Jerone Hunter, 18, 820 Saxon Blvd., Deltona.
Michael Salas, 18, 1860 Evard Court, Deltona.
Troy Victorino, 27, 2925 Corrigan Drive, Deltona.
Posted on 04/28/2005 5:49:41 AM PDT by RedBloodedAmerican
Days before four men were accused of beating six people to death with baseball bats, they were shopping for aluminum bats and joking about bashing people to death, documents released Wednesday about the Deltona mass murder show.
"We could take this bat and swing it and knock 'em over the head and crush their skull in," New Smyrna Beach Wal-Mart employee Brenda Palmatier quoted one of the suspects as saying. Palmatier said she recognized the four suspects shown on television news reports as the men in the store last Aug. 4.
"The guy with the bushy hair then turned around and replied and said, 'no, man, I got a better idea.' He goes, 'we could bash 'em in the face and knock their teeth down their throat,' " she said.
An investigative summary and eight witness statements released Wednesday by the State Attorney's Office reveal more details about the Aug. 6 beatings of six friends in their Deltona home. The documents show the accused ringleader, Troy Victorino, attempted to recruit another individual for the attack. Hours after the bodies were found, one witness told investigators they should be looking for Victorino.
"You might wanna take this name down, Troy Victorino," Brittany Lee Labar said. "I think you should definitely look into this Troy Victorino guy 'cuz I've heard a lot about him."
The statements also detail the victims' fear of Victorino and shed more light on the other suspects' confessions.
Victorino, 28, Robert Anthony Cannon, 19, Michael Salas, 19, and Jerone Hunter, 18, each have been charged with six counts of first-degree murder and eight other felonies. The state is seeking the death penalty.
Investigators believe the attack was fueled by Victorino's anger over a missing Xbox video game system one of the victims had taken from the house where he was squatting.
Erin Belanger had boxed up clothing and the video game system from her grandmother's house, where her cousin had allowed Victorino to stay illegally. The documents show Victorino saw other people wearing his clothes and he repeatedly made threats against Belanger.
One witness said Belanger had allowed Roberto "Tito" Gonzalez, another victim, to have the video game system because the police said she could do whatever she wanted with it.
In the days before the murders, several people went to Belanger's Telford Lane home trying to start a fight and asking for Victorino's belongings. During one incident, car tires were slashed.
According to Belanger's friend, Belanger didn't want to press charges because they were scared.
"We don't want them comin' to try to kill us," Labar said Belanger said.
Within five days, Belanger, 22, Francisco Ayo Roman, 30, Michelle Ann Nathan, 19, Anthony Vega, 34, Gonzalez, 27, and Jonathan Gleason, 17, were discovered dead in the blood-splattered home.
Roman and Belanger, along with her dachshund, were found in the master bedroom, according to the investigative summary. Gleason was in a chair in the living room, with Vega lying on the floor nearby. Gonzalez was on the floor near another bedroom, where Nathan was found between the door and the closet.
The next day, Victorino and Hunter were arrested at a Fort Smith Boulevard home. Hunter's statements led investigators to Cannon and Salas, the report states. Investigators say all but Victorino confessed and Salas confessed again to the killings to a corrections officer while he was booked into the jail.
In the following days, crime scene technicians searched four homes and seized Cannon's vehicle, believed to have been used during the crime. Investigators obtained surveillance video from two convenience stores the four suspects visited around the time of the killings and retrieved an Xbox video game system from a witness.
Investigators spoke to Brandon Graham, who said he was present when Victorino planned the attack, and Craig Morales, who others said also was asked to participate.
Within a week, investigators recovered four bats from a DeBary retention pond because Salas said that's where he remembered discarding them.
The statements also show Hunter wrote a letter to a friend from jail saying Victorino forced them to do it. Hunter said he walked outside shaking and Victorino started yelling at him, Miranda Torres told investigators.
"He said, after everything I've done for you, you can't even do me, you know, this favor."
Execute them all.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
We have to ban baseball bats!!! Think of the children!!! This never would have happened if base ball bats weren't easily accessable and purchasable at Walmart!
Walmart must also be sued because they should have reasonably expected that baseball bats would be used to kill people!
I bet some family member will now sue Wal Mart. They are a cash cow for law suits.
I read that Alfred Hitchcock used to get into crowded elevators with a friend and talk like he was in the middle of a story, something like, "He stormed into the room. I had no idea the gun was loaded. Well, naturally, I blew his head off..." Then they would get off the elevator, leaving the others in the elevator gaping.
I have no feelings for them what-so-ever. Execute them and be rid of this worthless filth.
Is this a case of non-judgementalism and tolerance gone wrong?
(steely)
They're obviously disenfranchised youths oppressed by slavery. They should get a slap on the wrist and then tons of taxpayer money to help rehabilitate them, never mind they carefully planned and then brutally bludgeoned a whole household to death. /sarcasm
Bet they are all "retarded" and can't be executed.
What we really need is a good old fashioned lynching.
Could it be...SOMEBODY UNDER THE INFLUENCE (PCP)?
Is that a tradition we really want to revive in this country?
If the law keeps coming up with ridiculous ideas like protecting "retards" and teenagers from the proper punishment for their crimes, then YES, we need to revive the tradition, along with tarring and feathering and running folks out on a rail.
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