Deltona Massacre

The two men sentenced to death in the most horrific mass murder in Volusia County history will almost certainly get new sentencing hearings and a chance to escape a lethal needle in their arm.

Troy Victorino, 40, and Jerone Hunter, 30, were sentenced to death in 2006 for a mass murder in which they clubbed and stabbed six young people to death in a house on Telford Lane in Deltona. A third man, Michael Salas, 31, was sentenced to life in the killings. And a fourth, Robert Cannon, 31, pleaded guilty to avoid a possible death sentence and is serving life.

But following decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court and the Florida Supreme Court, Victorino and Hunter’s death sentences will likely be struck down either by a trial court or an appeals court, according to Victorino’s attorney Chris Anderson. 

“Troy Victorino is undoubtedly going to get a new life- or death-penalty phase trial,” Anderson said.

The higher court rulings require that jurors unanimously find and specify what aggravating circumstances they found justifying the death penalty. And a state Supreme Court decision requires that the jurors unanimously recommend death. In neither Victorino’s nor Hunter’s cases did jurors unanimously recommend death.

State Attorney R.J. Larizza is already planning on a new penalty phase trial for Victorino and Hunter, said Kay Shukwit. She is the mother of 19-year-old Michelle Nathan who was slain during the bloody murders. Shukwit said she was called to a meeting at Larizza’s office this year in which he spoke to the victims’ family members, some by teleconference.

“My mouth dropped with him saying we are, not might, we are going to be having a new trial,” Shukwit said in a phone interview. “I just started crying.”

The guilt phase of the trial, in which Victorino and Hunter were found guilty of six counts of first-degree murder and other charges, won’t be repeated, only the penalty phase. But Shukwit said that will take two weeks or more. She said she has no interest in reliving the horrors. She said she told prosecutors she was upset. 

“You are dragging all of us through all of this all over again,” Shukwit said she told prosecutors. “You are ripping that Band-Aid off the wound again and here we go: crime scene photos, you are hearing everything. We are going to be seeing Troy Victorino and Jerone Hunter in the courtroom, every single day. So it’s pretty much setting us back to, you know, 10 years ago, so it’s going to be very fresh.”

Larizza’s spokeswoman, Shannon Peters, declined to comment on the case or Shukwit’s description of the meeting.

Besides Shukwit’s daughter Nathan, the other five people killed were: Erin Belanger, 22; Roberto “Tito” Gonzalez, 28; Jonathan Gleason, 17; Francisco “Flaco” Ayo-Roman, 30; and Anthony Vega, 34.

Nathan hid in a closet and tried pulling a blanket over her face as she pleaded for her life, according to testimony from Salas. Her pleas did not sway Hunter who stabbed her in the chest and hit her in the head with a bat, Salas testified.

Shukwit will be among the people interviewed about the mass murder during a program called “The Real Story with Maria Elena Salinas” to air at 10 p.m. Monday on Investigation Discovery.

Other people who will be interviewed on the show are Belanger’s father, Bill Belanger, Circuit Judge Raul Zambrano, former Volusia County Sheriff Ben Johnson, John Tanner, who was the state attorney at the time, and a witness in the case Brandon Graham.

Tanner said the killings set a horrible record in the county’s history.

“There was none worse, none more horrible and really none more senseless than the Victorino murders,” Tanner said.

Deltona Massacre on Cable TV

The Real Story With Maria Elena Salinas on Investigation Discovery will focus on the Deltona massacre in which six people were clubbed and stabbed to death. The show airs at 10 p.m. on Monday on Investigation Discovery.

The show includes interviews with Circuit Judge Raul Zambrano, former Volusia County Sheriff Ben Johnson, former State Attorney John Tanner and Brandon Graham who was a witness in the case. Bill Belanger, the father of victim Erin Belanger, and Kay Shukwit, the mother of another victim, Michelle Nathan, are also interviewed.

Shukwit said in an interview with the News-Journal that she welcomed the chance to talk about her daughter's life.

"I was really excited when I was asked to be interviewed and to know that this type of show was going to be made because to me this is my type of therapy," she said.

He said that while the killings have at times been dubbed the Xbox murders they were not over an Xbox. 

“It wasn’t really over an Xbox. It was over quote honor. Victorino felt he had been disrespected,” Tanner said in a phone interview. “And why others would participate, why anyone would participate in something like that over any issue let alone that, is beyond most of our ability to comprehend.”