Fla. man takes own life to avoid prison for child rape, police say

(CBS) DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Police said a 25-year-old man stabbed himself in the heart on March 15 to avoid going to prison for having sex with an 11-year-old girl and getting her pregnant.

The Orlando Sentinel reports officers went to arrest Willie James Hills on charges of sexual battery and found that he had stabbed himself to death with a 10-inch butcher knife. His body was found in an apartment bathroom.

Hills had previously told relatives he would prefer to die rather than go to jail, according to authorities.

The Daytona Beach News-Journal reports law enforcement officials had planned to charge him with capital sexual battery, and sexual battery of a minor while in familial custody, a crime punishable by life in prison, said police spokesman Jimmie Flynt.

On March 14, no one first answered the door when a detective went to Hills' apartment, but later someone let the detective in, claiming Hills had armed himself with a knife and had locked himself in a bathroom, Flynt said.

"Clearly he couldn't live with what he did, so he decided to take matters into his own hands," Police Chief Mike Chitwood said.

Chitwood said authorities started investigating the case March 13 after the 11-year-old girl was taken to the doctor because her mother noticed she had begun to gain weight and had skipped a period.

The doctor advised the mother to give her daughter a blood test for pregnancy. The test came back positive, and the child named Hills as her attacker, investigators wrote. She told authorities Hills had raped her on at least four occasions, Chitwood said.