WOODLAND — After rejecting a plea-agreement offer that likely would send him to prison for the rest of his life, a former volunteer firefighter was ordered Tuesday to stand trial on charges of molesting two young girls.
Xavier Marcia Mancilla, 64, of Woodland, has been in Yolo County Jail custody in lieu of $10 million bail since his Jan. 20 arrest for alleged acts that began in March 2007.
A second alleged victim came forward after Mancilla’s arrest.
Assistant Chief Deputy District Attorney Melinda Aiello disclosed the plea offer prior to Tuesday’s preliminary hearing, saying Mancilla would receive two consecutive 15-year-to-life terms in exchange for admitting to two of the 34 charges against him.
“Given the conduct in this case, it warranted the severe offer,” Aiello told Yolo Superior Court Judge Paul Richardson.
Mancilla’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Andrea Pelochino, responded only that “we’re ready to move forward with the preliminary hearing.”
Aiello called just one witness, Woodland police Detective Matthew Jameson, who testified regarding a pretext phone conversation one of the alleged victims, now a teenager, had with Mancilla in January.
(The Enterprise is withholding the alleged victims’ names and relationships to Mancilla in order to maintain their confidentiality.)
During that recorded phone call, Jameson said, Mancilla admitted to having ongoing sexual contact with the girl between the ages of 5 and 13.
“He said that when she was around him, he would become aroused, and he had never felt that way with any woman or girl in his life,” Jameson said. “He felt that she wanted him to do it.”
A second girl came forward on Feb. 3, two weeks after Mancilla’s arrest, and disclosed that Mancilla had been naked in her presence, would touch her and force her to touch him, Jameson testified. Those alleged incidents occurred between October 2014 and January of this year.
Under cross-examination by Pelochino, Jameson acknowledged that the second girl initially denied that anyone except a boy at school had touched her inappropriately, and at one point referred to Mancilla as being “kinda fun.”
Richardson ruled sufficient evidence existed to uphold the charges against Mancilla, which include multiple counts each of lewd or lascivious acts with a child under age 14 and sexual acts with a child under 10. A case enhancement accuses him of committing an offense against more than one victim.
Mancilla, a former volunteer firefighter for the town of Yolo, is due back in court March 29 for arraignment. He has pleaded not guilty.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene