Florida Supreme Court sidetracks retrials in ’05 Davie murder case

They were convicted of murder. An appeals court gave them another chance. But for three people sitting in Florida state prison, hopes were dashed when the Florida Supreme Court sided with the prosecutors who put them away.

Michael Bilotti, 72; his daughter Christin, 31; and his bodyguard, John Pacchiana. 47, were convicted in 2015 of murder in the July 2005 death of her exboyfriend Richard Rojas.

Christin Bilotti had accused Rojas, her ex-boyfriend, of raping her, leading her father to plot a fatal ambush, according to prosecutors. Rojas, 18, arrived at his ex-girlfriend’s Davie home early on July 13, 2005, unaware that Pacchiana would be waiting for him.

When Rojas arrived, he got into a fight with Pacchiana. According to prosecutors and trial testimony, Rojas, 18, was ambushed. Pacchiana

and Rojas struggled, and Pacchiana fired a fatal shot.

The 2015 trial focused on a few key issues: Did Rojas really rape his ex-girlfriend, as she claimed to her father, and did Rojas pose enough of a threat to Pacchiana to justify the use of lethal force? The jury determined that Bilotti intended for Pacchiana to kill Rojas when he arrived, and Bilotti’s daughter knew it. But instead of recanting her rape story, for which there was no evidence, Christin Bilotti aided her father in luring Rojas to her home.

All three defendants were tried in front of the same jury and convicted. Bilotti and his bodyguard were sentenced to life in prison. Bilotti’s daughter, a minor at the time of the shooting, was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

In 2018, the Fourth District Court of Appeal overturned all

three convictions, finding that Broward Circuit Judge Jeffrey Levenson wrongly allowed prosecutors to dismiss a potential juror because she professed to be a Jehovah’s Witness. Followers of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society are permitted to serve on juries if they choose, but are prohibited by their religion from certain other civic activities, such as voting, serving in the military and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Government is not permitted to force them into or prevent them from such activities.

The woman in the Bilotti jury pool told lawyers she would be willing to convict if the evidence provided was “clear and concise,” but that is not a legal standard, then-prosecutor Greg Rossman argued. The judge agreed and excluded the juror. The Fourth District Court of Appeal disagreed and determined that the Bilotti’s and Pacchiatta did not receive a fair trial.

Earlier this month, the Florida Supreme Court overturned the appeals court in Pacchiatta’s case —