Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Change of venue granted in Xbox murder case

By Wire services
Published April 14, 2006

ORLANDO - The trial of three men accused of killing six people over a video game system will be moved from Volusia County, a judge ruled Thursday after prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed that intense media coverage would make it difficult to find an impartial jury there.

Circuit Judge William A. Parsons granted the change of venue motion after four days of jury selection in DeLand. He said the case will move to St. Augustine in St. Johns County, where selection will start over again in June or July.

Jerone Hunter, 19, Troy Victorino, 29, and Michael Salas, 20, all face six counts of first-degree murder, five counts of mutilating a body and three other felonies. Prosecutors allege that Victorino organized the baseball bat attack in 2004 to retrieve an Xbox video game system he lost.

Parsons' decision came after State Attorney John Tanner agreed it would be difficult for the defendants to get a fair trial.

"We were on thin ice with the appeals court if we went forward with this case," said Tanner, who is seeking the death penalty.

A fourth defendant, Robert Cannon, 19, pleaded guilty in October to all charges. He will get a life sentence instead of the death penalty in exchange for his testimony.

TALLAHASSEE - The state's caretaking agency for foster children has rented a two-bedroom cottage following a lawsuit last week accusing it of temporarily housing wards in a conference room.

The suit claims the Department of Children and Families forced up to 10 foster children at a time to sleep in an agency conference room, without enough beds and bedding and without adequate bathrooms, food or medical care. It said the children slept on conference tables and in chairs and used their clothing as bedding.

"We as a state really need to step up to the plate and take care of these kids, and we're not doing it," said attorney David Abrams, who represents the foster children. "This is a very challenging problem, but having children sleep in a conference room is not the solution to it. We've got to do better than that."

Following a judge's order to stop placing children in the conference room for overnight stays, the department rented the cottage to provide supervised care for children in emergencies.

Spokeswoman Zoraya Suarez said the department always tries to provide foster children with the safest environment during emergencies. "We have never lost sight of the children's well-being," she said.

ORLANDO - A SWAT team member acted appropriately when he fatally shot a student who brandished a pellet gun resembling a real weapon, the State Attorney's Office said Thursday.

State Attorney Norman R. Wolfinger said in a letter to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement that "the use of deadly force by Seminole County sheriff's Lt. Mike Weippert was lawful."

Christopher Penley, 15, showed the pellet gun to another student in a classroom at Milwee Middle School Jan. 13. He pointed it into another student's back before barricading himself in a bathroom alcove. The gun barrel, normally painted red or orange, was painted black and resembled a real 9mm handgun, the report said.

Penley held the gun to his neck saying "I'm going to die one way or the other," and would not respond to negotiators, the report said.

The report said Weippert saw Penley point the weapon in his direction about three times before Weippert shot the youth in the forehead.

Penley's parents said they knew their son was having anger problems, and they had tried to get him into counseling.

KEY WEST - Two men allegedly beat an American alligator to death in the Florida Keys, then served the carcass at a backyard barbecue a few days later, authorities said.

Timothy B. Goll, 18, of Marathon, and Jordan T. Milo, 20, of Big Pine Key, are charged with killing the reptile March 24. That's a third-degree felony.

"They apparently used a pellet gun to disable it and then used a baseball bat to kill it," said Lt. Steve Acton, a spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation.

The alligator had lived in a freshwater pond on Big Pine Key.

[Last modified April 14, 2006, 01:55:46]