Michael Louis Pilla, a 71-year-old resident of 24 Lema Lane in Palm Coast for the last 20 years, was charged on Wednesday under a new Florida law that makes him eligible for the death penalty over the alleged rape of a child under 12. He was also charged with additional counts of rape related to alleged assaults that took place after the child turned 12.
Pilla was in custodial authority over the child. The assaults took place over a seven-year period between the time she was 7 and 14 at the Lema Lane house (when Lima was between 63 and 70).
According to Pilla’s arrest report, the alleged victim, who would have been interviewed by the Child Protective Team, told authorities that Pilla began assaulting her in different ways when she was 7. Pilla, according to the report, admitted to the assaults through “investigative techniques,” which typically mean that he spoke of the acts in a controlled, recorded call to someone, unaware that detectives were listening.
During those admissions, Pilla said he thought the child gave him a “signal” to indicate that she wanted the inappropriate acts. It is common for predators of child victims to blame their victim or rationalize the acts by claiming that they were themselves seduced somehow against their will or better judgment. Nevertheless Pilla was aware and confirmed that the child had told him to stop. He continued anyway, according to his arrest report.
Deputies were dispatched to Pilla’s home with an arrest warrant shortly after midnight on Wednesday, but didn’t make contact with him until shortly before 2 a.m. He surrendered without incident. Aide from the capital felony, he faces two additional related first-degree felonies and a second degree felony charge. He pleaded not guilty at his first appearance today.
Last year the Legislature passed HB1297, reenacting what used to be a Florida law–that adults who commit sexual batteries on children younger than 12 may face the death penalty. The law is currently unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that individuals could not be sentenced to death on such charges. Florida lawmakers hope that the new law may lead to a challenge of the Supreme Court decision, and a reversal.
Because of that gray zone, state attorneys–who decide whether the seek the death penalty or not in capital cases–have been reluctant to be that test case, seeking life in prison instead. In Pilla’s case, because of his age and evidence of a confession, a likelier outcome, absent a reversal or insufficient evidence, is an eventual plea deal that, if any of the charges stick, would result in the equivalent of a life term regardless.
