A federal jury Thursday afternoon convicted two men in the 2006 murders of a family of four along Florida’s Turnpike.

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More on the case Jose and Yessica Escobedo with sons Luis Julian (left) and Luis Damian (right). Husband, wife and two children from Greenacres found shot to death off Florida’s Turnpike in northern Port St. Lucie. More news, photos

The verdicts mean either life in prison or death for Ricardo Sanchez and Daniel Troya, both 25.

The 12-member jury after four days of deliberations also convicted Danny Varela, 28, and Liana Lee Lopez, 20, on charges related to the drug ring the four ran from a luxury Briar Bay home in 2006.

Jose Luis Escobedo worked as a drug connection for the group. He, his wife Yessica and their 3 and 4-year-old sons Luis Damian and Luis Julian were killed after he and Varela, the group’s leader, argued over missing money.

Escobedo’s sister Rita Escobedo Flores, his mother Rosario Escobedo, and Yessica’s mother Sara Guerrero all expressed joy over the verdict, crying as they hugged investigators in the case after U.S. District Judge Daniel T. K. Hurley dismissed court for the day.

The three women, along with Guerrero’s sister Monica Moreno, sat through each day of more than five weeks of testimony.

“We needed that closure,” Flores said. “We needed answers to those unanswered questions, and even though there are still some unanswered questions God answered most of them for us.”

Varela wasn’t charged in the deaths, but Assistant U.S. Attorney John Kastrenakes told jurors last week that investigators were still searching for evidence and could charge him if they find more evidence connecting him to the killings.

Varela’s attorney, Robert Gershman, is doubtful that will happen. As it is, several of the convictions guarantee life sentences for Varela.

“They’ve worked this case for three years now,” he said of investigators before adding of his client: “There’s always a fear of a murder charge out there, but I don’t know how big a fear that is after today.”

Varela appeared stoic during the verdict as he has throughout the trial, though Gershman said he was talking to him as the verdicts were read, expressing his upset all the while.

His mother frowned while seated in the courtroom, while family members for Sanchez, Troya and Lopez cried openly. Those family members declined to comment.

No sentencing date was set for Varela and Lopez. The penalty phase of the trial for Sanchez and Troya is tentatively set to begin March 16.

The verdicts against Sanchez and Troya put into play the rarely-used death penalty in Florida federal court.

If the jury opts for death in either case, it will be the first time a federal jury has imposed the death sentence since lawmakers re-authorized the capital punishment in 1988.

Jurors rejected claims from Ruben Garcia and Michael Cohen, Troya and Sanchez’s attorneys who claimed that Mexican drug cartel members eliminated the Escobedos because he owed them money.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Carlton, Kastrenakes and Department of Justice trial attorney Richard Burns presented their case over more than four weeks, building it mostly on circumstantial evidence.

Among the evidence, investigators found Troya and Sanchez’s palm prints on Turnpike toll receipts from the night of the killings, tracked cell phone records to show the two and Escobedo were on the highway at the same general place and time and discovered a piece of luggage belonging to the Escobedos in a van Varela sent to be repainted after the killings.

Prosecutors waited until the last full day of their case to give jurors evidence of bullets found in the group’s Garden Court home that matched bullets found at the crime scene just south of Fort Pierce. No murder weapon was ever recovered.

Troya, Sanchez, Varela and another man, Juan Gutierrez, were arrested less than two weeks after the murders when investigators executed a search warrant at the group’s home and found a cache of guns and drugs.

Both Gutierrez and another man, Kevin Vetere, pleaded guilty to their roles in the drug ring. Vetere received a 12-year prison sentence and spent nearly three days on the witness stand during the case testifying against the other four.

Gutierrez has yet to be sentenced, according to court records.

The penalty phase in the case will likely last a little more than a week, including a full four days in which defense attorneys Donnie Murrell and James Eisenberg will ask jurors to spare the lives of Sanchez and Troya respectively.

Kastrenakes told Hurley that the government’s case against the two will likely last a day, adding that they will rely strongly on evidence already presented during the trial.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 5th, 2009 at 8:24 pm and is filed under Crime, Economy, Escobedo trial, Schools, Stuart. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.