New Details About The Dad Who Admitted To Molesting And Killing His Daughter After Her Mom Lost Custody Due To Depression
Mark Mesiti pleaded guilty to avoid the death penalty.
Mercury News In 2005, Mark Mesiti gained full-custody of his son and daughter after California authorities determined Roberta Allen to be an unfit mother due to her battle with depression. Despite a judge being aware that in the past several years, Mesiti had been convicted of bank fraud, drunk driving, and domestic violence — and Allen claiming that her ex-husband was only awarded custody because he could afford a lawyer and she couldn't — he was still entrusted to take care of his children.
But not even a year after getting them, one of his children — 14-year-old Alycia Mesiti-Allen — was dead.
Except, Mark Mesiti didn't admit she was dead. After Allen reported that her ex-husband had failed to enroll his children in school and remain in touch with her, he claimed she ran away during a camping trip with her friends.
“Dad’s story was he was getting phone calls periodically [from Alycia],” said Sgt. James Robbins. “But it doesn’t appear she ever left the house.”
He stuck to that story for three years — until cadaver dogs picked up on human remain scents in his backyard.
An autopsy of Alycia's body determined that she had died of acute drug intoxication. Tests found traces of opiates, morphine, amphetamine, methamphetamine, benzodiazepines, diazepam, methadone and anti-depressants. Mesiti used this cocktail of drugs to sedate his daughter so he could molest her.
According to police, he sexually assaulted her 40 times and photographed or videotaped all the incidences. After he was arrested for her murder, Mesiti also admitted to sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl and another girl around the age of 16 or 17.
They're remaining anonymous to protect their identities.
The father of two also had hundreds of thousands of child pornography images, hundreds of them showing Alycia being assaulted while she was clearly unconscious. He also set up a hidden camera in the room of an 8-year-old girl who was the daughter of his live-in girlfriend at the time.
Daily Mail
Mesiti was operating a methamphetamine lab at the time of his arrest. In court on Tuesday, the prosecutor made him make a "personal and public allocation of all his crimes in open court," rather than just simply agreeing to all 49 of his crimes. His sentencing hearing is set for Nov. 28.
Emily Blackwood is an editor at YourTango who covers pop culture, true crime, dating, relationships and everything in between. Every Wednesday at 10:20 p.m. you can ask her any and all questions about self-love, dating, and relationships LIVE on YourTango’s Facebook page. You can follow her on Instagram (@blackw00d) and Twitter (@emztweetz).