Michelle Ann Nathan, a 19-year-old woman, was one of six people murdered in Deltona, Florida, on August 6, 2004. Michelle, a 19-year-old female, was employed as a manager at a local Burger King. On the morning of her death, she and several others failed to arrive for work, prompting concern. When a friend went to check on the home, he discovered the front door kicked in and signs of blood inside. Police were called and uncovered a horrific crime scene.
Six victims had been brutally slain, including Michelle, whose young age and gender made her especially vulnerable in the attack. While Michelle's ethnicity was not specified in the public reports, her identity as a 19-year-old female victim was central to the case.
The murders became known nationwide as the “Deltona massacre” or the “Xbox murders,” so named because the attackers were motivated by a petty dispute over an Xbox video game console and clothing. Troy Victorino, who had been squatting at a property belonging to the grandparents of one of the victims, Erin Belanger, believed that his belongings—including the console—had been taken when Belanger evicted him. In retaliation, Victorino recruited three accomplices, Jerone Hunter, Robert Cannon, and Michael Salas, and together they armed themselves with bats and stormed the house. The group beat and stabbed the occupants to death. Michelle Nathan, a 19-year-old female, was among those who begged for her life before being viciously killed with multiple stab wounds and blunt force trauma. The brutality inflicted upon Michelle and the others shocked the community and drew national attention.
Following the discovery of the crime, all four men were quickly identified as suspects. On August 27, 2004, a Volusia County grand jury indicted Victorino, Hunter, Cannon, and Salas on charges including armed burglary, conspiracy, six counts of first-degree murder, and related crimes. The trial was moved to St. Johns County due to extensive publicity. In 2006, juries found the men guilty. Jerone Hunter was convicted of premeditated murder in the deaths of all six victims, including Michelle Nathan, the 19-year-old female who had only just begun her adult life. Jurors recommended the death penalty for four of the murders, including Michelle's, and the judge imposed four death sentences on Hunter. Victorino also received the death penalty, while Cannon and Salas were sentenced to life without parole.
Years later, the legal outcomes shifted. In 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Florida's death penalty system, which at the time did not require unanimous jury recommendations, leading to the overturning of Hunter's and Victorino's death sentences. This forced resentencing hearings. By 2025, under Florida's revised law requiring a majority vote, new juries again recommended the death penalty for both Victorino and Hunter, including for the murder of Michelle Nathan, the 19-year-old female victim who was at the center of the case. Cannon and Salas remain in prison serving life sentences. The brutality of Michelle Nathan's death, at only 19 years old, alongside the other victims, remains one of Florida's most infamous and tragic crimes.
