Xbox massacre trial set to start
Florida trio faces death penalty over slayings allegedly inspired by dispute over game system.
Twenty months ago, the nation was shocked by a brutal sextuple murder in South Florida. The case concerned an ex-convict and three accomplices seeking revenge for being kicked out of a Florida home. They got it by bludgeoning the six sleeping people in said home to death so brutally that several had to be indentified by their dental records.
Because 29-year-old convict Troy Victorino returned to the home in part to retrieve the Xbox he had left there, the media was quick to paint the horrific crime as another case of game-inspired violence. This, despite the fact that Victorino had been in jail nearly a full decade before the Xbox even hit the market.
Today, the case was in the news again--since the murder trial over the incident is only now just beginning. According to the Associated Press, Victorino and two of his accomplices, Michael Salas, 20, and Jerone Hunter, 19, face the death penalty over six counts of murder. They also face eight other felony charges, including armed burglary.
The fourth person accused in the slayings, 20-year-old Robert Cannon, has pleaded guilty and will testify against his former associates. In exchange, he will receive a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
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