according to the motion by the Attorney General's Office.
Prosecutors also filed a motion on Monday asking Rowe to disqualify himself from the case, accusing him of being biased and prejudiced in favor of the defendants regarding which law to apply.
Rowe on Tuesday rejected the state's request and remained on the case.
Victorino and Hunter were sentenced to death after a trial in 2006, but Rowe overturned those sentences citing a 2016 Florida Supreme Court decision requiring unanimous jury recommendations for death. But since that decision, the state Supreme Court decided that unanimity was not required.
Neither Victorino nor Hunter received unanimous death recommendations in the first trial.
Two other men, Michael Salas and Robert Cannon, were sentenced to mandatory life for their roles in the killings.
Killed in the massacre were Erin Belanger, 22; Michelle Nathan, 19; Roberto "Tito" Gonzalez, 28; Jonathan Gleason, 17; Francisco "Flaco" Ayo-Roman, 30; and Anthony Vega, 34. A dog was also killed.
Xbox death penalty battle
Allison Miller, who represents Hunter, wrote in a motion filed Monday that Assistant State Attorneys John Reid, Jason Lewis and Andrew Urbanak represented in court on Thursday “that they had been in constant communication with the Office of the Attorney General regarding the signing of the bill and the subsequent actions they should take to apply the change in the law to Mr. Hunter’s case.”
The change would also apply to Victorino, who is the accused ringleader.
Miller is requesting records of emails, texts and other communication between the Attorney General’s Office, DeSantis or his office, legislators and the 7th Circuit State Attorney’s Office regarding Senate Bill 450 or House Bill 555 and anything related to the timing of the signing of the bill, according to her motion. She wrote in the motion that it would violate Hunter's constitutional rights if the signing of the bill was timed to apply to his death penalty phase trial.
As the attorneys battle over the death penalty, a jury of nine women and six men, including three alternates, began hearing testimony Tuesday at the Volusia County Courthouse in DeLand.
Urbanak, who is prosecuting the case along with State Attorney Heatha Trigones, made the opening statement.
Baseball bats used as weapons
Urbanak said Victorino had been living in a house owned by Belanger’s family but had been told to leave. Victorino was angry that he had not picked up some of his property, including an Xbox.
Victorino had gone to Belanger’s house on Telford Lane and demanded his property. Belanger told him she would find and return the items.
Urbanak recounted how Victorino was at another man’s house when he brought up a movie called "Wonderland" in which a group of men armed with pipes killed another group. The plot against the people on Telford Lane grew from there.
Urbanak said Victorino and Hunter and the other two men armed themselves with aluminum baseball bats. Victorino told the others the layout of the house on Telford Lane and said it would be easier to kill the victims if they split up.
The four then burst into the house, split up and attacked the six victims. The sound of the metal bats hitting flesh was heard over and over and over again in the house, Urbanak told jurors.
Before the attack, Hunter had suggested they wear masks but Victorino said that would not be necessary because they would not leave anyone behind to identify them, Urbanak told jurors.
Defense attorneys for Victorino and Hunter did not make an opening statement, choosing to reserve them.
The trial continues Thursday.
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This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Xbox mass murder: State seeks to stop trial to challenge ruling
