Pet-Abuse.Com - Animal Abuse Case Details: Dog killed, 6 people dead

Dog killed, 6 people dead
Deltona, FL (US)

Incident Date: Monday, Aug 9, 2004
County: Volusia
Local Map: available
Disposition: Convicted

Abusers/Suspects:
» Troy Victorino
» Robert Anthony Cannon - Not Charged
» Michael Salas - Acquitted
» Jerone Hunter - Not Charged

Case Updates: 5 update(s) available

Case ID: 2678

Classification: Beating

Animal: dog (non pit-bull)

View more cases in FL (US)

Troy Victorino, the suspected ringleader of an attack that left six people and a dog dead inside a Deltona house has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, animal cruelty and other charges.

The plea includes a waiver of appearance, which means Victorino will not appear at an arraignment Sept. 13, 2004.

Victorino's three 18-year-old co-defendants are expected to be at the arraignment, where they will hear a reading of the charges.

A grand jury issued a 15-count indictment. The suspects each were charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, abuse of a dead human body with a weapon and armed burglary. They also were charged with cruelty to animals for killing a small dog that was in the house.

Investigators said the killings were the brutal culmination of an argument between Victorino and one of the victims. Authorities say the source of the dispute was an Xbox video game system and clothes owned by Victorino.

Case Updates

Men and women who were strangers until an act of nearly unimaginable violence brought them together held hands Tuesday. They wept as the names of their sons and daughters, brothers and sisters were read.

The verdicts were called out one by one for each of the three defendants: guilty of first-degree premeditated murder and first-degree felony murder of Erin Belanger. Francisco Ayo Roman. Jonathan W. Gleason. Roberto Manuel Gonzalez. Michelle Ann Nathan. Anthony Vega.

Their crushed, mutilated bodies were found in a blood-splattered Deltona home Aug. 6, 2004, after an attack investigators said was triggered by a dispute over an Xbox video-game system.

Bill Belanger pumped his fist in victory when his daughter's name was read. Tina Gonzalez kissed a photograph of her son. Friends hugged and nodded in a quiet but packed courtroom.

"I'm ecstatic. I waited two long years for this," Nancy Cordero, Vega's sister, said afterward.

After seven days of often-chilling testimony, including from those who took part in the attack, and viewing gory crime-scene photos and videotape, jurors deliberated for six hours over two days. All of the defendants were found guilty of the six murders as well as armed burglary and conspiracy to commit crimes.

Accused ringleader Troy Victorino, who remained stone-faced as a clerk announced the verdicts, also was convicted of animal cruelty for killing the dachshund George and of mutilating Belanger's dead body.

Jerone Hunter, whose head fell into his hands, was convicted of abusing the dead bodies of Gonzalez, Vega and Gleason.

Michael Salas showed the most emotion, appearing to pray before the verdict was read. His head fell onto the table at the first mention of a guilty verdict, and he was fighting tears as he shook his head. He was convicted only of the murders, the burglary and the conspiracy.

"It appears the jury gave it a great deal of thought," State Attorney John Tanner said as he left the courtroom. "I think the families are certainly satisfied. There's no doubt the killers face at least the rest of their lives in prison and will never hurt anyone else."

The families let only a few comments escape at the end of the trial. They said they have decided to wait until the sentencing phase is complete to talk publicly.

Attorneys will begin to present evidence Thursday to sway the jurors to vote for either life in prison without the possibility of parole or death by lethal injection.

"We're happy, but it's not over yet," said Bill Belanger, whose daughter was the most badly beaten.

Erin Belanger had deputies evict squatters from her grandparents' vacant winter home, which Victorino, Hunter and others had turned into a party spot. She boxed up an Xbox, clothing and documents that belonged to Victorino, in jail at the time on an unrelated charge, investigators said. Prosecutors said Victorino's anger over the incident fueled the attack.

Kay Shukwit, whose daughter Nathan was stabbed in the chest as she begged for her life, said she was feeling waves of emotion and perhaps a little closure.

A family friend, Allyson Prevo, said she was thrilled with the verdicts.

"I want to jump up and down and thank God," Prevo said. "They're disgusting. They're monsters."

The defense attorneys said they respected the jury's verdict but were disappointed with the outcome. Victorino's attorneys said they would appeal after the penalty phase is complete.

"We were all quietly confident," Michael Nielsen said. "Troy still maintains his innocence. I think he's in shock."

Source: Orlando Sentinel - July 26, 2006
Update posted on Jul 28, 2006 - 11:10AM

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In the house where six friends were bludgeoned to death with baseball bats, a small, brown dachshund named George was fatally stomped on his snout. A defense attorney in the Deltona massacre case said the dog's death would inflame jurors and asked a judge Friday to disregard the animal-cruelty charge against his client. Volusia Circuit Judge William A. Parsons denied the request.

Patty Gleason, whose son Jonathan died in the attack and was an avid animal lover, said she was upset the attorneys would "have the nerve to try something like that." "Because that means what in the grand scheme of killing six people," she said by telephone after the hearing. Gleason said she was sure her son grew to love the little dog while he stayed at the Telford Lane home. She said George shouldn't have been a threat to the killers. "What's he going to do -- bite him in the ankle?" Gleason said. "It just shows the viciousness."

Court-appointed defense attorney Jeffrey Dees said there was no evidence there was any conspiracy or plan to kill the dog during the early morning of Aug. 6, 2004. "Some jurors value animal life more than human life," said Dees, who represents Michael Salas.
Prosecutors said there was evidence that the plan that day was to kill anyone and everything in the home. Parsons said jurors needed to see all the facts that will help them understand the charges the state is trying to prove. Gleason's family said they were pleased George would also be getting his day in court. "It's still a living being," said Andrew Gleason, who joined People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals partly because of his older brother's influence. "It should get the same justice as any human being."

Troy Victorino, 29, Jerone Hunter, 19, and Salas, 20, are scheduled to stand trial April 10, 2006 and face the death penalty if convicted on 14 felony charges, including six counts of first-degree murder and five charges of mutilating a dead human body. As the trial nears, attorneys have been arguing motions and readying witnesses. Attorneys filed lists of whom they plan to call to the witness stand and exhibits they'll show to jurors. The state listed nearly 90 people, including Robert Anthony Cannon, 20, who pleaded guilty to the charges and agreed to testify for the state in exchange for life in prison without parole. In all, defense attorneys filed nearly 175 names, although many are duplicates. Prosecutors also said they intend to show jurors the door that was kicked in at the Telford Lane home, hair and DNA found on the recovered bats and the crime-scene video.

Source: Volusia County News - March 18, 2006
Update posted on Mar 22, 2006 - 6:24PM

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A judge in Volusia County denied a request Friday to separate animal cruelty charges from the trial of a group of men accused of beating six people to death with baseball bats inside a Deltona home, according to Local 6 News.

Troy Victorino, 29; Michael Salas, 20; and Jerone Hunter, 19, could face the death penalty if convicted on 14 felony charges for the 2004 beating deaths.

During the attack, police said a small dog was killed and mutilated inside the home and found with the bodies.

Friday, a judge heard an unusual request from the defendents' attorneys to remove the animal cruelty charge. Attorneys argued the animal's death would likely influence the jury, according to the Local 6 News report.

"Defense attorneys fear a jury will be overly sympathetic when they hear the details surrounding the death of this small and harmless animal," Local 6 reporter Tarik Minor said.

Prosecutors said the request was "a bunch of nonsense" and claimed the dog is directly connected to the murders of six people.

"Mr. Salas should have been put on notice that when he decided to go in with his buddies and kill these six human beings that there might be or he might face an animal or some other situation they had to deal with," prosecutor Sean Daily said. "The killing of this dog was an outgrowth of the other crimes committed in this case."

The judge listened to the arguments and denied the motion to sever the animal cruelty charges from the upcoming trial.

Investigators said Victorino organized the attack to retrieve an Xbox video game system he lost when he was kicked out of a house where he was squatting.

The trial is set to begin in April.

Source: Local 6 News - March 17, 2006
Update posted on Mar 17, 2006 - 1:53PM

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One suspect in the brutal slaying of a Lowell couple in Florida has pleaded guilty to murder charges, offering to tell prosecutors how he and three other men barged into a Deltona, Fla., apartment last year and slaughtered the pair and four other victims with knives and baseball bats.

Robert A. Cannon, 19, of Deltona, faces life in prison without parole but will avoid the death penalty by agreeing to testify against three other suspects during their trial, which is scheduled for January. Jerone Hunter, 19, Michael Salas, 19, and Troy Victorino, 28, could face the death penalty.

Among those killed in the August 2004 assault were Francisco Ayo Roman, 30, and his fiancee, 22-year-old Erin Belanger. The couple had recently moved to Florida from Lowell.

Bill Belanger, Erin Belanger's father, traveled to Florida from his home in Nashua, N.H., to hear the plea on Thursday. He called Cannon's admission ''a sliver of solace" and said he blames Victorino for his daughter's slaying.

''I'll never have closure," he said yesterday. ''My only child is dead."

Investigators said Victorino organized the attack to retrieve clothes and an Xbox video game system Belanger was holding in her apartment. Belanger had had police remove Victorino from her grandmother's vacant house nearby, where he was staying without permission.

When his property was not immediately returned, prosecutors said, Victorino recruited Cannon, Salas, and Hunter to launch an assault on Belanger's Deltona apartment. The four burst into the apartment, killed the six people inside, and also bludgeoned a dachshund to death, according to the Florida State Attorney's Office.

All four men were charged with six counts of murder, five counts of abusing a dead human body, and one count of armed burglary, conspiracy to commit a crime, and animal abuse.

Cannon will be held in protective custody until Hunter, Salas, and Victorino are tried. He will be sentenced after that trial is completed, said Linda Pruitt, a spokeswoman for the Florida State Attorney's Office.

Investigators with the Volusia County Sheriff's Office have said Hunter and Salas confessed to the slayings, according to sheriff's spokesman Gary Davidson. Victorino has maintained his innocence, saying he was drunk at a bar when the killings took place.

Source: Boston.Com - October 29, 2005
Update posted on Oct 31, 2005 - 10:50AM

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One of the four men accused of beating six people to death with aluminum baseball bats over a video game system appeared in court to plead not guilty to charges including first-degree murder.

Robert Anthony Cannon, 18, let his attorney enter the plea Monday even though Volusia County sheriff's investigators said he has confessed. Cannon sat at the defense table hunched over slightly with his shaved head bowed during much of the arraignment.

Attorneys for Cannon's three co-defendants submitted written not-guilty pleas in advance for their clients. Sheriff's investigators have said Michael Salas and Jerone Hunter, both 18, also confessed to the slayings at a Deltona home Aug. 6 and implicated suspected ringleader Troy Victorino, 27, (pictured, left) who has not confessed.

The four were each charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, abuse of a dead human body with a weapon and armed burglary. They also were charged with cruelty to animals for killing a small dog that was in the house.

Assistant State Attorney Raul Zambrano said his office would push for a speedy trial. Prosecutors plan to try the four men together and seek the death penalty for all of them. Circuit Judge William Parsons hasn't set a trial date.

Cannon's attorney, Robert Sanders, said after Monday's hearing he was considering whether to seek to suppress Cannon's confession. The defense lawyers were appointed by the court and were reviewing the evidence and devising individual strategies.

The slayings came a few days after 22-year-old Erin Belanger called police to have squatters including Victorino evicted from her grandparents' vacant house. Belanger took some clothes and an X-box they had left behind. Investigators said Victorino organized the attack to retrieve the items.

Source: Local 10 News - Sept 14, 2004
Update posted on Sep 16, 2004 - 10:49AM

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References

	miami.com
	Local 10 News - August 7, 2004
	Local 10 News - August 9, 2004
	Volusia County Sheriff's Report - 2004
	Orlando Sentinel - Article Timeline

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Dog killed, 6 people deadDeltona, FL (US)

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Dog killed, 6 people dead
Deltona, FL (US)