Court records describe seven years of family violence before fatal shooting at Odessa home

ODESSA — Someone inside shot Michael Brescia dead earlier this month as he broke into the house where he once lived his wife and children.

No arrests have been made. Investigators were planning to consult with prosecutors to determine whether the shooting falls under provisions of Florida's stand your ground law, exempting from prosecution anyone using deadly force if they fear for their lives. The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office still has not identified the shooting victim and has described the shooter only as a male relative of the victim.

But court records reveal reports of violence dating back seven years at the two-story, beige house at 10407 Grove Lane in Odessa. And other relatives confirm that the victim was Brescia, a 54-year-old airline mechanic described once in court records as an abuser of alcohol and drugs who owned a number of firearms.

Brescia's wife, from whom he was estranged, sought restraining orders against Brescia four times, saying he was violent and dangerous around their children. "I love my husband but he is not well," Vicky Brescia, 47, wrote in a petition for a domestic violence injunction April 18, 2013. "This breaks my heart." She was granted two restraining orders against Brescia in 2012, one on behalf of her 14-year-old son. She had both of them dissolved. Then in 2013, she obtained another restraining order.

"I don't want to break up my family," she wrote in December 2012. "We have children, a home, a life and I can't throw it all away … I am willing to do counseling, etc." She added, "My son is not afraid of his step father. He misses him and wants him to return home. This was an isolated incident." Soon afterward, she was back in Hillsborough Circuit Court. In a May 2013 petition, she accused Brescia of attacking her in the kitchen and threatening to kill her and her mother. She said she wanted to end "this cycle of abuse." Brescia was living in Holiday at the time, his wife said.

The two daughters she and Brescia had together, now 7 and 9, witnessed some of the violence described in the 2013 petition, as did two sons she had with another man — 12 and 14 at the time of the petition.

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An injunction against Brescia granted in July 2013 was to remain in effect for five years. It appears, though, that Brescia visited the family home at least twice after the injunction was granted. He was arrested there in 2014 and 2015, court records show.

In November 2014, deputies said, Brescia fought with one of the sons and bit his right leg. He was charged with simple battery, a misdemeanor. The charge was later dropped. In April 2015, a deputy was conducting a child abuse investigation at the house when Brescia interrupted an interview with one of the sons, according to a Sheriff's Office report. He also refused to let the deputy interview another of the children.

Brescia, the deputy said, "became belligerent, using profanities and obscene hand gestures."

He was placed under arrest and told the deputy, "I'll come after your family," according to the report.

In this case, Brescia was charged with corruption by threat against a public official, obstructing or impeding an investigation and resisting an officer without violence. On March 20, 2015, Brescia was charged with child abuse, the Sheriff's Office said. An arrest report does not describe the victim or where the offense occurred, but says Brescia struck a child with his closed fist and was intoxicated a day earlier. "He is extremely violent, he has a huge arsenal of weapons," including handguns, rifles, assault rifles and shotguns, Vicky Brescia wrote in a May 2013 court filing. "He's a known drug user and alcohol abuser." Attempts to reach Vicky Brescia were unsuccessful. Brescia was fatally shot around 11 p.m. July 3. Brescia worked as an airline mechanic for tech giant Jabil in St. Petersburg, Vicky Brescia wrote in a court filing, but has been living in Tennessee for a year or two, according to an uncle, also named Michael Brescia.

Brescia was visiting three of his sisters and camping north of the Tampa Bay area when he decided to stop by Odessa to pick up some of his personal belongings, the uncle said. His wife had changed the locks on the house, the uncle said, so he was apparently trying to break in through a window.

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It's unclear who was in the Odessa home at the time of the shooting. The Sheriff's Office has described at least four people — the male relative who fired the weapon, an older female relative and two of the shooter's friends.

In past court filings, Vicky Brescia said her mother lived at the home. Records indicate that at least one of the sons lived there as recently as April 2015. Michael and Vicky Brescia owned the house together. He bought it in 2004, a year before they married. They separated in April 2013 and Vicky Brescia filed for divorce two months later, requesting exclusive use of the house.

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"The Husband has physically abused the Wife in the presence of the minor children, traumatizing the children," she wrote at the time. But Vicky Brescia stopped pursuing the divorce action. Then six years later, last February, she filed for divorce again.

Brescia filed his own divorce petition in 2013, saying his wife was married to another man. No details are provided in the petition.

At one point during his divorce case, Brescia accused his wife of contempt of court for refusing to allow him to pick up personal belongings from the house. The petition was voluntarily dropped. He also accused her in August 2013 of denying him contact with his children, writing to her in an email, "I have growing concerns for their well being due to the fact that you are hiding them from their entire family," according to court records.

What happens next in connection with the fatal shooting is up to the State Attorney's Office.

Estella Gray, state attorney's spokeswoman, told the Times in an email, "Our office will review the facts of the case and determine whether or not charges will be filed."

Times staff writer Dan Sullivan and senior news researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report. Contact Sam Ogozalek at sogozalek@tampabay.com or (813) 226-3430. Follow @SamOgozalek.