Man kills 4-year-old’s mom and tells girl to hide weapon, feds say. Now he’s sentenced
A 38-year-old man was sentenced to 15 years in prison after being accused of killing a woman in New Mexico in 2021, federal officials said.
Silvester Castillo, a member of the Navajo Nation, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in July 2023, according to a Feb. 13 news release by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico.
In May 2021, the Navajo Nation Police Department responded to a home in Torreon and found a woman “lying face up with her sweatpants around her ankles” and “blunt force trauma” to her body, federal officials said.
The woman’s body was found near a Buick sedan that was still running and had damage to the rear bumper, officials said.
Castillo was found inside the home, asleep and intoxicated, according to a criminal complaint. He had blood on his hands and clothing.
The woman’s daughter, who was 4 at the time, told police in 2021 that Castillo hit her mom with a shovel and then ran her over with the car, officials said.
The girl told police her “mommy was dead” and Castillo told her to hide the shovel, officials said. Then, he told her “not to tell.”
Castillo’s grandma saw the incident but waited until the sun was out to get help, officials said.
Castillo told officers the woman brought him alcohol when he told her not to and denied any involvement in her death, officials said.
He also claimed she poisoned him and he was defending himself after she bit him, cut him and burned him, officials said.
Officers weren’t able to find any injuries on him, prosecutors said.
“Mr. Castillo expresses extreme remorse for what occurred and he hopes that by accepting responsibility for his actions he can spare the victim’s family more grief,” Joel Meyers, Castillo’s lawyer, told McClatchy News in a statement.
The woman’s cause of death was blunt force trauma, federal officials said.
She suffered scalp wounds, broken ribs, a lung injury and brain bleeding, officials said.
When Castillo is released from prison he will be subject to three years of supervised release, prosecutors said.
Torreon is about 50 miles southeast of Albuquerque.
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