FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Three people were found guilty on murder charges Friday morning in the death of a 19-year-old man who was shot to death in 2005.
The jury deliberated for two days before reaching a decision within an hour Friday.
Mike Bilotti, 60, was found guilty of first-degree murder. His daughter, Christin, 27, was found guilty of a lesser charge of second-degree murder. John Pacchiana, 42, the hit-man in the murder scheme, was found guilty of first-degree murder.
Throughout the case, Pacchiana claimed he was provoked, and was guarding the Bilottis' Davie home that morning in July 2005. He said he believed Christin Bilotti's ex-boyfriend, Richard Rojas, would follow through with a threat to return to the house in the middle of the night.
The state maintained that Rojas was lured to the house when Bilotti's daughter, then 17, falsely told her father that Rojas had raped her.
Mike Bilotti's attorney said there was no setup, claiming Rojas came to the house looking for trouble and found it.
After the verdict was read, Rojas' father, Henry, told Local 10 News that he was satisfied by the verdict.
"We waited to death, and we knew with their lawyers they were going to appeal it, and this was just going to drag on for another five years to 10 years again," Henry Rojas said. "They have all the money in the world. Unfortunately, people who have money sometimes get away with murder – but these didn't."
The Rojas family said they were hoping for a first-degree murder conviction for Christin Bilotti, but are content with the second-degree conviction.
"As long as she's put away, and as long as she's robbed of everything we have been robbed of for the past 10 years, then we as a family are content with that," the victim's aunt, Martha, said.
Wayne Palazzola, 47, and Richard Corbin, 39, who worked with Pacchiana at a Miami strip club owned by Bilotti, each pleaded guilty to an accessory charge in connection with the murder. They face between 13 and 30 years in prison when sentenced.
The Bilottis and Pachiana face life in prison when they are sentenced July 8.
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