After gaining custody of his daughter Alycia [right], and son in 2005, Mark Mesiti [left],  raped his daughter over several months, using a cocktail of drugs to put her into a sleep while he filmed the repeated molestations

An evil California dad on trial for drugging, raping and murdering his teen daughter stunned the court, finally admitting to the charges on Tuesday and ending an 11-year saga, in the disappearance and death of the 14-year-old.
However, the serial pedophile who was caught with evidence of also molesting minor children other than his, first struck a deal prosecutors that will save him from the death penalty.
Mark Mesiti was awarded custody of his daughter Alycia and son in 2005 prosecutors said, nine months later his teen daughter vanished for good.
Prosecutors accused the custodial parent of  raping his daughter over several months, using a cocktail of drugs to induce sleep. Worse, he filmed the repeated molestations.
On Tuesday Mark Edward Mesiti, 49, decided to plead guilty in exchange for the District Attorney’s dropping the death penalty.
His dramatic plea ended the trial and means Mesiti has been convicted of first-degree murder with four special circumstances, and 48 other felony sexual assault crimes.
He now faces a life sentence in state prison, without the possibility of parole.
After several weeks of ongoing jury trial, the defense offered to have their client plead to all the counts charged if the District Attorney’s Office would drop the death penalty.
In return, Mesiti would be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
As a condition of accepting that offer, Chief Deputy District Attorney Annette Rees required Mesiti to make a personal and public allocution of all his crimes in open court.
“I hope this represents the end of a tortuous 11-year process for these families,” said Rees.
Mesiti was in his third week of trial in the Stanislaus County Superior Court.

Alycia [right], and [left],  was drugged raped and killed by her own dad at their home in Ceres, Calif., back in Aug 2006. He buried her without fanfare in his backyard and claimed she went missing while on a camping trip

Mesiti employed numerous delay tactics in the case that lasted almost a decade. He had filed several motions in court, claiming he was being denied his right to a fair trial. He’d asked for new court-appointed attorneys multiple times

The trial started Oct. 3 with a Stanislaus County prosecutor saying forensic computer examination revealed Mesiti was in possession of hundreds of thousands of images involving child pornography.
Hundreds of those images showed Mesiti’s daughter 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 at the time.
Other videos and images showed a 16-year-old female Mesiti had befriended being sexually assaulted.
In court Tuesday Mesiti pled guilty to all the charges and publicly admitted that on several occasions he had given controlled substances – including prescription anti-depressants, benzodiazepines, morphine and methadone – to his 14-year-old daughter for the purpose of rendering her unconscious and with the specific intent to sexually assault her.
Mesiti told the court he committed rape, sodomy, oral copulation, digital penetration and child molestation involving his daughter, Alycia, many times over several different occasions.
He admitted having given Alycia drugs on each occasion to make her unable to resist his attacks. Mesiti also admitted that his administration of those drugs caused Alycia’s death.
Mesiti also admitted taking many sexually explicit photographs of his daughter Alycia and two other minors under 18 years of age.
He also admitted to molesting the other two minors while he lived in Los Angeles. Upon conclusion of the hour-long plea involving all 49 counts charged in the indictment, Judge Dawna Frenchie Reeves handed down a sentence against Mesiti, finding him guilty on all counts.

Mark Mesiti in court during the trial. He pled guilty Tuesday to 49 counts in relation to the 2006 rape and murder of his 14-year-old daughter

That conclude the 8-year-long case, which had been plagued by numerous delays. Mesiti had filed several motions in court, claiming he was being denied his right to a fair trial. He’d asked for new court-appointed attorneys multiple times.
Judge Reeves set the case for sentencing and victim impact statements on Nov. 28 in Department 1 of the Stanislaus County Superior Court.
The girl’s body was dug up in the backyard of Mesiti’s rented Alexis Court home nearly three years later when Ceres Police developed suspicions about him killing and burying her on the west Ceres property.
Rees said Alycia was unconscious at the time of the molestations, which occurred between July 2006 and July 2008. She said police seized his computers, hard drives, memory cards and DVRs which contained photographic images of Mesiti sexually assaulting his daughter while she was blacked out on drugs. They also found other child pornography images and videos on Mesiti’s devices.
A toxicological analysis of the remains of the 14-year-old indicated she died from intoxication from a mixture of drugs, opiates, amphetamines, morphine and anti-depressants, that prosecutors said Mark Mesiti administered
The exact cause of death has not been determined by the forensic pathologist, but Mesiti’s defense attorney blamed the victim for her probable drug related.
Martin Baker said The teeen had been a drug addict for two years and died from her own intake of drugs, alluding to a diary allegedly written by Alycia in which she wrote that if she turned up dead it would be because she killed herself.
In one passage, said Baker, the girl wrote that she “wanted to feel nothing.” He predicted the way which Alycia died “will require a not guilty verdict.”
Mesiti faced the death penalty upon conviction of the murder and a total of 44 criminal counts, mostly sexual crimes.
The trial was expected to last for months with the prosecution team poised to include testimony of one of Alycia’s friends who noted she stayed away from hard drugs.

Missing person flyer for Alycia Mesiti. While the search for the 14-year-old was on, she lay buried in her dad’s backyard

Alycia had been reported missing two days after her alleged Aug. 13, 2006 disappearance. Mark Mesiti told police that Alycia traveled to the San Jose area on August 11, 2006, to spend the weekend with a friend and that she telephoned on August 13, reporting that she had instead gone camping with other friends but would not disclose her location or who she was with. Police say Mesiti claimed to receive periodic calls from Alycia who assured her things were okay.
In October 2008 Ceres Police sergeants contacted the Ceres Courier to have an article published for public help in finding Alycia Mesiti, while her father was claiming he knew nothing of her whereabouts.
After the new team of investigators injected fresh urgency into the case, police executed a search warrant on the property and exhumed the backyard in March 2009. Alycia’s body was wrapped in black plastic sheeting and buried in the yard before Mesiti was evicted and moved to Los Angeles.
The suspect was arrested by Ceres Police in Los Angeles three days after his daughter’s body was discovered. Mesiti had moved from Ceres about six months after Alycia was reported missing, police traced him to a Los Angeles apartment which he had been using as a methamphetamine lab.

Roberta Fitzpatrick [center], Alycia Mesiti’s maternal great aunt, reacts after Mark Edward Mesiti’s plea Tuesday in Modesto, Calif. The pedophile dad pled to 49 counts of sexually abusing his daughter and her murder. 

His then girlfriend, Shelly Welborn, helped the state convict Mesiti, testifying against for the prosecution in the drug trial. He was sentenced to five years, in March 2011.
Mesiti’s criminal record includes domestic violence against Alycia’s mother, Roberta Allen, drunken driving and bank fraud. Despite his record, Mark was awarded custody of Alycia and her brother in November 2005.
The girl reportedly did not get along with her mother, Roberta Allen, who has a history of mental depression and attempted suicide. Court officials expressed concerns about Alycia’s supervision and turned her over to her father.
In September 2005 Mesiti menrolled Alycia to attend Central Valley High School but she never made a single attendance.
Roberta Allen told Ceres police she did not believe her daughter ran away and suspected foul play. That’s when Ceres Police stepped up their investigation and brought in a cadaver-detecting canine named “C.J.” to sniff out the backyard for human remains. The body was found buried in the dirt a few feet from the edge of the patio.