State seeks death penalty for massacre accuseds

Florida’s top prosecutor is seeking the death penalty for four men charged with the sadistic killing of six people during a break-in.

Included in the 15-count grand jury indictment were horrifying newly-released details of the massacre, including one female victim being sexually assaulted with a bat. The indictment also said each of the victims was mutilated after they were dead.

The bodies of the victims were found in a blood-spattered home on August 6.

The alleged ringleader, Troy Victorino, 27, along with Robert Cannon, Michael Salas and Jerone Hunter, all 18, were charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, abuse of a dead body with a weapon and armed burglary. They were also charged with cruelty to animals for killing a dog in the house.

State Attorney John Tanner said he would seek the death penalty for all the defendants and asked for prayers for the victims’ families. “They’ve been through a parent’s worst nightmare,” he said.

No-one at the public defender’s office answered calls for comment. Lawyers from that office are defending Victorino, Cannon and Salas. There was no answer at the office of Grady Irvin, a lawyer representing Hunter.

Police said the killings were the culmination of an argument between Victorino and one of the victims, Erin Belanger, 22, over an X-Box video game system and clothes owned by Victorino.

Belanger’s grandparents own a Florida winter home that is supposed to be vacant in the summer.

Police said Victorino and other squatters used it in July as a party spot. The squatters were kicked out, but left behind the X-box and clothes.

Belanger took the items back to the three-bedroom rental home she shared with friends.

Investigators said Victorino organised the attack on the home to retrieve the items.