Capital murder trial postponed for father accused of killing teenage daughter

A Stanislaus County judge has postponed a trial in the capital murder case that initially was scheduled to start this week for Mark Edward Mesiti, who is accused of sexually abusing and killing his 14-year-old daughter, Alycia Mesiti.

Superior Court Judge Dawna Reeves has postponed the trial before. In January, Reeves postponed Mesiti’s trial because the defendant, who has chosen to act as his own attorney, wasn’t given sufficient access to a writing surface to properly prepare his defense while in jail.

On Tuesday afternoon, the judge was forced to delay the trial again because a prosecution investigator discovered photos collected as evidence that had not been provided to the defense. The prosecution handed over those photos to the defense last month.

Reeves wanted to give the defense time to review those photos and conduct any needed further investigation, so she decided to reschedule the April 10 trial. Now, the trial is scheduled to begin July 10 with jury selection.

On March 25, 2009, Alycia’s body was found buried in the back yard of the Ceres home where her father lived at the time of her August 2006 disappearance.

The defendant and the rest of his family by then had moved to Los Angeles, where he was arrested and later convicted in 2011 of manufacturing methamphetamine. Prosecutors here waited two years before Mesiti’s case in Los Angeles concluded, and he was returned to Stanislaus County to face charges in his daughter’s death.

Mesiti, 49, has been in jail since June 2011 and chose to act as his own attorney in October 2015. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Mesiti. He is charged with murder and more than 40 counts of sexually abusing his daughter, as well as sexually abusing two other girls.

This story was originally published April 12, 2017 at 1:18 PM with the headline "Capital murder trial postponed for father accused of killing teenage daughter."