Jonathan Gleason, a 17‑year‑old male of unspecified ethnicity, was one of six individuals brutally killed during a home invasion on August 6, 2004, at a residence on Telford Lane in Deltona, Florida. The event, commonly known as the Deltona massacre or the “Xbox Murders,” involved four men breaking into the home and bludgeoning all occupants to death with baseball bats, also inflicting stabbing wounds, and killing a pet dog in the process.
On the morning of August 6, 2004, a co‑worker arrived at 3106 Telford Lane to pick up several other co‑workers and discovered blood and multiple bodies, prompting an immediate 911 call. Among the victims found at the scene were Erin Belanger Jonathan Gleason Francisco Roman, Roberto Gonzalez, Michelle Nathan and Anthony Vega. Autopsies revealed that each of the victims died from blunt‑force trauma to the head, with some exhibiting post‑mortem stab wounds.
Jonathan Gleason, the 17‑year‑old male, was fatally stabbed in the neck during the attack while sitting on a recliner when the assailants stormed the house. He was not a resident working at the house but rather a co‑worker who had filled out an application at the Burger King where the other victims were employed.
Investigations uncovered that the motive behind the murders was primarily revenge and theft. One of the perpetrators, Troy Victorino, believed that Erin Belanger had forcefully evicted him from a house owned by Belanger's grandmother, taking his Xbox and other belongings. Victorino enlisted the help of three others—Jerone Hunter, Michael Salas, and Robert Cannon—to carry out a violent revenge and theft-driven raid. They armed themselves not with a gun but with a collection of baseball bats.
Following the massacre, law enforcement evidence included shoe impressions, a knife handle and blade, metallic bats, a shoelace with DNA linking Hunter to victim Gonzalez, a broken lamp whose fragments were found in one suspect's vehicle, and the victim Roman's fingerprints on sunglasses recovered from the vehicle. Jerone Hunter confessed in an August 7, 2004, interview that he struck both Jonathan Gleason and Roberto Gonzalez repeatedly with a baseball bat, though he could not recall the exact number of blows. Michael Salas also confessed, stating that Hunter had stabbed Michelle Nathan in the chest and that he disposed of the weapons in a nearby retention pond, where the four bats were later recovered.
All four individuals were arrested and later tried. In August 2006, following a murder trial moved to a different venue due to pretrial publicity, Troy Victorino and Jerone Hunter were each found guilty of first-degree murder among other charges and were initially sentenced to death. Robert Cannon and Michael Salas were convicted as well and received life sentences without the possibility of parole.
The jury recommended the death penalty for Jonathan Gleason's murder by a vote of 10‑2 in Hunter's case; similarly, death recommendations were made for other murders in the case. Judge William A. Parsons described the killings as “conscienceless” and “unnecessarily torturous,” imposing death sentences accordingly.
Years later, in June 2017, the death sentences for both Victorino and Hunter were overturned due to a Florida Supreme Court ruling requiring unanimous jury recommendations for the death penalty. Prosecutors have since sought to retry the sentencing, and as of more recent developments, resentencing proceedings are underway, with a jury having been seated for the resentencing of both individuals.
In summary, Jonathan Gleason, a 17-year-old teenage male, was brutally killed by stabbing during a home invasion on August 6, 2004, orchestrated by four attackers over a perceived theft of an Xbox and other belongings, as well as personal grudges. Arrests were made promptly; all four perpetrators were convicted, with two receiving life sentences and two initially sentenced to death, though resentencing for those two is ongoing.
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