Cyclic Hotline
2nd February 2002, 00:40
Pizza pilot pleads guilty in Cuba case. .BY LUISA YANEZ . .lyanez@<hidden>
A Pizza Hut deliveryman who stole a Cessna from a Florida Keys flight school last year and crash-landed on a rocky Cuban beach unexpectedly pleaded guilty in Miami federal court on Thursday.
Milo John Reese, 56, made a deal with prosecutors which calls for him to serve six months in prison, followed by three years probation. In exchange, he pleaded guilty to one count of unlawfully transporting a stolen aircraft in foreign commerce. Under federal sentencing guidelines, Reese faced as much as a year in prison.
Upon his sentencing U.S. Attorney Guy A. Lewis said: "We are committed to ensuring the safety of our air space and will prosecute those who put it in jeopardy.''
Reese has been held at the Federal Detention Center in Miami since he was returned from Cuba Aug. 8, a week after the incident.
He will be given credit for time served, said U.S. Attorney's Office spokeswoman Aloyma Sanchez.
As part of the plea deal, U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King said Reese must also pay $45,000 in restitution for damage he caused to the Cessna 172 during what he called his first solo flight. The money is to be paid to the insurance company of Marathon-based Paradise Aviation.
"That's a lot of pizzas he'll have to deliver to pay the money back,'' said Paradise's assistant manager, Brad Neat, on Thursday. The Cessna 172, he said, remains in Cuba and is now the property of the insurance company.
The plea deal struck with Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kim Selmore and Michael Brown means Reese will not be tried in court.
The case began July 31, when Reese's flight instructor at Paradise gave him permission to take off in the Cessna from Marathon airport, loop around the airport and land.
Instead, Reese, still wearing his pizza deliveryman uniform, flew the single-engine airplane away from the airport. Then, sounding frightened, Reese called his instructor over the radio saying his hands were cold and he could not fly the plane. At first, authorities believed they had a pilot who had frozen at the controls.
Reese crash-landed more than 100 miles away on a beach in Cuba, flipping the plane over on the rocky sand. Assistant U.S. Public Defender Celeste Higgins had told a federal judge Reese had not meant to steal the plane but flew to Cuba after panicking mid-flight.
Reese was briefly hospitalized on the island while U.S. and Cuban officials began negotiating his return.
Authorities quickly learned that Reese had a troubled past. He had made headlines years earlier as an anti-brothel crusader who faked his own death in his hometown of Reno, Nev.
Reese's wife told Monroe County authorities that he had bipolar mood disorder and had left home in the past. He had arrived in the Florida Keys weeks before his flight and had been living out of his car before landing the delivery job at a Pizza Hut across the street from the Marathon airport.
While in prison in Miami, Reese participated briefly in a Florida Keys educational crusade, writing letters to the Keynoter newspaper.
A Pizza Hut deliveryman who stole a Cessna from a Florida Keys flight school last year and crash-landed on a rocky Cuban beach unexpectedly pleaded guilty in Miami federal court on Thursday.
Milo John Reese, 56, made a deal with prosecutors which calls for him to serve six months in prison, followed by three years probation. In exchange, he pleaded guilty to one count of unlawfully transporting a stolen aircraft in foreign commerce. Under federal sentencing guidelines, Reese faced as much as a year in prison.
Upon his sentencing U.S. Attorney Guy A. Lewis said: "We are committed to ensuring the safety of our air space and will prosecute those who put it in jeopardy.''
Reese has been held at the Federal Detention Center in Miami since he was returned from Cuba Aug. 8, a week after the incident.
He will be given credit for time served, said U.S. Attorney's Office spokeswoman Aloyma Sanchez.
As part of the plea deal, U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King said Reese must also pay $45,000 in restitution for damage he caused to the Cessna 172 during what he called his first solo flight. The money is to be paid to the insurance company of Marathon-based Paradise Aviation.
"That's a lot of pizzas he'll have to deliver to pay the money back,'' said Paradise's assistant manager, Brad Neat, on Thursday. The Cessna 172, he said, remains in Cuba and is now the property of the insurance company.
The plea deal struck with Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kim Selmore and Michael Brown means Reese will not be tried in court.
The case began July 31, when Reese's flight instructor at Paradise gave him permission to take off in the Cessna from Marathon airport, loop around the airport and land.
Instead, Reese, still wearing his pizza deliveryman uniform, flew the single-engine airplane away from the airport. Then, sounding frightened, Reese called his instructor over the radio saying his hands were cold and he could not fly the plane. At first, authorities believed they had a pilot who had frozen at the controls.
Reese crash-landed more than 100 miles away on a beach in Cuba, flipping the plane over on the rocky sand. Assistant U.S. Public Defender Celeste Higgins had told a federal judge Reese had not meant to steal the plane but flew to Cuba after panicking mid-flight.
Reese was briefly hospitalized on the island while U.S. and Cuban officials began negotiating his return.
Authorities quickly learned that Reese had a troubled past. He had made headlines years earlier as an anti-brothel crusader who faked his own death in his hometown of Reno, Nev.
Reese's wife told Monroe County authorities that he had bipolar mood disorder and had left home in the past. He had arrived in the Florida Keys weeks before his flight and had been living out of his car before landing the delivery job at a Pizza Hut across the street from the Marathon airport.
While in prison in Miami, Reese participated briefly in a Florida Keys educational crusade, writing letters to the Keynoter newspaper.