Ricardo Sanchez Jr,Daniel Troya Arrested; – Two men who were sentenced to death over a decade ago for the heinous murder of a family in West Palm Beach have had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment.
On Monday morning, outgoing President Joe Biden announced a series of commutations for federal inmates on death row. Among those whose executions have been halted are Ricardo Sanchez, Jr. and Daniel Troya, who were convicted of shooting and killing a mother, father, and their two young children.
The tragic events unfolded in the early hours of October 13, 2006, when the two men intercepted the family’s Jeep Cherokee on the Turnpike, near Fort Pierce.
Each member of the Escobedo family—Jose Luis Escobedo, Luis Damian Escobedo, Luis Julian Escobedo, and Yessica Guerro Escobedo—was shot and left at the scene. Following the murders, Sanchez and Troya fled in both their Dodge Ram van and the Escobedo family’s black Jeep Cherokee.
Investigators, upon searching the family’s residence, began to suspect that Jose Luis Escobedo was involved in cocaine trafficking. This led to a connection between Escobedo, Sanchez, Troya, and a third individual, identified as Danny Varela.
After securing a search warrant for the West Palm Beach home of the three men, law enforcement officials uncovered over a kilogram of cocaine, around 30 grams of crack cocaine, and 30 ecstasy tablets. In addition to the drugs, more than a dozen firearms, including handguns, rifles, and shotguns, were also found. As a result of this discovery, all three men were arrested in relation to the drugs and firearms, along with two additional individuals, Liana Lopez and Jose Gutierrez.
In May 2009, Sanchez and Troya were convicted on 11 charges, which included four counts related to the deaths of the Escobedo family. On that day, they were sentenced to life imprisonment and five years of supervised release, in addition to their death sentences—until the recent announcement on Monday.
