A federal jury ended deliberations Monday with a question but no verdict as to whether Ricardo Sanchez, Jr. and Daniel Troya should face life in prison or the death sentence for the 2006 murders of Jose Luis Escobedo and his family.

The jurors asked U.S. Senior District Judge Daniel T.K. Hurley to clear up confusion about the verdict form he and attorneys in the case gave them before they began their deliberations Thursday.

Family slain

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

During discussions between Hurley and attorneys outside the presence of the jury, Troya's attorney James Eisenberg renewed his objection to the fact that Hurley had only informed jurors of three possible options for their deliberations - unanimous decision for a life sentence, unanimous for a death sentence, or a unanimous decision to let Hurley decide the sentence.

The third option is a life sentence by default because life is the maximum sentence Hurley is authorized to impose under those circumstances.

Eisenberg during a hearing more than two weeks ago asked Hurley to also inform jurors that the burden of sentencing would also fall to him if they could not reach a unanimous decision. Hurley ultimately declined and reiterated his decision Monday in court.

"I'm not getting into any issue about a hung jury here," Hurley told Eisenberg.

Prosecutors say Sanchez and Troya killed Escobedo, a cocaine supplier for their drug organization, to steal cocaine and to clear a debt owed to him by their boss, Danny Varela. Jurors also convicted the men in the deaths of Escobedo's wife Yessica, and their 3 and 4-year-old sons Luis Damian and Luis Julian.

Varela was not charged in the deaths but will likely spend the rest of his life in prison based on convictions on related drug charges for which the jury convicted him, Sanchez, Troya, and Liana Lee Lopez earlier this month.

The jury will continue deliberations today.

Jurors ended a second day of deliberations Friday without making a decision as to whether Ricardo Sanchez Jr. and Daniel Troya will spend life in prison or be put to death for the 2006 murders of the Escobedo family on Florida's Turnpike.

Family slain

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

Sanchez and Troya, both 25, were convicted of killing cocaine supplier Jose Luis Escobedo, his wife and his two sons.

Jurors were given three options before they began deliberating Thursday: unanimous life, unanimous death or a unanimous decision to let U.S. District Judge Daniel T.K. Hurley determine the sentence.

Life is the maximum penalty a federal judge can issue under those circumstances. If the jury cannot reach a unanimous decision, then sentencing also will fall to Hurley.

Jurors resume deliberations Monday.

For the murders of Jose Luis Escobedo and his young family, convicted killers Daniel Troya and Ricardo Sanchez in less than two weeks could join the small but growing population of inmates on the federal government's Death Row.

If the 12-member jury that convicted them this month opts for capital punishment at the end of the hearing that begins today, the number of federal Death Row inmates will grow to 57 - a number that, according to death penalty experts, has increased at a time when similar numbers in the state system have dropped.

Family slain

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

It would mark the first time the federal death penalty has been imposed in Florida since it was reinstated in 1988.

To secure the death sentence against the pair, both 25, prosecutors plan to rely mostly on evidence presented during their weeks-long trial in the Oct. 13, 2006, shooting deaths of Escobedo, his wife, Yessica, and their 3- and 4-year-old sons, Luis Damian and Luis Julian, along Florida's Turnpike at Port St. Lucie.

Defense attorneys for Sanchez and Troya, meanwhile, will try to get jurors to spare the men's lives by showing that violence in their upbringings led them to commit crimes as adults.

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As federal jurors left the courtroom for lunch Wednesday, a picture of 3-year-old Luis Damian Escobedo's tiny face on a medical examiner's table loomed high on a courtroom projection screen, his long, dark eyelashes forever closed above the gunpowder burns that dotted his chubby left cheek and ear.

His aunt, great aunt and grandmothers filed out of the courtroom without looking back, still wiping the tears that minutes earlier had come with loud sobs.

U.S. District Judge Daniel T.K. Hurley gently told them he was concerned about the effect their emotions would have on jurors and asked them to step outside if the weight of the weeks-long trial became too much to bear.

When they came back, Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Carlton continued giving jurors the final words they would hear from him in his case against the two men he says are responsible for the brutal 2006 shooting deaths of Luis Damian, his 4-year-old brother Luis Julian, and their parents, Jose Luis and Yessica Escobedo.

Family slain

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

"It's a tragedy that the kids were there," Carlton said. "But they were eliminated because they were potential witnesses."

Witnesses, Carlton said, to crimes that carry a potential death penalty for Daniel Troya and Ricardo Sanchez, who allegedly carried out the killings during a carjacking to take the cocaine the children's father was carrying in the family's SUV as they headed south on Florida's Turnpike.

During his closing statements, Carlton reminded jurors of evidence that both men worked for alleged drug-ring leader Danny Varela, who is not charged in the deaths but is on trial for drug conspiracy and weapons charges, as is his girlfriend, Liana Lee Lopez.

Escobedo allegedly worked as a supplier for Varela and was killed to erase a drug debt and to steal 15 kilos of cocaine.

Jurors could begin deliberating the case today or Monday.

Carlton spent much of Wednesday pulling together threads of circumstantial evidence that put Troya and Sanchez along the same stretch of Florida's Turnpike as the Escobedos at the time they were killed. Among them were toll receipts with Troya and Sanchez's fingerprints that appear to link them to the crime scene, cellphone records from the night of the murders, and a suitcase that matched a set of suitcases belonging to the Escobedos later found in a van linked to the scene.

Carlton also reminded jurors that a gun expert matched ammunition from the Briar Bay home where the four defendants lived to the crime scene.

"The reason for that is that's where the killers lived," Carlton said.

Varela's attorney, Robert Gershman, tried to separate Varela from the killings, saying prosecutors tried to "bootstrap" Troya and Sanchez's charges to him by saying he was the boss. Gershman and Troya's attorney, Ruben Garcia, attacked Troya's childhood friend and government star witness Kevin Vetere, who's serving a 12-year prison term after pleading guilty to working with Varela's crew.

Garcia called the story of Vetere, a one-time baseball star, "a true Greek tragedy." Gershman wasn't as kind.

"Mr. Vetere is testifying like a well-trained crackhead, feeding the government whatever it needs for the case," he said.

Sanchez's attorney, Michael Cohen, and Lopez's attorney, Gregg Lerman, are expected to present their closing arguments today.

Prosecutors this morning delivered what so far is the closet thing they have to direct evidence against two men accused in the 2006 killings of a family of four along Florida's Turnpike.

A firearm expert told jurors that bullets found in a gun magazine and a box of ammo found in a Briar Bay home appeared to match some of the bullets that killed Jose Luis Escobedo, his wife, Yessica, and their sons, Luis, Julian and Luis Damian.

Daniel Troya and Ricardo Sanchez could face the death penalty if convicted on car jacking charges in connection with the deaths.

Family slain

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

Prosecutors say the two worked and lived with Danny Varela, who along with Liana Lopez, are also on trial for drug conspiracy and gun charges.

St. Lucie County Sheriffs Office firearm and toolmark analyst Mark Chapman spent the morning telling jurors about similarities between markings on ammunition found at the group's home and bullets fired at the crime scene.

Particularly, Chapman said 9 mm ammunition found in a box in the home's garage matched bullets of the same caliber at the scene.

Chapman also said a .40-caliber bullet found in a gun magazine at the house had similar markings as .40 caliber-bullets fired at the scene, making it likely that the bullets were at some point in the same magazine clip.

The statements fulfilled a promise Assistant U.S. attorney Stephen Carlton made to jurors in opening arguments in the case more than a month ago when he said prosecutors would tie the group's house to the crime scene.

Sanchez's defense attorney, Donnie Murell, tried to discount Chapman's findings on cross examination, saying the evidence fell short of pointing to a particular shooter.

"None of your examinations say who was holding the gun, do they?" Murell asked Chapman.

No, Chapman replied.

Murell also asked Chapman about national studies that challenged the reliability of the types of comparisons he made.

Prosecutors are expected to rest their case this afternoon. Closing arguments in the case could begin as early as Wednesday.

Inside Danny Varela's bedroom before authorities raided his house, a bed covered in black sheets and Playboy bunny pillows sat to the left of a large black poster showing bundles of cash piled nearly ceiling-high.

Money, and the drugs that Varela and his crew allegedly sold to get it, have been a constant undercurrent throughout four weeks of government witness testimony in the federal death penalty trial involving the murders of Jose Luis Escobedo and his young family.

Family slain

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

Neither Varela, nor his girlfriend, Liana Lee Lopez, are charged in the murders, but they are facing drug and gun charges along with Daniel Troya and Ricardo Sanchez, the two men charged with crimes connected to the slayings.

Prosecutors are now near the end of their case against the four after calling dozens of witnesses and presenting overwhelming evidence that the group was responsible for pushing large quantities of cocaine throughout South Florida, toting guns and sometimes using them to carry out the violence that had been a part of their lifestyle.

Palm prints from toll receipts have also placed Troya and Sanchez near the scene of the Escobedos' deaths along Florida's Turnpike and Sanchez in the family's SUV after the killings.

But prosecutors will likely conclude their case Monday without providing jurors with a murder weapon or anything close to eyewitness testimony of who shot Escobedo, his 25-year-old wife Yessica and their 3- and 4-year-old sons, Luis Damian and Luis Julian.

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In recorded conversations, Malik Mullino and Danny Varela chatted like two old friends happy to be meeting up again, talking about girls and partying.

Even the coded language they used when they got down to business flowed casually, as if Varela was selling Mullino a video game

“I got a few dollars, man, ” Mullino told Varela.

“I got them in stock, dawg,” Varela answered.

Mullino told jurors in the death penalty case surrounding the murders of the Escobedo family on Florida’s Turnpike that the phrases were code for an exchange of money for cocaine, and that he and Varela were business partners since the spring of 2004.

Family slain

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 conversation jurors heard this morning allegedly came more than a week after Varela’s alleged drug associate Jose Luis Escobedo, his wife Yessica, and their 3 and 4-year-old sons Luis Damian and Luis Julian were found shot to death along the side of the highway south of Fort Pierce.

Varela is not charged in the deaths, but two of his alleged associates - Ricardo Sanchez and Daniel Troya - face the death penalty if convicted of federal charges of armed carjacking resulting in death.

Authorities believe the two forced the Escobedo family off the road on October 13, 2006, killing the four before driving the family’s Jeep and a conversion van they were in back to the house they lived in with Varela at 6458 Garden Court.

It was there that Mullino testified that Varela took him more than a week later, handing him a kilo of cocaine and showing him a growing gun collection that included an AK-47 and an Uzi.

What Varela didn’t know was that Mullino, who had been picked up on drug charges earlier that year, had been working as a DEA informant and carried a tape recorder to the meeting.

Testimony in the case continued this afternoon. Prosecutors could wrap up their case within the next two weeks.

A swarm of nearly a dozen officers crouched strategically at exit points around the luxury four-bedroom house in the gated Briar Bay community, making sure no one inside could escape.

They held their posts, waiting for some sign of movement as a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office loudspeaker system outside the house announced the end to Danny Varela’s drug enterprise.

“It basically said we were the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, we had a warrant to search the house and requested that the people inside would exit the house,” sheriff’s Detective Sgt. Daniel Burrows told jurors last week in a drug conspiracy trial against Varela and three others.

Prosecutors say Varela’s drug business at its height had him distributing multiple kilograms of cocaine weekly.

Family slain

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

It was this business that led to the Oct. 13, 2006, deaths of Jose Luis Escobedo and his family along Florida’s Turnpike and brought a multiple-agency task force to Varela’s home at 6458 Garden Court less than two weeks later.

Burrows and the others chose not to storm into the house because they believed Varela and his housemates - girlfriend Liana Lee Lopez, cousin Ricardo Sanchez and friends Daniel Troya and Juan Gutierrez - had automatic weapons with enough power to pierce bulletproof vests. Snipers stationed around the perimeter said the drawn blinds prevented them from getting a look inside. (more…)

Family slain

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

Prosecutors could within the next who weeks wrap up their case against four people charged in an alleged drug conspiracy that eventually led to the deaths of a young family of four.

Danny Varela, Ricardo Sanchez, Daniel Troya and Liana Lee Lopez all face drug charges punishable by life in prison, but a jury could also choose to sentence Sanchez and Troya to death if they are convicted on charges related to the October 2006 shooting deaths of the Escobedo family along Florida’s Turnpike.

This week jurors in the case heard testimony from several people who said Varela, the suspected head of the group, had been seen with Jose Luis Escobedo both in Florida and Brownsville, Texas in the months before Escobedo, his wife Yessica, and his their two young sons were murdered.

Authorities say Escobedo helped the group move large quantities of cocaine to Florida and Sanchez and Troya killed the family in order to steal the drugs Escobedo was carrying.

Jurors also heard testimony this week from federal prison inmate Carlos Rodriguez, who testified that Troya made a confession to his cellmate while they were all housed at a detention center in Miami after Troya’s October 2006 arrest. (more…)

Guns. Drugs. Money.

Prosecutors say these three things were the cornerstones of Danny Varela’s empire, stashed throught his bedroom in the West Palm Beach home that was the alleged home base for a drug ring that eventually claimed the lives of a young family.

Read the full story here.