News of the Week
January 21-28, 2016
by KELSEy BR Rugg uggER ER @kelseybrugger, @kelseybrugger, LÉNA gARCIA @lenamgarcia,, KEI EIth th hA hAmm mm,, tyLER hAy hAyDEN @TylerHayden1, and NICK WELSh, with Independent StA StAff
news briefs
Faking a Murderer? crime
LAW & DISORDER
J
Det. Brian Larson
by T y l e r H ay d e N oseph Castro walked into the interrogation room cocky and relaxed. He joked with detectives and showed off his gang tattoos, taking special pride in the “fukk my enemies” along his collarbone. The extra “k,” he explained, was for the Eastside Krazies, the Santa Barbara gang he joined when he was 12 years old, like his uncles and grandpa before him. Six hours later, Castro was a broken man, worn down by a relentless line of questioning over the murder of Kelly Hunt. He held his head and sobbed as he confessed to killing the Ventura gang member the previous February. He said he used a .38 revolver loaded with hollow-point bullets to shoot Hunt four times as they walked down Olive Street, twice in the back and twice after he hit the pavement. Castro remembered Hunt whispering,“Homie … homie …” as he struggled to breathe. Castro said he murdered Hunt — who’d grown tweaky and unpredictable from heavy drug use — because he had threatened to shoot fellow Krazies. Castro described how he and mutual friend Isaac Jimenez planned earlier in the morning to kill Hunt sometime that day. The opportunity came in the early evening when the three broke off from a party to drink beer under the Santa Barbara High School bleachers and to steal a car on the Mesa. Castro said he didn’t want to shoot Hunt on the high school campus, where he had fond memories as a good student and varsity football player. The detectives asked Castro if he felt bad about killing Hunt. He shrugged and replied, “It’s just how it is.” His tears, he said, were for his younger brother and sister, whom he would miss in prison. This week, a jury of 10 women and two men in the ongoing trial of Castro and Jimenez watched video footage of Castro’s lengthy interrogation and confession. As evidence for the prosecution, it’s compelling and offers rare insight into the methods police employ to convince suspects to talk. 8
THE InDEPEnDEnT
But in a bold gambit to sway the jurors, Castro’s defense team is also using the footage to argue he was unlawfully coerced into giving what they claim was a false confession. They promised Castro would now give an honest account of what happened that night and how it was Jimenez who gunned down Hunt.
BuildiNg Pressure
Under questioning from his attorney Michael Hanley, Castro testified that he initially took the rap to avoid being labeled a snitch by his gang, which would put him and his family in danger. He argued detectives tricked him into breaking his silence by feeding him lies about evidence and insincere promises of leniency. Both Castro and Jimenez—who have been in County Jail since their arrest in August 2013 — face charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy, with gang and firearm enhancements. Friends since high school, they’ve been implicated in other shootings and assaults before and after the murder. At the time of his death, Hunt— Hunt a founding member of the Ventura-based Crazy Winos street gang—had forged an alliance with Castro and the Krazies through Jimenez. Castro, then 20 years old, was feared and respected among city cliques and had ties to Mexican Mafia associates, who held sway over Latino gang activity throughout the county. He was also a member of Palabra, a nonprofit group whose purported mission was to steer young men away from gang life. The interrogation video reveals a cramped room in police headquarters with bare walls, three chairs, and a small metal table. It shows that soon after Castro denies involvement in Hunt’s murder, Detective Brian Larson informs him police already collected a mountain of evidence against him and others, including more than 400 interviews, numerous phone records, Facebook transcripts, and surveillance footage. Larson, the lead investigator on the case, starts easy, leaning back in his chair and telling Castro,“I don’t want to put you on the spot” and “I don’t think all of this is your fault.”
january 28, 2016
independent.com
sb pd
pau l wellm an f i le photo
Confession Key in Olive Street Murder Trial
Joseph Castro
After more stonewalling from Castro, Larson turns up the heat. He says Jimenez has also been arrested and already ratted on Castro. “He’s talking, and he’s talking about you,” Larson states, which was reportedly untrue. Larson tells Castro he needs his side of the story. Other Krazies have already given up information; he should help himself. “Don’t let other people write your story.” Larson hints that police believe Jimenez was the triggerman. In so many words, he suggests Castro’s life is worth more because he has a girlfriend, more friends, more respect in his gang, a coaching job at the Boy’s Club, and because “Isaac is a weird cat” who seems capable of such a cold-blooded act. “Don’t trade your fate for Isaac’s,” Larson says as he slowly leans forward in his chair. The one-sided conversation then moves to Hunt. Larson calls him an “asshole” who regularly threatened people at gunpoint, sold drugs, and gangbanged up and down the South Coast.“Did Kelly have something coming?” he asks. Larson also appeals to Castro’s admitted desire to impress his gang. If he shot Hunt, Larson said, he should be proud of it. “It was a clean shooting. Every round was on target. … If you’re going to prison, go in as a killer. Go in legit.” As the hours tick by, Larson stresses that Castro’s honesty will go a long way with a jury. To stay silent would mean sacrificing the best years of his life to a lonely existence in prison. “If you didn’t do this, I want you to be a free man,” Larson says. “People beat cases all the time.” On the flip side, Larson goes on, police have already wrapped up their case. Castro’s testimony would have little impact. Castro concedes he was with Hunt and Jimenez and that he heard the gunshots. Larson seizes on the partial admission and tells Castro he’s already made himself look like a rat. He might as well give it all up. Everyone spills eventually, Larson says, and they aren’t killed because of it. If they were,“there’d be no more gangsters.” cont’d page 10
The UCSB student who was brutally gang raped near the Rec Center on 2/22/14 filed a personal-injury lawsuit this week against the university. The complaint, drafted by Santa Barbara attorney Josh Lynn, alleges the then 19-year-old woman — identified only as Jane Doe in court files — was “savagely beaten and raped” by three men for “several hours” on campus in an area covered in dark, overgrown foliage that did not have a surveillance camera. The suspects remain at large. The complaint also alleges the UC Police Department failed to provide a detailed report of the investigation and did not contact other law enforcement agencies. A UCSB spokesperson declined to comment on the pending litigation, citing university policy. Fired Santa Maria prosecutor Paul Greco has been criminally charged for bringing a handgun into the Santa Maria District Attorney’s Office, a public building. The charges were brought by the California Attorney General’s Office after it was determined local authorities had a conflict. Greco, one of the two prosecutors running the Santa Maria office, was suspended on 12/17 after backlash from an affair he’d had with a subordinate prosecutor achieved critical mass. The gun incident occurred several months prior. In a written statement, Greco said he brought the handgun to train other deputies about the mechanics of handguns for the purpose of courtroom preparation. Emily Anna Fox, a 22-year-old Dos Pueblos High School alumna and a student at California State University Northridge, and her boyfriend Jerrad Cardae Scott, 24, of La Mesa, were shot and killed at Fox’s Winnetka apartment building in the westcentral San Fernando Valley on 1/17 in a double homicide, reportedly at the hands of her ex-boyfriend Brian Gonzales. Gonzales, 24, and a Santa Barbara native, was apprehended two days later on a bus in Southern California, according to Los Angeles Police Department officials; he faces two counts of murder at his arraignment on 2/26. A criminal misdemeanor charge was filed against landlord Dario Pini by Santa Barbara County prosecutors because Pini allegedly had his workers continue using scaffolding outside a downtown motel despite written instructions by state safety inspectors not to do so. The exact problems with the scaffolding remains uncertain, but the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration dispatched two inspectors to Pini’s Fiesta Motel — at 1816 State Street — last October. Pini is currently in the midst of a major remodel project, and the safety inspectors issued an order that the scaffolding was not safe to be used. According to the prosecution complaint, Pini’s workers continued to do so anyway. Scam artist, former screenwriter, and onetime Montecito resident Steven Kunes, 59, was arrested on 1/22 in his native Bucks