Alvaro Castillo

Orange High School Shootings

Alvaro Castillo

North Carolina

Alvaro Castillo was a year out of high school in Hillsborough, North Carolina when he returned one day armed to the hilt with pipe bombs, a shotgun and a rifle and opened fire on students and teachers having lunch outside. Fortunately, no one was killed though two students were injured. Just minutes after the melee began, Castillo was apprehended outside the school. He blurted out to the school officer who restrained him that he had “sacrificed” his father.

Shortly after, police found the body of 65-year-old Rafael Castillo. He was partially covered by a sheet, still sitting on the couch in the living room. The elder Castillo was wearing boxer shorts and a tee shirt and appeared to have been reading the newspaper when he was shot six times from the left side. The autopsy later revealed that one shot grazed his shoulder and five shots entered the left side of his head. There was massive injury to his brain and brain stem and his skull was shattered.

Castillo made a chilling homemade video after shooting his father in which he admitted to killing him then apologized for it. He said he killed his father because of the abuse he and his family experienced at his hands. But the shooting that day didn’t stop at home.

Castillo had an obsession with the 1999 Columbine school massacre in which 13 people were killed before the shooters, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, killed themselves. Police seized various writings, DVDs, and video recordings by Castillo that showed his obsession. Within a few hours of killing his father, Castillo drove the seven miles from his home to his former high school and opened fire on students and teachers.

He’s been incarcerated since that day but it was only last February that Castillo was found competent to stand trial. Now, he’s asserting an insanity defense and hopes to be civilly committed to a psychiatric facility rather than incarcerated in a state prison. It wouldn’t be his first time in such a hospital. Castillo was committed four months earlier, on April 20, 2006, but for only some days, after having suicidal thoughts. Authorities took a shotgun away from him at that time. But, he bought two more guns after leaving the hospital one of which he used to kill his father.

For Castillo to return to a psychiatric hospital and not go to prison, the jury will have to believe that he didn’t know right from wrong when he shot his father in the head and then showed up at his high school with pipe bombs, a shotgun and a rifle and started firing.

Resource story by Beth Karas...

http://insession.blogs.cnn.com/2009/07/31/murder-trial-for-young-man-consumed-by-columbine/

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08-22-09

Guilty As Charged

A man who was obsessed with the Columbine High School massacre was found guilty of murder Friday and sentenced to life without parole for gunning down his father before opening fire at a North Carolina high school three years ago.

Alvaro Castillo, 21, has been medicated during the trial and showed little reaction as the first verdict was read -- guilty of the first-degree murder of his father.

He also was convicted of multiple assault and weapons offenses in the school shooting. No one was killed at the school, but two students were wounded.

The jury deliberated seven hours before rejecting Castillo's insanity defense.

At his sentencing, Castillo thanked "the Lord our God for all his blessings" and thanked his family for being in court.

"I thank my father in heaven for watching down on me" he said.

Later, Castillo apologized to the victims, adding, "I know by my actions I shocked and hurt a lot of people. It wasn't my intention. I simply wanted to help. Now I know I was wrong."

Before pronouncing a sentence of life without parole, Judge Allen Baddour said: "It's frustrating to hear how help -- I think it was available, but everything didn't fit together to get you the help that you needed."

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08-21-09

Case Goes To The Jury

Jurors began deliberations late this afternoon in the murder and assault case against Alvaro Castillo,the 22-year-old who fatally shot his father on Aug. 30, 2006, and then fired a rifle into Orange High School.

District Attorney Jim Woodall and defense lawyers Phoebe Dee and James Williams finished closing arguments about 3:30 p.m. Judge Allen Baddour then read his 17 pages of jury instructions to the 12 people who will decide Castillo's fate.

"You are the sole judges of the credibility, that is the believability, of each witness," Baddour told them. "You must decide for yourselves whether to believe the testimony of any witness."

The jurors, who have taken copious notes over the past 14 days of testimony, retreated to the jury room at 4:30 p.m. Jurors will weigh his guilt or innocence in 10 charges. They are:

* First- or second-degree murder; assault with a deadly weapon intent to kill Tiffaney Utsman;

*Assault with a deadly weapon intent to kill Andrew Hunt;

*Two counts of possession of a weapon in educational property for the rifle he fired and the sawed-off shotgun he had with him;

*Discharging a weapon on educational property;

*Discharge of a weapon into occupied property;

*Three counts of possession of weapon of mass destruction for the sawed-off shotgun and seven pipe bombs, some at the school and some at his family's Hillsborough home.

Castillo did not take the stand in his own defense.

But jurors got to hear his words in videos and journal entries made before and immediately after the fatal shooting.

In closing arguments today, the defense team told jurors that their client is a very complicated man who suffers from severe mental illness — a fact not disputed by witnesses for the prosecution or defense.

Where they differ, though, is on whether that illness caused Castillo, a 22-year-old charged with murder and numerous weapons charges, to kill his father and shoot a rifle into Orange High School on Aug. 30, 2006, not knowing his actions were wrong.

The defense team urged the jurors to return a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.

"This is a tragedy," Williams said. "This is a tragic situation that his father was killed. This is a tragic situation that students at Orange High School were subjected to the fear and the violence they were subjected to. It's a tragedy for the family and it's a tragedy for Alvaro Castillo himself."

"I submit to you that the only thing that could make this tragedy worse," Williams added, "is if he were convicted of first degree murder."

District Attorney Jim Woodall, in his first round of closing arguments, argued to jurors that Castillo killed his father as a vengeful act.

The defendant's mother and sister, in testimony last week, described Rafael Huez Castillo as a tyrant who reigned over his household with strict rules and threats of verbal and physical abuse.

He imposed a vegetarian diet on his children and told them that at age 5 that childhood was over.

Woodall said that some of this reign of terror was being played up after the fact by the surviving Castillos.

He contends that Alvaro Castillo wanted notoriety and planned a Columbine-style shooting at Orange High so he would be included in a pantheon of school shooters and mass killers.

"He wants to be in the group," Woodall said.

So on Aug. 30, 2006, before Castillo set out to Orange High to carry out the school shooting in North Carolina, Woodall said he killed his father so he would prevent him from carrying out his plans.

The defense team, though, says Castillo was so delusional that day that he thought he was carrying out a mission from God.

Williams put up charts for jurors to review, showing that each mental health expert called to the stand during the 15 days of testimony had concluded in their analysis of Castillo that some symptoms of psychoses were noted.

The defense, to counter contentions by the prosecution, argued that people suffering from severe mental illness are able to plan and carry out plans and still not know the difference between right and wrong.

Williams assured jurors that he knew how difficult their task would be.

He outlined the many steps that would be taken to confine Castillo if they found him not guilty by reason of insanity.

Castillo would immediately be committed to a state mental health hospital. In 50 days, he would get a hearing. Another would follow three months after that and then annually. The fact that he had committed a homicide would be noted in his records. To get out, Castillo would have to prove he no longer was mentally ill and not a threat to himself or others.

Today's resource choice by Anne Blythe... Check it out!!!

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/orange/story/1655308.html

08-19-09

Tuesday's Testimony

A forensic psychiatrist who treated the man accused of killing his father and opening fire at Orange High School in 2006 said Castillo wrote extensively in his journal about suicide and school shootings.

Dr. Nicole Wolf treated Alvaro Castillo in early 2008. In court Tuesday, she read from her notes excerpts from Castillo's journal.

Wolf said Castillo first became interested in weapons and wanted to learn to shoot a gun when he joined the National Guard in 2005.

"He'd never fired a weapon until he was in National Guard," said Wolf. "He liked learning about guns and shooting guns gave him a rush."

Wolf said Castillo's experience in the National Guard was not a positive one and he disliked being yelled at by the drill sergeants because it reminded him of his father.

"He did not feel respected while at basic training," said Wolf.

She said Castillo wrote about how he planned to commit suicide.

"'I plan to show up at N.C. State and shoot myself in front of her (Ana, the girl he had a crush on). I fantasize about it all the time,'" Wolf read from her notes of Castillo's journal.

Wolf said Castillo sent out video tapes and letters to friends and family about his planned suicide when he was discharged from UNC Hospital on April 27, 2006. Police also confiscated Castillo's shotgun and he was told by psychiatrists at UNC that he should not own another one. Wolf said five days after Castillo was discharged, he bought an identical shotgun to the one that was taken away from him.

"Mr. Castillo is normally very compliant and the one major thing they stressed at the hospital is no weapons," said Dr. Wolf. "It was a defiance towards mental health treaters."

Wolf said Castillo also addressed why he considered killing his father and students would be a "sacrifice" and not murder. She said Castillo felt he would be putting the students out of their pain from living in a corrupt world and that his father needed to be sacrificed to spare the family physical and emotional abuse.

"My mother will no longer have to suffer and neither will my family," Wolf read from her notes from Castillo's journal.

Today's resource pick...

http://orange.mync.com/site/orange/news%7CSports%7CLifestyles/story/40339/accused-gunmans-journal-i-had-to-end-my-fathers-misery

08-17-09

Defense Rests, Prosecution Redirects

A psychiatrist who treated the man on trial for killing his father and opening fire at Orange High School in August 2006 testified Monday that Alvaro Castillo was not psychotic while she treated him in the months prior to the incidents.

Karen Graham said she met with Castillo on multiple occasions from April to June of 2006. Graham said Castillo was admitted to the psychiatry clinic at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill on April 20 for a suicide attempt and holding a gun to himself.

Graham said they ran tests on Castillo and found he had and anxiety disorder, but did not appear to be psychotic. Castillo has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity at the time of the crimes.

"When we first interviewed Mr. Castillo we asked him questions about the suicide attempt -- what the stresses were that led up to it; and at that time he consistently said he didn't want to go back to the National Guard. That was the trigger and he would not go back," said Graham.

Graham said Castillo denied having hallucinations, did not mention any obsession with the Columbine shootings and had no real homicidal thoughts.

"He talked about murderous fantasies and he would repeatedly say that that was a fantasy, that was what he was thinking. He didn't have intent; he wasn't going to do that," said Graham. "He felt compassion for people at Columbine and he consistenly said he wasn't thinking of killing or hurting anyone else."

In home videos Castillo made in the months leading up to the shootings he repeatedly talked about his fear of people watching him, how he was obsessed with Columbine, and how he felt God told him to "sacrifice" his father and students at Orange High School to save them.

Graham said Castillo was concerned there were cameras in the corners of rooms or in vents, but he was never sure.

"And that's the distinction between whether something's delusional, which is fixed, and whether something is not and more of a concern or worry," said Graham.

Graham said more psychology tests were done on Castillo which revealed he had an anxiety disorder as well as depression. She said he also exhibited some signs of schizophrenia.

When Castillo was discharged from UNC, he was sent to the Oasis Clinic in Orange County. At that time, Graham said Castillo's obsessions had cleared, he had no homicidal thoughts, was sleeping well and had good energy and concentration.

"A lot of things were improved compared to when he came into hospital," said Graham.

Graham continued to meet with Castillo after he was transferred from UNC to the Oasis Clinic. She said he was not suicidal and did not exhibit signs of being psychotic.

"His mood was brighter, he was getting along well at work and home, his parents were supportive, and the relationship between he and his sister had gotten closer," said Graham

Resource choice written by Lauren Hills, NBC17...

http://orange.mync.com/site/orange/news%7CSports%7CLifestyles/story/40285/psychiatrist-castillo-not-psychotic

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http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=6969435

08-16-09

Friday's Testimony

A social worker who evaluated accused killer Alvaro Castillo said he lived in fear in a troubled household, and felt powerful with a weapon.

Castillo is on trial in Orange County for fatally shooting his father, Rafael Castillo, and opening fire at Orange High School in August 2006.

Social worker Deborah Grey said Castillo was often caught in the middle of arguments between his abusive father and a mother suffering from panic attacks and anxiety.

"It would appear that within his family it was not safe to express anger. He didn't like that side of himself," she said. "He loved his father and very much wanted his approval, but he was also afraid of him."

Grey called Castillo a ‘socially isolated' young man, who said he would never date or marry because he feared he'd become like his father.

"When he held a weapon for the very first time in his life, he felt powerful. He felt empowered," Grey testified under cross-examination by prosecutors. "The second thing that he described was the overwhelming sense of comfort that he felt."

Castillo's mother told prosecutors she was unaware of many of her son's actions before the August 2006 murder of her husband. Castillo crafted bombs in the family's home and made videos detailing his plans for a murder-suicide.

"It's true. I didn't have any idea," Vicky Castillo said.

She said that she once hoped her son would take care of her.

"I said that because my husband was always threatening me that he would leave me. I knew that Alvaro was very caring, not just for me, but for the whole family," she testified. "He was so gentle. He would never get mad at me."

Vicky Castillo said her son believed the shooters in the Columbine High School slayings did their victims a favor.

"He said they were much better in God's hands than in this world," she told the court.

Today's resource choice...

http://orange.mync.com/site/orange/news%7CSports%7CLifestyles/story/40053/castillo-felt-powerful-with-a-gun

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08-12-09

Wednesday's Testimony

Five days after he was released from a week's stay at UNC Hospitals after a suicide attempt, Alvaro Castillo bought a shotgun at a Wal-Mart, according to testimony today in Orange County Superior Court.

One month later, the teenager bought a rifle at Mace Sports in Mebane. Three weeks later, on a trip to Littleton, Colo., where the Columbine school shootings occurred, Castillo walked into a store with his mother and bought a raincoat similar to the one the Colorado school shooters wore in 1999.

Deborah Grey, a licensed social worker, was on the witness stand for much of the eighth day in the trial of Castillo, the 22-year-old accused of murdering his father on Aug. 30, 2006, and then opening fire at Orange High School.

Grey testified that extensive interviews she did in 2007 with Alvaro Castillo, his mother, his sister and friends revealed a family that had suffered for many years from domestic violence and mental illness in the home.

Vicky Castillo and Victoria Castillo, the mother and younger sister of the accused, testified Tuesday and today about their fear of Rafael Castillo, who was shot to death by his son Aug. 30, 2006. They described a household that cowered before a tyrannical father who reigned with strict rules, unusual regimens and the constant threat of violence.

Both mother and daughter recalled on at least one occasion deriding Alvaro and calling him a "coward" for not standing up to his father, who struck his wife and grabbed her by the hair.

"That day that I said that I was mad," Vicky Castillo said today about her son. "Because he didn't stand up for my daughter or me."

Read more of the resource story here...

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1644723.html

08-11-09

Tuesday's Testimony

Alvaro Castillo had attempted suicide on the anniversary of the Columbine school shootings and told a social worker he believed that microphones were in his house and that a picture hanging in the bathroom watched him, a social worker testified Monday in Orange County Superior Court.

But Oasis, a UNC-Chapel Hill mental health clinic for teens and adolescents suffering from early psychosis, turned the teenager away a month before investigators say he shot his father and opened fire on his former high school. That was the testimony of Jill Dunn, a private social worker with the Caring Family Network in Hillsborough who tried to get psychiatric treatment for Castillo in July and August of 2006.

The revelation came from the second witness that Castillo's defense team put on the stand. The trial has been callinginto question the defendant's state of mind on Aug.30, 2006, the day his father was found fatally shot in the family's home in Hillsborough.

Defense lawyers say their evidence will also raise questions about the mental health care provided to a teen who had exhibited problems for months before the shootings.

Dunn, who is scheduled to resume testimony today, said Castillo came to Caring Family Network on July 24, 2006, for an initial assessment that took an hour, double the time of the typical analysis.

Castillo was obsessed with the 1999 Columbine school shootings, in which two Colorado students killed 13 before taking their own lives, Dunn testified.

Worried that she could not get Castillo in to a see a Caring Family Network psychiatrist for six weeks because of a backlog of patients, Dunn said she immediately sought help from Oasis, a clinic in southern Orange County where Castillo had been before.

Dunn said Oasis staffers told her they would not accept Castillo as a patient because they questioned whether he was making up delusions about microphones in the house and pictures watching him to get out of a commitment to the National Guard.

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http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1642258.html

08-10-09

Prosecution Rests

The lawyers for Alvaro Castillo on Monday began laying out the case that the Orange County man was insane three years ago when he allegedly killed his father and then shot at his former high school.

Castillo has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to all charges. After a week of prosecution witnesses, the defense called its first two witnesses Monday afternoon.

Capt. Charles Blackwood of the Orange County Sheriff's Office testified that he took Castillo into custody in April 2006 when responding to a report of shots fired. He said Castillo was wearing part of his National Guard dress uniform and was weeping and asking to die.

"He was distraught," Blackwood said. "There was a sense of urgency about him."

Blackwood said he called for an involuntary commitment to a psychiatric facility.

Jill Dunn, a clinical social worker who has examined Castillo, said he had planned to commit suicide to coincide with the seventh anniversary of the April 1999 massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado. She said he is obsessed with the Columbine case.

Dunn characterized Castillo as psychotic, noting he believes surveillance microphones monitor his moves and that a painting in his house watched him.

Before the prosecution rested its case, a gun shop employee testified Monday morning that Castillo went to a shooting range with his father about a month before the father's death.

Bill Mace, owner of Mace Sports Inc. in Mebane, identified papers documenting the sale of a Hi-Point 9 mm rifle and a Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun to Castillo. The firearms were sold in June and July 2006.

Employee Eric Hinshaw testified that Castillo twice visited Handgunners Inc. in Burlington a few weeks before the shootings.

The first time, Hinshaw said, Castillo inquired about using the shooting range and tried to rent a handgun to practice. He was turned away because he was under age 21.

The second time, Castillo's father rented a lane in the shooting range, and the two practiced for about two hours, Hinshaw said. They used the 9 mm rifle and 12-gauge shotgun, and Castillo's father also rented a handgun, which they both fired, Hinshaw said.

Hinshaw held a Mossberg shotgun entered as a piece of evidence and identified it as the one used by Castillo at the shooting range.

Lt. Anthony Prignano, head of the Durham County Sheriff's Office's bomb squad, recalled finding seven explosive devices belonging to Castillo the day of the Orange High shooting.

Some of the devices were pipe bombs wrapped with metal and wood screws and were in Castillo's car parked at the school, Prignano said. Bomb technicians later blew up the devices.

Deborah Radisch, associate chief medical examiner in the State Medical Examiner's Office in Chapel Hill, testified that Rafael Castillo was shot seven times, including five times in the face.

Attorneys for the state also distributed copies of an 18-page notebook for jurors to read. Castillo wrote about mass murders in the notebook.

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08-07-09

"Respect My decision"

HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. -
The jury continued to get a look inside the life of the man accused of killing his father and then opening fire at Orange County High School Friday morning.

Investigators found videos Alvaro Castillo taped at his home a few months before the shooting. The jury watched the tapes Thursday and Friday morning, listening to the accused gunman speak about how he is a shy and paranoid person.

On Friday, the jury saw a tape in which Castillo talks about wanting to die, his fascination with Columbine and how he plans to kill others.

"I've always been fascinated by death," he says into the camera. "Respect my decision. I want to die. Stop trying to help me. Stop trying to stop me...I'm going to take some with me. You're not going to stop me."

Castillo also talked about wanting to be shot by a sniper.

In the video, Castillo tries on a trench coat and holds one of his guns as he tells the camera, "This has to happen." He also shows his weapons laid out on his bed.

On Thursday Castillo spoke directly to his high school crush, Anna, in the video tapes.

"I don't want to hurt you Anna. I love, I love ... I don't want to get you hurt," Castillo said.

The video showed the suspect holding the shotgun he used the day of the shootings. Anna's name was written on the gun.

In the second video tape shown, Castillo spoke about his abusive father.

"Everything was a threat and I can't take it anymore," said Castillo. "I've tried to forgive him for what he did, but I just can't."

Castillo also spoke about how the world was over-sexualized.

"I thought, how could these bad, disgusting things happen? Why does porn exist? Why? It should be freaking banned."

A deputy who assisted in collecting evidence at Castillo's home after the shootings testified on Thursday.

Orange County Deputy Chan McDade said he discovered a video tape that was labeled "Columbine Trip." Investigators said Castillo visited Columbine High School a month before the accused gunman opened fire at Orange High.

McDade said he also found a note that read," I am sorry, sorry for everything. I am sick, mentally ill."

McDade said the suspect had assorted fire crackers and smoke bombs in a paper bag on his computer desk in his bedroom.

Castillo has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to several charges, including first-degree murder.

Today's Resource pick...

http://orange.mync.com/site/Orange/news/story/39679/note-i-am-sick-mentally-ill/