Jury: Death for two in Turnpike slayings
WEST PALM BEACH (AP) – A federal jury on Tuesday recommended death for two men convicted of gunning down a family of four, including two young children, prompting one of the defendants to curse and hurl a plastic bottle toward prosecutors before he was dragged from the courtroom.
The sentence marks the first federal death penalty recommended in Florida since Congress reinstated capital punishment in 1988.
District Judge Daniel T.K. Hurley said he would impose the final sentence for Daniel Troya and Ricardo Sanchez Jr., both 25, at a later hearing.
The two were convicted March 5 of fatally shooting Jose Luis Escobedo, 28; his wife, Yessica Guerrero Escobedo, 25; and their sons, Luis Julian, 4, and Luis Damian, 3. They were found slain alongside Florida’s Turnpike on Oct. 13, 2006.
“Ladies and gentlemen, when you leave the courtroom today, you need to leave with your heads held high,” Judge Hurley told the jury before excusing them.
The panel of seven men and five women recommended death sentences for the killings of the two children, and life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murders of the parents.
Troya, who displayed no emotion throughout the trial, began mumbling profanities after the jury left the courtroom, then hurled a half-full plastic water bottle across the defense table toward prosecutors.
Federal marshals swarmed and dragged him forcefully from the courtroom, as his family yelled for him to stop fighting. The judge then calmed spectators, who returned to their seats after the melee.
Family members on both sides left the courtroom without comment. Prosecutors also left without making a statement. Defense attorneys said they would appeal.
Detective Fred Wilson of the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office, where the killings occurred, said it was “a just verdict,” adding the victims’ families were relieved.
“They’re going home now with a weight lifted off their hearts,” Wilson said.
The victims had moved to Palm Beach County from the Brownsville, Texas, area just a few months before they were killed.
Authorities claimed Jose Escobedo was involved in a drug ring with the defendants. They said Troya and Sanchez killed him and his family to settle a debt, then stole 15 kilograms of cocaine from Escobedo.
Defense attorneys claimed that Escobedo owed $187,000 to someone in Matamoros, Mexico, just across the border from Brownsville, a major cocaine corridor for Mexican drug cartels. They said the family was likely killed by Mexican drug dealers over the debt.
Throughout the trial, prosecutors displayed for jurors photographs of the victims’ bloodied bodies in a twisted mound in the grass along the highway. All were shot at close range.
Yessica Escobedo suffered 11 gunshot wounds while cradling her two young sons in her arms in an apparent attempt to shield them. The boys were shot a total of 10 times. Jose Escobedo was shot five times, with an execution shot to the front of his head.
Prosecutors said bullet casings found at the scene were linked to ammunition at the defendants’ home. They also said Troya and Sanchez’s fingerprints were found on turnpike tickets from the night of the killings.
Defense attorneys had claimed the case was flimsy, questioned the reliability of government witnesses who stood to gain favor in their own criminal proceedings, and pointed to the lack of witnesses to the actual crime.
During the penalty phase they claimed the defendants’ violent upbringing, in part, brought them to commit the killings.