A California father who faces the death penalty for the alleged 2006 rape and killing of his 14-year-old daughter now plans to take back his guilty plea.
Mark Mesiti, 49, pleaded guilty to 49 crimes in all earlier this month, The Mercury News reported.
The family of Alycia Mesiti-Allen reacted to the move by calling Mesiti “disgusting” and accusing him of “us[ing] the system to torture us.”
The crimes Mesiti pleaded guilty to include drugging his daughter and photographing and videotaping as many as 40 sexual assaults of her and the sexual assaults of two other girls.
Mesiti had been awarded custody of his daughter months before her death, even though a judge knew Mesiti had been convicted of state and federal crimes for drunken driving and bank fraud years prior.
Mesiti also was convicted of manufacturing meth in 2011, The Modesto Bee reports.
Alycia Mesiti-Allen's autopsy showed that she died of acute drug intoxication, involving opiates, morphine, amphetamine, methamphetamine and more, People reported. Her body reportedly was discovered in 2009, buried in Mesiti's former backyard.
Authorities say they have multiple computers and digital files of hundreds of thousands of images involving child pornography, as well as hundreds of images showing the sexual assault of his unconscious daughter.
It’s not clear at this time if the judge will allow Mesiti to make his case for plea withdrawal.
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