Police reports surrounding the Oct. 19, 2014 murder of Scott Hyatt paint a picture of a neighborhood north of Indialantic with its share of pill poppers and miscreants, transient drifters selling drugs, staying here, staying there.
In this milieu, the theft of a bottle of Dilaudid pills led to the death of Hyatt and the critical wounding of his friend, Robert Mell, in a house on East Riviera Boulevard.
Amid the cast of characters, Piero Soracco stands out, if only because he resided in the house at the time the shooting took place. Pete, as he is known, told Brevard County Sheriff’s Office homicide agent Nicholas Walker he was in a bedroom adjacent to the one where Joseph Milman shot Mell three times and shot Hyatt in the head. Mell also lived in the house.
Authorities arrested Milman three days after the shooting and charged him with first-degree felony murder, attempted first-degree felony murder, robbery with a firearm and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. They also arrested Justin Howard, who faces similar charges for providing the murder weapon. Milman’s trial begins Aug. 7. Howard is set to be tried in November.
Soracco’s part of the story began when he moved into the house owned by Mary Anne Scarcella. She let Soracco live rent free if he agreed to pay the electric bill. Because he failed to pay the bill the previous month, Scarcella intended to evict him, according to police reports in the case file. It didn’t help that she discovered Soracco doctor-shopped, getting prescription drugs from various physicians and selling them to get the money for the electric bill.
Scarcella also told police Soracco got into an argument with Mell once and cold-cocked him. Mell did not press charges.
She suspected Soracco’s illegal activities were behind the shootings at her house. Investigators also wondered what role Soracco played. He admitted he used to sell and use drugs, but was going clean, determined to go on the straight and narrow.
In an interview with Walker, Soracco, 36 at the time, said Hyatt and Mell crushed pills and injected them like heroin the night of Oct. 18. He awoke around 4 a.m. on the day of the shooting to find the two men, and a third man with multiple tattoos, standing in the garage. He saw the tattoo guy around the neighborhood but didn’t know his name. Soracco asked what was going on and the reply was they were waiting.
“Being intuitive,” Soracco said, he understood that meant they were waiting for the “dope man” to bring the “hard,” street slang for crack cocaine.
Later, Mell and Hyatt walked in from the garage; Hyatt stayed with Mell that night. Soracco fell asleep only to be awoken by Mell slamming pots around 9:30 a.m. He tried to talk to him, but Mell was in a bad mood. He returned to his bedroom where he stayed until 1:30 p.m., when he heard arguing coming from Mell’s room.
Soracco heard the pop, pop, pop of gunfire, and jumped out the bedroom window, leaving his two dogs behind to fend for themselves. He hid behind the shed waiting to make a stand, in fear for his life. But police showed up instead. On orders from Walker, deputies detained Soracco for questioning.
“I know it sounds weird to you, me being an ex-addict, but I am being completely honest. Who isn’t going to be scared with gun shots going off in your house,” he told Walker.
In a photo lineup, Soracco identified Milman as the tattoo guy. He also confirmed that Hyatt kept a bottle of 8 mg Dilaudid pills in his pocket.
When Walker walked through the crime scene house, he noticed the mini-blinds covering the window Soracco said he climbed out drawn and not disturbed. When asked about the observation, Soracco said despite the stress he remained calm and able to slip out the window without making noise so the shooter wouldn’t hear. Walker didn’t buy the explanation.
Soracco denied any involvement in the shootings. Yet it took the threat of a search warrant to convince him to consent to a forensic examination of his cell phone. The exam found no evidence to bolster his involvement.
Since that weekend, Soracco did not stay on the straight and narrow completely. In 2015, according to the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office records, he got arrested in March and again in May for trespassing, possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia.
As for the two dogs he left when he jumped through the window, they were turned over to family members.
Neither Scarcella nor Soracco were reachable for comment.
Since this three-year-old homicide, the area of the shooting is no longer considered a high-crime area, according to Sheriff’s Office Commander Dan Singleton, and records provided by the department.
