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CURTIS KRUEGER, JAMIE THOMPSONThe six murders in Deltona bring up the question again six months after Carlie Brucia's death.
DELAND - Eight months before Troy Victorino was charged in the brutal slayings of six people in Deltona, a state probation officer warned a judge he was dangerous.
Probation Officer Brenda Mintell sent Volusia Circuit Judge S. James Foxman an unusual personal letter along with a standard violation report saying Victorino had broken the law by making four harassing phone calls to a family friend.
In the letter, Mintell said the woman who received the calls had told her Victorino was involved in a gang and had suggested he could sexually assault the probation officer. Mintell wrote that the woman feared for her own safety so that detail was not included in the official report.
"Again, this is for informational purposes only," Mintell concluded, "but I did want to bring these matters to your attention."
Mintell's letter did not convince Foxman to revoke Victorino's probation and send him back to prison.
Foxman, who said he could not comment on the case, kept Victorino on probation and ordered him not to contact the victim.
Victorino's arrest has refocused attention on the state's probation system and how aggressively probation officers work to put those who violate their probation back behind bars.
One probation officer and three supervisors were fired Monday for failing to seek a warrant for Victorino within 48 hours of learning that he had been arrested in a separate case on July 29 for battery. Robert Gordon, one of the fired supervisors, said he was "devastated" to learn of the killings.
"The bottom line is, I think the four boys who committed this crime need to be the focus of the attention, not the criminal justice officials that may have made some judgment mistakes," he said.
The state's worst mass killing in a decade occurred six months after another probation controversy following the abduction and killing of Carlie Brucia, an 11-year-old Sarasota girl. Critics complained that the man accused of murdering Carlie had twice been accused of violating his probation, but not re-arrested, in the months leading up to the crime.
Because of Carlie, the Florida Legislature debated how to improve the system this year but failed to reach a consensus.
In the Deltona killings last week, six people were beaten to death with baseball bats. Four men have been charged with murder, including Victorino. The Volusia County Sheriff's Office says the attack was the culmination of an argument over Victorino's video game player and some clothes.
One of the victim's grandparents own a Florida winter home that was supposed to be vacant, but police said Victorino and others used it in July for parties until they were kicked out. That home is where the killings occurred.
While the probation officers were quickly fired for not acting faster on Victorino after his recent battery arrest, Gordon said there is more to consider.
He said Victorino's probation officer, Richard Burrow, wanted more information before arresting Victorino. The problem: Victorino has a brother, Tony, and the men switch names.
In June, Troy Victorino was jailed because his brother used his name after leaving the scene of an accident. After wrongly jailing Troy Victorino once, officials wanted to make sure they had the right Victorino before getting a warrant, according to Gordon.
"The officer wanted to make sure," Gordon said, "and that takes a little more time."
He said Burrow has been an outstanding employee.
"He has been with me for 21 years," said Gordon. "Nobody is thinking about the thousands of lives he's saved and turned around. We're losing sight of that."
Mintell, who wrote the letter to the judge, was no longer Victorino's probation officer and was not among those disciplined.
Victorino, 27, has been characterized as the ringleader of the killings. He has spent eight of the past 11 years in prison and has an extensive criminal record that includes burglary, car theft and aggravated battery. Some of his prison time came because he violated probation in previous cases.
Victorino was molested over an extended period of time at age 2 and suffered "emotional scars that very few can fathom," his mother, Sharon, wrote in a letter to a judge in 1996. "As is common with people who have suffered these kinds of abuse, he became anti-social in his behavior, and at 14 or 15 he became out of control."
Victorino stayed in prison on a grand theft conviction from December 1993 to January 1996, and on an aggravated battery and grand theft conviction from September 1997 to October 2003. Two months after his release, he was accused of making the harassing phone calls.
Although Foxman could not comment on his decision to keep Victorino on probation in December 2003, it's likely a key factor was that Victorino was never charged in the phone call case.
The Lake Helen police officer who took the report, Cpl. Scott Bellesfield, said Tuesday he considered the complaint insufficient to charge Victorino with making threats. So instead of sending it to prosecutors, he forwarded it to Victorino's probation officer.
Although DOC documents say judges can revoke probation for criminals who commit new offenses, even when they are not convicted of those new crimes, it is rare for them to do so.
The Deltona slayings are reviving Florida lawmakers' interest in reforming the state's probation system and causing some to regret failing to take action this year.
"I firmly believe that these people would be alive today if the House of Representatives had acted when it had a chance," said Rep. Kevin Ambler, R-Tampa, who had sponsored a probation reform bill that would have increased judges' ability to order electronic monitoring of probation violators. "If Victorino had a GPS tracking device on his ankle," Ambler added, "I don't believe he would have planned this attack."
Times staff writer Steve Bousquet contributed to this report.