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4 fired after suspect stayed free

The deaths are blamed on the men's failure to follow rules requiring the arrest of probation violators.

FIRED Richard Burrow, 50, employed since 1983, ending salary $46,379 Paul Hayes, 44, employed since 1982, ending salary $44,862 Robert Gordon, 56, employed since 1972, ending salary $67,082 Joe Hatem, 56, employed since 1974, ending salary $94,391

TALLAHASSEE - One probation officer and three supervisors were fired Monday for failing to track the suspected ringleader in the brutal slayings of six people in Deltona last week.

Corrections Secretary James Crosby said the men, each of whom had more than 20 years of experience, missed two key opportunities to jail Troy Victorino, accused of plotting the state's worst mass killing in a decade.

One came the day of the killings.

First, the Volusia County Sheriff's Office notified probation officials July 30 that Victorino, 27, had violated his probation when he was arrested the day before on a battery charge. Probation officials had 48 hours to ask a judge for an arrest warrant, but it wasn't sent for a week, Crosby said.

And when Victorino checked in Thursday for a regular visit with his probation officer, he wasn't arrested even though the officer knew he had violated probation, Crosby said.

So far he hasn't heard a good reason for why Victorino wasn't taken off the streets, Crosby said.

"There is no excuse for this inaction," he said. "I asked but have not received an answer."

Crosby fired Victorino's probation officer, Richard Burrow, who specialized in handling violent offenders and who carried a caseload of 42 offenders, roughly half the load of a regular probation officer.

Crosby also fired Burrow's supervisor, Paul Hayes; Robert Gordon, an administrator in charge of four counties in northeast Florida; and Joe Hatem, one of three regional directors of probation in the state who handled the northern third of Florida.

Crosby said he asked Burrow why he failed to file the report on time, but did not get a satisfactory answer.

Hatem and Gordon are exempt from the state's civil service rules, but Burrow and Hayes can appeal their firings. It was not clear Monday afternoon if the firings would take effect immediately.

It may not end there. Crosby said he is reviewing records statewide to find out how well probation officials are complying with the department's 48-hour rule. That's been a problem with regional supervisors before, Crosby said.

"We don't think we've gotten the support we needed from the regional directors," he said.

Police said the killings were the culmination of an argument between Victorino and one of the victims, believed to be Erin Belanger, 22. Investigators said Victorino organized the attack over his Xbox video game system, which was taken from a vacant house belonging to Belanger's grandparents, where Victorino and others had lived without permission.

Victorino and three teenage defendants have been charged with first-degree murder and armed burglary. The four were denied bail and appointed public defenders Monday during their first court appearance. The other defendants are Robert Cannon, Jerone Hunter and Michael Salas, all 18. The teens confessed shortly after they were arrested Saturday, authorities said.

Besides Belanger, the dead include three friends who rented the house together: Anthony Vega, 34; Belanger's boyfriend, Francisco Ayo Roman, 30; and Michelle Nathan, 19. Another victim, Roberto "Tito" Gonzalez, 28, was at the house visiting Nathan, and Jonathan Gleason, 18, was living there temporarily. He had planned to move out today.

According to Crosby and state records, Victorino was sentenced to jail and probation in the early 1990s for grand theft and arson. In 1996, records show, he violated his probation on an aggravated battery charge and was sentenced to 15 years in prison, where he served about six years before being released again on probation last year.

Corrections Department spokesman Sterling Ivey said Victorino was exempt from the state law requiring inmates to serve 85 percent of their sentences because he committed his original crime before the law was passed.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement records describe Victorino as 6-foot-5 and 272 pounds. He has several tattoos, including some associated with gangs.

Carol Stern knew Victorino was a dangerous man and set out on a one-woman crusade eight years ago to have Victorino convicted in the beating of her son.

"I warned everybody - the police, the prosecutors, the judge - that he would get out and do it again," the 48-year-old mother from Indian Harbour Beach told the Orlando Sentinel. "I knew he was a monster," she said.

During the attack on March 27, 1996, Carol Stern told the Sentinel, Victorino pummeled her son, a 20-year-old community college student, in the head with a 4-foot walking stick. He ripped off one of her son's ears and crushed the bones in his face. Then, she said, Victorino broke all his teeth and left him near death in the bedroom of a home where some acquaintances were gathered. Victorino later pleaded guilty to aggravated battery.

When criminals such as Victorino are put on probation, they are given a set of rules, such as maintaining jobs, getting drug treatment, paying off court fees and obeying the law. If they break the rules of their probation - especially by getting arrested for new offenses - judges can revoke their probation and send them to prison. But criminals don't always get sent to prison for violating their probation, even those who have committed violent offenses in the past.

The St. Petersburg Times reported in June that 426 people with at least one violent offense in their backgrounds had been accused of violating their probation five or more times in a 21/2-year period. Most of these people did not receive prison time for their new violations. Some got second and third chances to stay on probation, even though judges had revoked their probation in previous criminal cases.

Probation came under scrutiny earlier this year after the February abduction and slaying of Carlie Brucia, an 11-year-old Sarasota girl. The man charged with murdering her, Joseph. P. Smith, was twice accused of violating probation in the months leading up to the crime but was not jailed.

Information from the Associated Press and the Orlando Sentinel was used in this report.