SOUTHERN NEW MEXICO
State Supreme Court upholds child abuse conviction from Las Cruces
Lalo Castrillo had sought new trial on appeal; defense attorney 'shocked and dismayed' at decision
Published
Modified
LAS CRUCES 鈥� The state Supreme Court on Monday upheld the 2023 conviction of a Las Cruces man for intentional child abuse causing the death of 2-year-old Faviola Rodriguez.
Lalo Anthony Castrillo, 31, was sentenced to life in prison plus a year, due to a habitual offender enhancement, for the 2018 death of his girlfriend鈥檚 daughter after she was left in his care while her mother worked a night shift. Castrillo is eligible for parole after serving 30 years.
The high-profile case roiled the community. The child was evidently in fine health when her mother put her to bed and left for work, but later in the evening emergency responders found her unresponsive. At a hospital, she was pronounced dead of multiple acute head injuries, inflicted at various sites close to the time of her death, in combination with previous wounds that were healing.
Evidence presented at trial showed Castrillo had delayed calling 911 by 80 minutes, during which time he had conducted online searches about reviving a child in shock and other symptoms of medical emergency.
Castrillo appealed his conviction, arguing that prosecutors had not presented sufficient evidence to reasonably hold him culpable in Rodriguez鈥檚 death; and that a Las Cruces state court improperly denied him a new trial after a photo of the child with a bruise on her head surfaced. In court, prosecutors presented evidence that the photo was taken six months before her death.
In a authored by Justice Briana Zamora, the court found that 鈥渢he State presented medical evidence such that a reasonable juror could find that the acute blunt force injuries Victim suffered were inflicted while she was in Defendant鈥檚 exclusive care and that the injuries were not accidental.鈥�
The court also found that the new photo of Rodriguez was not material and that the denial of a new trial was valid and not an abuse of judicial discretion.
鈥淲e are shocked and dismayed,鈥� defense attorney Stephen Aaron鈥檚 law firm told the Journal. 鈥淭he bruise in the same location of the temple as the fatal injuries was not six months old as the Court thought, but weeks old just like the injuries. According to the medical examiner, the fatal brain injuries occurred weeks before the night when Mr. Castrillo babysat the child. We will file a motion to reconsider in hopes the court understands these undisputed medical facts.鈥�
Algernon 顿鈥橝尘尘补蝉蝉补 is the Journal鈥檚 southern New Mexico correspondent. He can be reached at adammassa@abqjournal.com.
