He couldn't face jail time -- and there was no stopping him from taking the easy way out.
That's what friends are saying about 25-year-old Willie Hills, who killed himself with a stab through the heart last Thursday as cops came to his apartment to serve a warrant on charges that he raped and impregnated an 11-year-old girl.
The Daytona Beach suspect locked himself in the bathroom with a 10-inch butcher knife that afternoon as a detective knocked on his door, the News-Journal reported. Another person who was in the building let the detective in, and the cop found Hills slumped over in the bathroom with a stab wound in his chest.
Hills was accused of attacking his victim on at least four occasions, while he was supposed to be taking care of her. An investigation began after the girl was taken to a doctor because her mother noticed that she'd gained weight and skipped a period, according to CBS News.
Tests revealed that the girl was pregnant, and she later pointed to Hills as her attacker.
Before his suicide, Hills allegedly admitted to relatives what he had done and that he'd prefer to die rather than go to jail, the Orland Sentinel reported.
A friend on Hills' Facebook page claimed he could see his death coming.
"I was ur only friend, only person u talked 2," wrote a man who identifies himself Duke Hamilton . "Only person that came to your house and chill with u on the daily. I know I coulda talked you out of it, but I seen in your eyes everyday that you wanted to get away."
Hills had a rap sheet before the rape charges were filed. He was arrested in 2005 for a home invasion robbery, but the case was dropped. He was also collared for marijuana possession in 2009, but that case never made it to trial.