Alleged California Killer Wants To Take Back His Plea.
Mark Mesiti had a change of heart today, as he requested to change his plea from guilty to not guilty. His motivation seems to be coming from his new legal team, that apparently think he can do better than life in prison without parole.
After pleading guilty earlier this month one of the conditions required him to admit guilt to all 49 charges. When he took the deal he rid himself the chance of getting the death penalty, he also accepted a sentence of life in prison without Parole, which will now be forfeit if the judge accepts his plea change.
Now Mark is lawyered up and wants to remove his guilty plea opening himself up again for the death penalty. The evidence against him seems to be pretty substantial since he supposedly liked to record himself sexually assaulting his daughter, and the body was found buried in the backyard of his last house.
This case is a long time coming as the incident occurred back in 2006 and her body was not discovered until 2009.
“An autopsy determined that Alycia died of acute drug intoxication, according to the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office. Testing of the body showed the presence of opiates, morphine, amphetamine, methamphetamine, benzodiazepines, diazepam, methadone and anti-depressants.”
It is alleged that Mesiti drugged his daughter 40 times in order to sexually assaulted her, It is assumed that she died of an overdose when he was trying set up another molestation session. The bright side of all this is that his legal team might inadvertently get him the death penalty.
Video Below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJfD9rqb5eE&t=121s
As Reported Tracy Kaplan, Mercury News
According to court documents, the judge was aware at the time that in the seven years prior to being awarded custody, Mesiti had been convicted of state and federal charges, including bank fraud and drunken driving. He also was charged with domestic violence and ordered to attend anger-management classes after pleading guilty to a lesser charge. After failing to comply with court orders to attend drug- and alcohol-treatment programs, he landed in prison for violating probation.
Alycia’s mother, Roberta Allen, a former Campbell resident, was described by a court investigator as an unfit mother who had battled depression. However, in an investigation by this news organization after Alycia’s body was discovered in 2009, Allen described her years-long legal battle as “very angled toward Mark. I couldn’t afford an attorney. He had one.”
Chiarello, who is currently assigned to hearing criminal cases in Palo Alto, has declined to comment on the case since cadaver-sniffing dogs found Alycia’s body eight years ago buried in the unkempt yard of her father’s former home in the Central Valley community of Ceres. The case took ages to come to trial, first because he had to be prosecuted in Los Angeles County for running a methamphetamine lab there, then because he opted to act as his own attorney, then because he changed his mind.
According to a statement released by Stanislaus County prosecutors, Mesiti had hundreds of thousands of images involving child pornography. Hundreds of those images showed Alycia being sexually assaulted while she was obviously unconscious.
Videos also showed the defendant setting up a hidden camera in the bedroom of an 8-year-old girl who lived in the apartment with him and his girlfriend in Los Angeles County at the time. Other videos and images showed a 16-year-old girl whom Mesiti had befriended being sexually assaulted.
At the time of his arrest, he was operating a methamphetamine laboratory in Los Angeles.
“There is nothing that will bring her back,” Fitzpatrick said, “but I hope Alycia’s story will be a cautionary tale and will eventually bring changes in the family law courts to better protect children who are trapped in contentious custody disputes.”