California man grapples with parole of father who killed his mother

SACRAMENTO, California — A California man expressed outrage after his father, convicted of killing his mother in a domestic homicide, was released on parole. 

Robert Castorena, 65, walked out of prison after serving a sentence for the murder of his wife, Janice Baker-Castorena, 38, in their Sacramento home in 1996. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation confirmed Castorena's release following a parole board decision in March.

"It's ridiculous," Castorena's son told Sacramento ABC affiliate KXTV. "He's going to be free, and that just seems so wrong on so many levels."

According to court records, Castorena, then 38 and working as a high school teacher, stabbed his wife to death with a butcher's knife on October 1, 1996. He left her body in their bedroom and instructed his children, then 8 and 14, to remain silent.

SFGate reported that he stayed at the house for a brief period and, at one instance, made threats towards the children, including holding a knife to his daughter's throat to silence her and threatening to stab the boy.

Sacramento police detective John Cabrera testified at the 1998 preliminary hearing that Castorena threatened the children before fleeing. "He told them he was leaving. [Castorena said] he had to go fight the enemy, or find the enemy," Cabrera said, as reported by The Sacramento Bee.

The children remained in the house with their mother's body for nearly two weeks. The son eventually alerted authorities by shoplifting from a local store.

"In his mind, it was the only way to get someone to the house," Michael Heenan, a spokesman for the Sacramento Police Department, said at the time. "The children never opened the bedroom door. I think for a long time, they were in complete denial."

Authorities caught Castorena in Mexico and returned him to the United States. According to appellate court documents outlining the case, he was charged with murder and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon. In 1997, he was initially deemed unfit to stand trial. However, his competency was restored the following year.

In 1999, he pleaded no contest to charges of murder and attempted murder, which led to a 15-year life term in state prison for murder and commitment to a state hospital for attempted murder until his sanity was restored.

In 2014, he was declared to have regained his sanity. He underwent another trial in 2016. Ultimately, he received a life sentence with the possibility of parole for second-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon and started serving his state prison sentence on April 18, 2017. 

The parole board approved Castorena's release on March 29, a decision that Gov. Gavin Newsom did not reverse. The victim's son told KXTV he received no notification about his father's impending release.

"It's pretty enraging. It feels like the system failed us," he said.