TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Tag: Rafael Huezo Castillo

  • Castillo gets trial date

    Date set in Orange High shooting trial:

    You remember Alvaro Rafael Castillo, don’t you? He’s the nut case who shot and killed his father while his father slept and then went to Orange High School in North Carolina and shot the place up. Luckily only two students were injured. He is also a mutant of the highest order. Not only did he have an obsession with Columbine but he also e-mailed Columbine principal Frank DeAngelis shortly before going on his spree.

    Anyway, he was in court yesterday to receive the date of his trial which is set for May 5, 2008. And he did this to piss somebody off.

    After Morgan agreed to the date, Castillo smiled and tossed a slight wave over his shoulders to the courtroom before being led out of the back of the building to a sheriff’s car.

    It pissed me off anyway. People who are on trial for murder should not smile ever.

  • Castillo will not face death penalty

    Orange County school shooting suspect will not face death penalty:

    Earlier when I said that we’ll find out tomorrow if Alvaro Castillo will face the death penalty or not I lied. The article stated Wednesday and I was thinking today was Tuesday for some reason. Human error.

    Anyway, District Attorney Jim Woodall said today that he will not seek the death penalty against Castillo.

    Woodall says Castillo’s mother did –not– want her son to face the death penalty.

    Remember that the victim in this crime is Castillo’s father. Still, justice needs to be served. The best way to do that is with a lengthy stay behind bars.

  • Castillo may face death penalty

    School Shooting Suspect Awaits Fate:

    Tomorrow we should find out whether or not Rafael Alvaro Castillo will be facing the death penalty or not. Castillo shot and killed his father, videotaped the aftermath, then went to Orange High School in Hillsborough, NC and fired rounds at the school. Luckily there were only a few slight injuries.

    Orange County District Attorney Jim Woodall is expected to announce Wednesday whether Alvaro Castillo, 19, of Hillsborough, will pursue the death penalty or time in prison.

    Detectives said Castillo sent a homemade video tape and a letter to a local newspaper the same day of the incident. On the tape, Castillo seems to become animated and agitated when talking about alleged abuse at the hands of his father.

    Investigators also said Castillo sent an e-mail about the alleged rampage to the principal at Columbine High School, where two gunmen shot 13 people before killing themselves in April 1999. In the e-mail, Castillo reveals his obsession with that massacre.

    Personally, I’m rooting for the death penalty but I’ll settle for life without parole. Anything less than that is an injustice.

  • Castillo e-mail probably inadmissible as well

    Castillo e-mail can’t be linked:

    Just a follow-up to yesterday’s post about the computer evidence being suppressed in the Alvaro Castillo proceedings. Since the computers were ruled inadmissible the e-mail that Castillo sent to Columbine High School Principal Frank DeAngelis cannot be linked to Castillo.

    Again, the videos should be all the prosecution needs.

  • Evidence suppressed in Castillo case

    Hearing Held for Suspected Teen Killer:

    The computers seized from the house of Alvaro Rafael Castillo have been ruled inadmissible as evidence. The defense argued that the computers were not listed as part of the search warrant and the judge agreed. Prosecutors aren’t too worried though saying there wasn’t much evidence on the computers. Not only that but considering he basically confessed on videotape to killing his father before sending the tapes to the media I wouldn’t be worried either.

    The next hearing is set for April 25th where Castillo will probably learn if he’s facing the death penalty or not.

  • Seized computers can’t be used in Castillo trial

    Seized computers can’t be used in Castillo trial

    Judge: Prosecutors in school shooting case can’t use computers:

    A judge has ruled that the computers in the home of Alvaro Castillo cannot be used as evidence by prosecutors because the computers were improperly seized.

    Castillo is the Hillsborough, North Carolina, teen who killed his father, Rafael Huezo Castillo, before taking shots at his former high school, Orange High.

    The prosecutors shouldn’t worry too much, since Castillo did send what was basically a videotaped confession to a local newspaper.

  • Castillo took advantage of loophole in NC gun law

    Castillo took advantage of loophole in NC gun law

    N.C. law protecting mental health records allowed gun buys:

    This is an interesting article that states since Alvaro Castillo voluntarily admitted himself to a mental hospital that he was still allowed to purchase firearms…

    HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. – A teen jailed on charges he fatally shot his father before opening fire at his former high school was able to buy two guns even though he was nearly involuntarily committed to a mental hospital just months earlier because of his suicide threats.

    Instead, Alvaro Castillo agreed after the involuntary commitment process had started to admit himself to the hospital. That allowed him to retain his right to buy a gun.

    For nearly 40 years, federal law has made it illegal to knowingly sell guns to a person who has been involuntarily committed to a mental institution or otherwise been found by a judge to be mentally ill.

    The difference between those who get involuntary and voluntary treatment often is small, but it can have potentially huge consequences, said Mark Botts, a law professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Government.

    North Carolina law encourages authorities to persuade a person to consent to treatment even when the person is considered dangerous and eligible for involuntary treatment.

    But when consent is given, the state no longer has control over the duration of the person’s treatment because willing patients are allowed to voluntarily discharge themselves, Botts said.

    In case you forgot, Alvaro Castillo shot and killed his father before opening fire on his former high school.

  • Autopsies released on two different shootings

    Autopsies released on two different shootings

    Castillo autopsy fills in details of killing:

    The autopsy of Rafael Huezo Castillo, the father of North Carolina shooter Alvaro Castillo, has been released…

    CHAPEL HILL — Rafael Huezo Castillo, who was allegedly shot by his son, Alvaro Castillo, died of multiple gunshot wounds to his head and neck, according to an autopsy report.

    The autopsy report, released Wednesday by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, also states that multiple notes were left in the house in which Alvaro Castillo took credit for the shootings.

    The autopsy report reveals that Rafael Castillo was sitting on the couch in a pair of boxer shorts and a white T-shirt between 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m., when his son allegedly began firing at him with a 9 mm rifle. An investigator at the sheriff’s office said it appeared the elder Castillo was reading a newspaper at the time of the shooting.

    One shot hit Rafael Castillo on top of his left shoulder, and five shots hit him in the left side of his face. One shot struck him in his left ear and then entered his skull. The tracks of the wounds were from left to right and slightly back to front in a downward direction, the report said. No powder residue was present on the skin around any of the wounds.

    The bullets caused multiple skull fractures, massive disruption to the brain and destroyed the brainstem, the report said.

    So Alvaro Castillo fired at his father from a distance, and Rafael Castillo never even saw it coming. Alvaro Castillo is just another coward in a long line of cowardly killers.

    Autopsy: Bailey gunman shot 4 times:

    Some details of Duane Morrison’s autopsy were also released. Morrison was the gunman at Platte Canyon High school in Bailey, Colorado, who took six girls hostage, sexually assaulted some, and shot and killed Emily Keyes before shooting himself.

    Morrison had no drugs in his system, prescription or otherwise, nor any alcohol.

    Four bullets were found in him. Three from SWAT and one from himself. It’s unknown at this time which one killed him.

    The complete autopsies of Morrison and his victim Emily Keyes are not being released to the public.

  • Love Gun

    Love Gun

    Castillo’s interests were known:

    It seems that Alvaro Castillo’s obsession with Columbine was not his only obsession…

    Investigators knew in April that a teenager now accused of killing his father before opening fire outside Orange High School was fascinated with school shootings, according to a high-school acquaintance who received a video from him saying he was going to kill himself.
    Alvaro Castillo sent Anna Rose the video last spring. It came in the mail April 22, two days after Castillo was picked up by Orange County Sheriff’s deputies and committed to a local hospital after his parents reported that he was suicidal.

    Rose was away at college when the video arrived at her family’s home, but her mother, Bonnie, immediately called 911 when her son started watching it that night. A deputy came to get the tape.

    Rose’s brother played some of the video over the phone to her that night, and she was so scared she didn’t return home for a couple of months, she said.

    Rose said in an interview Wednesday that she met with Lt. Larry Faucette at the Orange County Sheriff’s Office a few days later and Faucette showed her Castillo’s journal, which included photographs of her and detailed his admiration for the shooters in the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School near Littleton, Colo.

    The day that Castillo was committed, April 20, was the seven-year anniversary of those shootings, in which two high school boys killed 13 people before killing themselves.

    Rose said Faucette told her that he had read the journal and that Castillo was “sick” and would be in the hospital for a long time.

    But a few days after that, Rose said, Faucette called to say that Castillo had been released.

    “I kept saying, ‘Please don’t let him go, he’s not stable no matter what they think,’ ” Rose said.

    Castillo had a high school crush on Rose. In a video mailed to The Chapel Hill News last week, he brandished a gun with her name on it. The video also showed a second gun labeled Arlene.

    Someone from the sheriff’s office might have approached Castillo, according to a letter that arrived at the Roses’ home after the Orange High School shooting. Castillo wrote to Anna Rose that he knew her “parents are scared.”

    “The sheriff told me you went to the police department so I would not bother you again. I kept my word,” he wrote.

    In the letter, dated Aug. 27 and postmarked the day of the school shooting, Castillo also said he would “die in three days or so,” and that he wouldn’t “go after” Rose’s little sister, who is enrolled at Orange High School.

    Bonnie Rose said she couldn’t understand why the system could not do more to protect her daughter and family.

    “That’s why I sent an e-mail asking people to pray,” Bonnie Rose said. “I realized that was the only protection we had, is if God protected us.”

    Which leaves me with two questions. Why did the doctors release him when he was obviously still bananas, and who’s Arlene?

  • Castillo’s mom denies abuse

    Castillo’s mom denies abuse

    Family, friends shocked by killing, reasons:

    Victoria Castillo, the mother of Alvaro Castillo, denies the abuse claims made by her son as the reason he killed his father…

    The mother of Alvaro Castillo says her husband was not abusive, as her son claims in the video on which he confesses to killing his father.

    Victoria Castillo spoke through a neighbor who is helping the family amid weekend funeral arrangements for Rafael Huezo Castillo.

    “I asked Vicki, `Did he abuse y’all?’ ” said Tim Fluet, who lives on a four-home gravel road near the Castillo family in Hillsborough.

    “She said no.”

    But Victoria Castillo did say her husband, who was a night janitor at Oak Grove Elementary School in Durham, was “very demanding verbally” and spanked the children “sometimes,” Fluet said.

    Now I know some of you Nancy types think spanking is abuse. It’s not. It was probably namby-pamby people like you who put your kids into “time out” who put that idea into his head.

    Fluet said he never detected abuse in the family.

    “Honestly, knowing Mr. Castillo and just being with him, I don’t believe it,” he said. “I came from an abusive home. I know what abuse is.”

    A former employer also spoke highly of Rafael Castillo, who Fluet said was from El Salvador.

    Southwest Elementary School Principal Ari Cohen said Rafael Castillo was hardworking and friendly during the three years he cleaned his Durham school before transferring this summer to Oak Grove.

    “He was an evening custodian so he didn’t have a lot of interaction with staff, but when he did he had friendly conversations,” Cohen said. “He was outgoing and enjoyed talking with staff.”

    And he worked three jobs. Sounds like a real bastard, doesn’t he?