Judge: Father in custody for years will be arraigned in daughter’s slaying

A Stanislaus County judge on Wednesday said he will arraign Mark Edward Mesiti on April 29, and that attorneys should be prepared on that day to start discussing when to schedule the defendant’s trial.

Mesiti is accused of murder in the death of his daughter, 14-year-old Alycia Mesiti. Her body was found March 25, 2009, buried in the backyard of a Ceres home where the Mesiti family lived before the girl disappeared in August 2006.

The defendant has remained in custody in Stanislaus County for nearly four years, awaiting prosecution. On Wednesday afternoon, Superior Court Judge John Freeland denied Mesiti’s latest request to get new court-appointed attorneys.

It’s been about two years since a criminal grand jury indicted Mesiti, moving the case past the preliminary hearing phase and straight to trial. But Mesiti’s case has been stalled by legal challenges and the defendant’s requests for new attorneys.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Mesiti. The court appoints two attorneys for death penalty defendants; one handles the penalty phase if the defendant is convicted as charged.

The judge was ready to arraign Mesiti on Wednesday, but defense attorneys Martin Baker and Doug Maner said they would need more time to prepare motions that will challenge the indictment and the prosecution’s evidence.

Baker told the judge that their work for those defense motions is far from complete. Maner said they have to file those motions within 60 days after arraignment, and they need time to review an 11,000-page grand jury transcript.

“In the grand scheme of things, one more month isn’t going to matter,” Maner told the judge. “Mr. Mesiti has been before the court for years.”

Chief Deputy District Attorney Annette Rees objected to another postponement of Mesiti’s arraignment. She argued that the defense attorneys have been on the case since October, and there is no good cause for another delay.

Freeland seemed to agree with the prosecution that the defense made this same request for a delay in October. He said the defendant and his attorneys should be prepared to move the case forward later this month.

Mesiti has told the court that jail officials are depriving him of his constitutional right to meaningfully participate in his own defense. His attorneys argued that jail officials keep his hands shackled during their meetings with the defendant, making it difficult for Mesiti to review thousands of documents relating to more than 50 criminal charges listed in the indictment.

Along with the capital murder charge, Mesiti is charged with murder and more than 40 counts of sexually abusing his daughter, as well as sexual abuse charges involving two other girls, according to the indictment.

Robert Taro of the Stanislaus County Counsel’s Office represented the Sheriff’s Department in court Wednesday. He argued that jail officials allow the defendant to meet with his attorneys inside a room not designed for such purposes, even though there are secured rooms available for inmates and their attorneys.

“And that’s more than what’s (constitutionally) required,” Taro told the judge. “The rights in jail are different from the rights in court.”

Mesiti’s attorneys argued that he has a clean disciplinary record while in custody and presents no risk to the jail’s staff or his attorneys if his hands are unshackled while inside the room. “He’s bolted to the floor, judge, he’s not going anywhere,” Maner said.

Freeland ordered the jail’s staff to unshackle Mesiti’s writing hand after his other shackles are secured to the floor inside the room. Because this is a death penalty case, the judge said the defendant needs to be able to point to and refer to the thousands of documents in his case.

The judge, however, said his ruling only applies to the Mesiti case. He told the attorneys he would have made a different decision in a case involving less serious charges and possible punishment.

This story was originally published April 1, 2015 at 5:20 PM with the headline "Judge: Father in custody for years will be arraigned in daughter’s slaying."