25-05-2025
Who are the Escobedo killers and what happened on Florida's Turnpike in St. Lucie in 2006?
ST. LUCIE COUNTY – Five months after former President Joe Biden commuted the federal death sentences of the men who brutally slaughtered a family on Florida's Turnpike, the pair could be returned to death row, but to a Florida prison.
That's according to State Attorney Tom Bakkedahl, who is holding a press conference May 27 to discuss prosecuting Daniel "Homer" Troya, 42, and Ricardo 'Ricky' Sanchez, Jr., 41, whose federal death sentences were commuted for the 2006 murders of Jose Escobedo, his wife and two young sons on Oct. 13, 2006.
On May 23, Bakkedahl and Sheriff Richard Del Toro announced they were reopening the 2006 Escobedo family murder case in 'direct response to the federal government's commutation of the death sentences.'
The announcement stated Bakkedahl's office would seek the death penalty against Troya and Sanchez, both of Palm Beach County, if a jury seated in St. Lucie County convicts the two of capital murder charges.
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The men were sentenced to death in 2009 for their involvement in the drug-related slaughter of the Escobedo family in gangland-style executions tied to a drug peddling operation in West Palm Beach. Prosecutors said the men carried out the killings on the orders of their co-defendant and convicted drug trafficker Danny Varela, 44, for whom the two worked as drug couriers.
The hits were ordered, according to federal investigators, to settle a drug debt and to steal drugs from Escobedo, who had been the group's cocaine supplier, smuggling in kilos from Texas.
Here's a closer look at the extraordinary killings and the people involved.
Jose, 28, and Yessica Escobedo, 25, grew up in Brownsville, Texas, but were living in Greenacres in Palm Beach County with their two sons, Luis Damien, 3, and Luis Julian, 4. Federal agents believed Jose Escobedo was the leader of a drug ring and ran drugs between Texas and Florida.
Jose Escobedo was shot once above the left eye, three times in the lower torso and genitals, and once in the left leg. His wife was shot 11 times, with four shots to the head and face and seven in her torso.
Luis Julian was shot six times; he suffered a fatal wound to the top of his head. His brother Luis Damien sustained five bullet wounds.
June 15, 2006: Jose "Lou" Escobedo, his wife Yessica and their sons, Luis Damian, 3, and Luis Julian, 4, moved from Brownsville, Texas, to a rental home in Greenacres in Palm Beach County. Investigators say a trail of evidence linked Jose Escobedo to Varela, Troya and Sanchez and the trafficking of drugs between Texas and Florida.
Oct. 12, 2006: The night before the killing, the Escobedos left their home in Palm Beach County, possibly picking up or dropping off drugs, and Sanchez and Troya made several phone calls to Escobedo, following him in a van. Also on that night, Jose Escobedo talked to his brother and reported he had "picked up the package," which was drugs, and was being followed by the van with Troya and Sanchez.
Oct. 13, 2006: In the predawn hours, Daniel Troya and Ricardo Sanchez gun down the Escobedo family along Florida's Turnpike at mile marker 149 in Port St. Lucie. Prosecutors said Sanchez drove Jose Escobedo's Jeep away from the crime scene on Florida's Turnpike.
Oct. 16, 2006: Escobedo's black Cherokee Jeep is found abandoned in a West Palm Beach industrial area, with matches and a container of gasoline nearby.
Oct. 25, 2006: Police raid "Thug Mansion," a rented home in a West Palm Beach gated community where Danny Varela, Liana Lee Lopez, Troya, Sanchez, Kevin Vetere and Juan C. Gutierrez, lived and were arrested for multiple gun and drug offenses.
January 2008: Co-defendant Kevin Vetere, a key government trial witness who lived with the drug gang in West Palm Beach, was the first of its members to plead guilty. He's sentenced to a 12-year prison term for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine.
Jan. 27, 2009: Federal trial begins against Varela, Lopez, Troya and Sanchez. Jurors saw video showing the Escobedo's Jeep and a van getting on and off the turnpike. Prosecutors also presented fingerprint evidence of Sanchez and Troya on toll tickets, and cell phone evidence that linked them to the crime.
March 5, 2009: A jury returns guilty verdicts on all charges against all four defendants. Troya and Sanchez are convicted of 16 charges, including armed carjacking resulting in death, along with drug trafficking and weapons offenses.
April 2, 2009: A jury votes to put to death Troya and Sanchez for the killings of Luis Damian and Luis Julian Escobedo. They receive two life prison terms for the murders of Jose and Yessica Escobedo.
In sentencing the men to death, Senior U.S. District Judge Daniel T.K. Hurley described the Escobedo murders as "shocking, appalling and outrageous.' Troya, he said, was "an enormously dangerous person who has no regard for the taking of human life."
"He slaughtered the Escobedo family - the entire family - mother, father and two beautiful children.'
May 2009: Danny Varela, 31, receives two life terms in prison, plus 60 years on gun, drug possession and drug trafficking convictions; Liana Lopez is sentenced to 15 years in prison, followed by five years of supervised release; co-defendant Juan C. Gutierrez, 25, a cousin to Ricardo Sanchez who also ran drugs for Varela, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for a conviction of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute crack cocaine.
April 2013: In a ruling upholding Troya and Sanchez's convictions, a three-judge panel with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal in Atlanta wrote the gangland-style murders 'took place to protect a large-scale drug trafficking ring involving drugs, guns and extensive violence.'
The panel called the killings a 'gruesome quadruple homicide' and concluded Troya and Sanchez stalked the Escobedos for nearly nine hours, personally spoke to the family 'and then ruthlessly murdered them one-by-one, execution style.'
Dec. 23, 2024: President Joe Biden commutes the death sentences of Troya and Sanchez; their sentences are reclassified from execution to life without the possibility of parole.
Daniel Troya, 42, and Ricardo Sanchez, 41 are housed at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind., a high-security facility housing male inmates and men sentenced to death.
Co-defendant Danny Varela, 44, is serving two life sentences plus 60 years in prison at the medium-security U.S. Penitentiary Ray Brook, in Ray Brook, N.Y. He was convicted of nine conspiracy, weapons and drug possession offenses. His convictions and sentences were upheld on appeal, and in 2020 his legal bid to reduce his life term was denied.
Co-defendant Liana Lee Lopez, 37, Varela's former girlfriend who was never directly implicated in the murders, was convicted of four conspiracy, drug and firearm charges. She was sentenced to 15 years in prison and was released in 2019, records show.
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Co-defendant Kevin Vetere, who lived with the drug gang and provided key government testimony at trial, was sentenced to 12 years in prison. The Federal Bureau of Prison's website however, does not list him as an inmate at any federal facility.
Co-defendant Juan C. 'Flaco' Gutierrez, 35, Ricardo Sanchez's cousin who lived with the gang, was released from federal custody on Jan. 14, 2022.
Sources: U.S. Attorney's Office for the U.S. Southern District of Florida; Federal Bureau of Prisons; St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office records
Melissa E. Holsman is the legal affairs reporter for TCPalm and Treasure Coast Newspapers and is writer and co-host of "Uncertain Terms," a true-crime podcast. Reach her at
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Why was the Escobedo family slaughtered in 2006 on Florida's Turnpike?
