By james art The smile that 46-year-old Tony Castillo wore through most of his trial faded when he heard the verdict from a Lubbock jury that found him guilty of shooting his girlfriend two years ago after crashed into the vehicle she was in near the intersection of 50th Street and Bangor Avenue.
Castillo, who owns a construction company in Big Spring, has pleaded not guilty to a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon causing great bodily injury to a family member. The crime is a first-degree felony punishable by five years to life in prison.
Prosecutors told jurors that Castillo acted with intent to kill on May 23, 2022, when he fired at least four shots into the car, where his ex-girlfriend Emily Whiteley was hiding in the backseat.
Meanwhile, his defense attorney, Charles Chambers, argued his client acted to protect his 21-year-old daughter, who told jurors she heard Whiteley’s aunt threatening them after her father crashed their vehicle. Jurors heard evidence that Castillo chased the two after he was attacked by Whiteley’s other family members at the South Plains Mall.
Jurors in the 137th District Court deliberated for about 30 minutes before returning with a verdict finding Castillo guilty of the charge.
Later that day, jurors, who could also grant probation, deliberated for about 15 minutes before returning to the courtroom with a 35-year sentence for Castillo. His family members gasped in court as District Judge John McClendon read the sentence.
Castillo’s charges stem from a Lubbock police investigation that began around 4 p.m., when responding officers found Whiteley with three gunshot wounds to the torso.
During the trial, jurors heard about Castillo and Whiteley’s volatile relationship that began when Whiteley was 19 years old.
Prosecutors described Castillo as a manipulative and abusive boyfriend who used money and threats as leverage to control Whiteley, who is more than 20 years his junior.
The night before the shooting, she said Castillo became upset with her after he saw her talking to someone at a bar in Midland.
She said she was afraid of Castillo, who once threatened her with a gun, and spent the night at a friend’s house.
Meanwhile, she said Castillo went to her apartment and took many of the gifts he had given her. She told jurors she told Castillo she was calling the police.
Whiteley told jurors that the next day, Castillo took their 2-year-old son without her knowledge, and she followed them to a Cheddar’s restaurant in Lubbock.
Whiteley acknowledged there were no court-ordered child custody agreements between her and Castillo at the time, but said Castillo began threatening to take their child to Mexico.
“It will be months before you see this boy,” Castillo wrote.
Prosecutor Greg German told jurors that evidence showed Castillo resorted to threats when he realized he could no longer control Whiteley through possessions.
“He’s forcing her to keep talking to him through (their son),” German told jurors in his closing argument.
Whiteley said she called her aunt and uncle in Lubbock to track down Castillo. Whiteley’s family found Castillo at Cheddar’s and followed him to the South Plains Mall parking lot, where Whiteley and her mother caught up with them.
Jurors heard how Whiteley fought in Castillo’s vehicle and she confronted him while he was holding their son.
During the confrontation, Whiteley’s uncle, Dakota, snuck up behind Castillo and held him in a chokehold while her aunt, Leita, pulled the boy from Castillo’s arms.
Whiteley said her mother fled in a car with her son, Dakota drove off in another car and she and Leita fled in a third car.
She said Castillo chased them in his pickup truck and crashed into their vehicle near the intersection of 50th Street and Bangor Avenue.
She said Castillo got out of his car and started loading his gun.
Whiteley said she climbed into the back seat for safety but was struck by three bullets fired by Castillo.
Police investigators will recover four bullets from the crime scene.
Castillo did not testify about his state of mind, as is typical in self-defense cases. Instead, Castillo’s daughter, Zoe, who was with him that day, described to jurors what she said was the threat that prompted her father’s actions.
Zoe Castillo told jurors that after the crash, her father pushed her behind him after hearing Leita tell her father, “I have something for you,” and she said she saw her reach for something inside the vehicle means.
Investigators never found a weapon in her vehicle.
Castillo said after the shooting, her father drove them downtown, where they left their car in the parking lot across from Buddy Holly Hall.
Meanwhile, Leita Whiteley denied threatening Castillo, saying she and her niece were praying for their lives.
Prosecutors argued to jurors that Zoe Castillo’s inconsistent statements to detectives made her an unreliable witness.
“She has a clear bias in testifying the way she did,” German said.
Zoe Castillo also told detectives that Whiteley’s group took her father’s phone, wallet and watch. She also told detectives she lost her phone at the crime scene.
During cross-examination, however, Schulte showed jurors a screenshot from a video recorded by security cameras at Buddy Holly Hall that showed her and her father walking away. She appeared to be holding a phone in her hand and her father’s wrist was wearing a watch.
Investigators also took Castillo’s phone from the crime scene.
“He dropped it when he was drawing his gun,” Schulte said. “It wasn’t stolen at all.” If Zoe is lying about this, what else is she lying about?
Schulte reminded jurors that Zoe Castillo testified with police the day after the shooting. Enough time, he said, for father and daughter to make history.
“I think we have demonstrated to you that she is not a reliable witness,” he told jurors.
Under the law, a person has the right to use deadly force, such as shooting someone, in defense of himself or another person if he believes that the force he uses is necessary to defend against what a reasonable and prudent person would considered an unjustified use of deadly force against them.
“Nothing about this defendant was sane or prudent on that day or in the days leading up to this event,” prosecutor Chris Schulte told jurors in his closing arguments.
He told jurors that based on the evidence, the Whiteleys were the ones who would have been justified in using deadly force after Castillo ran into them.
“He initiated this encounter with deadly force by running them off the road,” he told jurors. “He did not abandon the collision, he ran them out of the way and continued the collision. No unlawful force was used against the defendant.”
In the penalty phase of the trial, jurors heard about another violent episode in Castillo’s criminal history eight months before the shooting.
David Rodriguez and Travis Bell told jurors that Castillo and a group of men he appeared to lead attacked them at a bar in Big Spring.
Rodriguez told jurors that Castillo initially approached him at the bar and offered to buy him a beer. He said he refused and Castillo seemed offended.
Bell told jurors that shortly after Rodriguez turned down Castillo’s offer, the other men Castillo was with stood by the bar’s entrance and appeared to be looking down at them.
Moments later, Bell said someone hit him from behind.
The bar bouncers kicked out Castillo’s group, and the two friends waited about 20 minutes before leaving, believing the coast was clear.
However, as they left and turned the corner to their vehicle, Castillo, who they said was wearing a distinctive pink polo shirt, and his friends were walking back to the bar.
Rodriguez said Castillo pulled out a gun and pointed it at his head, threatening to shoot him.
Bell said he was walking back to his pickup and saw Rodriguez turn away from Castillo, who picked up a brick and swung it at Rodriguez’s head.
Rodriguez told jurors he fell to the ground on his face and immediately tried to run to Bell’s truck.
Bell said he helped Rodriguez to his car and drove him to the hospital, where emergency room doctors used about a half-dozen staples to close Rodriguez’s head wound.
Castillo was arrested and charged with aggravated assault. However, he later pleaded guilty to a lesser included Class A misdemeanor causing bodily harm in exchange for time served.
Rodriguez said he is still traumatized by the attack.
“Even now it’s hard to talk about,” he said.
Meanwhile, jurors heard from Castillo’s family, who described him as a generous and loving family man.
Dathan Jones, CEO of the Big Spring YMCA, told jurors that Castillo was a benefactor of the nonprofit.
He said Castillo served on the association’s board and served on the maintenance committee, offering his company’s services to maintain the organization’s facilities.
He said he also saw Castillo act as a financial guarantor to ensure less fortunate members of the community could have funerals for their loved ones.
“Our community looks up to him and sees him as a positive person,” he said.
Castillo also volunteers as a basketball and soccer coach for the organization’s youth sports leagues.
Chambers argued to jurors that Castillo was a pillar of the Big Spring community and deserved a chance at redemption by being on probation.
“He helped the Big Spring community,” he said. “He wants to continue helping the Big Spring community.
Chambers argued that sending Castillo to prison also deprives his children, including his son with Whiteley, of financial support.
“If he’s locked up, he can’t do that anymore,” he said. “The rest of his life is wasted.”
But prosecutors say Castillo has shown he is a threat to the public.
“Society at large needs protection from his temper, his lack of impulse control and his sense of entitlement,” German said.
Schulte argued that Castillo should be held accountable for his actions, saying the probation offer from the Rodriguez attack was his second chance, which he squandered when he shot Whiteley.
“He’s a 40-year-old man, not a child,” Schulte said. “Supreme arrogance to think he can act like that and get away with grinning all week.”
He asked jurors to start their deliberations at 20 years in prison and work from there.
“The decision before you is how long until you believe him that he’s not going to act the way he’s behaving,” he said.
Schulte said after the trial that he believed the jury’s verdict reflected the severity of Castillo’s actions that day.
“I didn’t ask how they arrived at that figure, but I think, again — just my 2 cents, not based on anything they’ve told me — I do think he approached that car with intent to kill ( Emily Whiteley ) and we asked for a sentence that reflected that, and I really think the jury probably took that into account,” he said.
Castillo will have to serve half of his sentence before becoming eligible for parole.
This article originally appeared in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Big Spring artist sentenced to 35 years in shooting of ex-girlfriend