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Thread: William Patrick Castillo - Nevada Death Row

  1. #1
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    William Patrick Castillo - Nevada Death Row


    Isabelle Berndt’s Grave


    William Patrick Castillo


    Summary of Offense:

    Sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder in 1995 of Isabelle Berndt in Las Vegas.


    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    On June 22, 2004, Castillo filed a habeas petition in Federal District Court.

    http://dockets.justia.com/docket/nev...4cv00868/18776

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    September 26, 2007

    October 15 date set for Nevada execution

    Nevada prison officials have scheduled Oct. 15 for the execution of William Castillo, sentenced to death for beating a retired Las Vegas teacher to death with a tire iron.

    Planning for the lethal injection, which Castillo isn't trying to stop, will proceed despite the U.S. Supreme Court's decision Tuesday to consider whether lethal injections violate the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The high court's review involves two death row inmates in Kentucky.

    "We're not going to delay anything based on the Supreme Court hearing the Kentucky case," Nevada Corrections Director Howard Skolnik said. "There's no reason for us to do that. Mr. Castillo has requested that we go ahead, and we are going to honor his request."

    Castillo, 35, was sentenced to die for the 1995 killing of Isabelle Berndt, 86, after working on a roofing job at her home and finding a hidden house key. He and a woman companion returned, burglarized the home and murdered Berndt.

    Castillo set the home on fire to destroy evidence, but he later admitted the murder to a co-worker and confessed to police. His companion in the burglary and murder was Michelle Platou, 28, now serving a life term with the possibility of parole for first-degree murder.

    In an appeal rejected by the state Supreme Court in 2004, Castillo's attorneys argued he may have been the victim of abuse while growing up, adding that his father spent time in prison and his mother had been a prostitute.

    Castillo's juvenile record includes runaways, emotional instability, attempted murder, arson, larceny, threats to life, destruction of county property and possessing an unregistered firearm.

    By the time he was eight, Castillo had drowned his grandmother's dog, killed birds by smashing them against rocks, tried drugs and had been caught while trying to burn down a Las Vegas casino, according to court records.

    Prosecutors said he went through every corrections and rehabilitation program Nevada had to offer by age 13 - including 5 stays at the youth reformatory in Elko.

    As an adult, he served 14 months in prison for a burglary and then did another 2 years for a purse-snatching incident prior to Berndt's murder.

    If he's executed, Castillo will be the 13th man to get the death sentence in Nevada since the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for capital punishment to resume in 1976. All but one of the previous 12, Richard Moran, had refused to file appeals that could have stopped their executions.

    Moran, executed in 1996 for 2 killings in a Las Vegas bar while on a drug and alcohol binge, didn't oppose legal efforts to keep him alive - but said he was ready to die.

    The last man to be executed in the state was Daryl Linnie Mack, who received a lethal injection in April 2006. Mack was convicted of the rape and murder of a Reno woman.

    (Source: The Associated Press)

  3. #3
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    October 15, 2007

    Execution stay granted

    Condemned inmate William Castillo, who until recently had declined to file appeals that could keep him alive, has won an execution stay from a federal judge. The stay was issued by U.S. District Court Judge Robert Jones, in an order following Castillo's decision last month to join in a challenge of Nevada's lethal injection execution procedure.

    The move by Castillo, represented by federal public defenders Mike Pescetta and Gary Taylor, was welcomed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, which had filed the challenge in October when Castillo was scheduled to die.

    Castillo's execution was stayed just 90 minutes before he was to get a lethal injection for beating an elderly Las Vegas woman to death with a tire iron.

    Castillo is the only one of the 84 convicts under sentence of death in Nevada whose execution is being delayed by a court stay.

    Nevada's injection formula includes the use of pancuronium bromide, a muscle relaxant, along with sodium thiopental, a "downer" that causes unconsciousness and death in some cases, and potassium chloride, which stops the heart.

    Castillo was sentenced to die for the 1995 beating death of Isabelle Berndt, 86, in Las Vegas after working on a roofing job at her home and finding a hidden house key. He and a female companion returned, burglarized the home and murdered Berndt.

    Castillo set the home on fire to destroy evidence, but he later admitted the murder to a co-worker and confessed to police. His companion in the burglary and murder was Michelle Platou, now serving a life term with the possibility of parole.

    (Source: The Associated Press)

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    June 18, 2008

    Death row inmate can't join challenge to lethal injection ---- William Castillo was convicted in LV slaying

    The Nevada Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to allow death row inmate William Castillo to join in a challenge to the constitutionality of the state's method of execution by lethal injection.

    Castillo, who last year came within 90 minutes of his wish to be executed for a 1995 Las Vegas murder, argued he should be allowed to be a party to the challenge as a condemned inmate. The challenge was filed by the ACLU of Nevada and had the effect of stopping Castillo's execution when it was accepted by the court in October.

    Castillo asked the court to move the proceedings to Clark County District Court for an evidentiary hearing to develop a record that the Supreme Court could use to determine the constitutionality of Nevada's lethal injection process.

    The Department of Corrections opposed Castillo's request to join the case, saying that since he has decided to fight his execution and resurrect his legal challenges in U.S. District Court, his request is moot.

    While acknowledging Castillo's "indisputable" interest in the case, the court said his request to send the case to district court could not be accommodated.

    The court said Castillo can, if he chooses to do so, challenge Nevada's lethal injection process in U.S. District Court.

    The Nevada Supreme Court has not yet ruled on the challenge to the state's lethal injection process.

    One of the issues raised by the ACLU in the Nevada case is whether one of the three drugs used in the execution serves only to mask the reaction of the condemned inmate to the final drug that induces death, thus violating the First Amendment by not allowing the public and media representatives to see the full effect of the process.

    The argument is that the second drug, pancuronium bromide, a paralytic drug, is used only to veil the reaction of the inmate to his death.

    The Nevada lethal injection case is still active despite an April 16 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court upholding the use of the drug cocktail for capital punishment.

    The U.S. Supreme Court said in a case out of Kentucky that the drugs used by states for execution are not a violation of the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment.

    All executions in Nevada are on hold until the court rules in the case.

    (Source: The Las Vegas Review-Journal)

  5. #5
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    Court rejects death-row inmate's petition to overturn capital sentence

    A divided Nevada Supreme Court has again rejected a death-row inmate’s petition seeking to overturn his capital sentence, with the lone dissenting justice saying he was “troubled” by the majority’s conclusion in its most recent order.

    The order dated Friday rejected the request by death-row inmate William Castillo to reconsider the issues he raised in his appeal of his death sentence for the murder of 86-year-old Isabelle Berndt in Las Vegas in 1995.

    A lower court rejected Castillo’s claims without an evidentiary hearing and he appealed to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court in July rejected his appeal, and Castillo then asked for the rehearing.

    Castillo argued in his latest petition that two of the four aggravating circumstances found by a jury in sentencing him to death were invalid based on a previous Supreme Court case. If the two remaining aggravating circumstances were reconsidered alongside the factors in his favor, a jury would not have reached a verdict of death, he said.

    But the court majority of five justices said after review that the jury would not have changed its verdict of death and denied Castillo’s petition.

    The court majority said it is “confident that the jury would have concluded that the mitigating circumstances did not outweigh the valid aggravating circumstances.”

    Justice Michael Cherry dissented, saying he would give Castillo a new penalty hearing in front of a jury rather than “have this court determine whether to impose the death penalty on a ‘cold record.’ ”

    “My own experience in litigating death penalty cases tells me that there is a vast difference when a defendant is facing two aggravating circumstances rather than four aggravating circumstances,” he said in his brief dissent.

    The two remaining aggravating circumstances were that Castillo was previously convicted of a felony involving the use or threat of use of violence and that he committed the murder to avoid lawful arrest.

    “I am seriously troubled by the majority’s conclusion that beyond a reasonable doubt the jury would have returned a death sentence after considering the evidence as a whole,” Cherry said.

    Castillo was convicted and sentenced after breaking into Berndt’s home, hitting her with a tire iron and then smothering her with a pillow while she was asleep. He later returned and set the house on fire.

    http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/co...pital-sentence
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    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Distributed for conference April 17, 2020.

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/search....c/19-7647.html
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  7. #7
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    We never added it apparently but Castillo’s cert petition was denied April 20, 2020.

    Lower Ct: Supreme Court of Nevada
    Case Numbers: (73465)
    Decision Date: May 30, 2019
    Rule 12.4
    Rehearing Denied: September 6, 2019

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/search....c/19-7647.html
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

  8. #8
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Castillo’s habeas petition was denied by the federal district court on 1/14/2019. He was granted a COA.

    The Ninth Circuit at some point remanded back to the federal district court, who denied habeas relief on all claims 9/20/2022.

    Castillo hasn’t yet filed to the Ninth Circuit again.

    https://dockets.justia.com/docket/ne...4cv00868/18776
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

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