Trial and Sentencing
The month-long jury trial was moved from Volusia due to concerns that media coverage made a fair jury trial impossible, and was held at the St. John's County Courthouse in St. Augustine, Florida, after two years of preparation. The $1.5 million in legal defense fees were a 7th Circuit record.
The trial came to an end on August 2, 2006, when 7th Circuit Judge William Parsons sentenced Victorino and Hunter to death by lethal injection, and Cannon and Salas to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Victorino and Hunter are carrying out their sentences in one-person cells on Death Row at the Florida State Prison in Starke, Florida. The average length of incarceration of a Florida inmate prior to execution is 12.86 years.
Victorino was found guilty of first-degree murder of all six victims, abuse of a dead human body, armed burglary of a dwelling, and animal cruelty. At trial, he claimed he was drinking at a bar when the murders occurred. Victorino contended that the size-12 bloody boots presented as trial were his, someone must have stolen them from him before committing the murders.
Salas was found guilty of first-degree murder of all six victims, conspiring to commit aggravated battery, tampering with physical evidence, and armed burglary of a dwelling.
Hunter was also found guilty of first-degree murder of all six victims, conspiring to commit aggravated battery, tampering with physical evidence, abuse of a dead human body, and armed burglary of a dwelling. He closed his eyes as the first "guilty" verdict was read, and stared straight ahead as he was further condemned to death. Hunter was at one point the youngest inmate on death row in Florida, and is currently the second-youngest. A September 2008 appeal by Hunter was rejected
Cannon was sentenced to six life terms without parole for the murders, life for armed burglary of a dwelling with a weapon, five years for conspiracy to commit aggravated battery, murder, armed burglary of a dwelling and tampering with physical evidence, 15 years each for five counts of abuse of a dead human body, and five years for cruelty to an animal.
Read more about this topic: Deltona Massacre
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