Leon and Margaret Batten
Summary of Offense:
DeCastro was convicted in 1993 in the stabbing deaths of Leon and Margaret Batten at a mobile home park in the Bentonville community. Another man charged in the same crime, George Goode, was taken off Death Row and given a life sentence after his lawyers argued that the state's crime lab made mistakes in the case. Noting that only one black person served on the jury that convicted DeCastro, who is black, his lawyers are asking that he get life imprisonment.
Johnston County deputies found Leon and Margaret Batten beaten and stabbed to death outside a Bentonville trailer in February 1992. "I've prosecuted many homicide cases. These murders were among the most brutal I've ever seen," Johnston County district attorney Tom Lock said.
Three suspects were arrested, tried, and convicted for the crime. Eugene DeCastro was sentenced to death. A jury gave Chris Goode two life sentences while his brother, George, went to death row.
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