Home > The Blotter > Archives > Home invasion category
Home invasion
February 16, 2012
Couple describes Luling man connected to deadly home invasion as respectful neighbor
SAN MARCOS — Witnesses for a Luling man who pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery in a deadly 2009 home invasion testified in the sentencing trial today that Frank Castro, then 17, was a good neighbor who may have succumbed to peer pressure.
Castro, now 20, was indicted on a charge of capital murder, two counts of murder and aggravated robbery after he and three other teens broke into a San Marcos home to steal marijuana in September 2009. One teen was injured and two were killed after Mark Smith, a resident at the home, shot at the teens. Castro (pictured) fled unhurt but was arrested when he returned to the scene.
Castro pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery to get the murder charges dropped, Lynn Peach, his attorney said.
This morning, Moses Gonzales, a City of Luling employee who lives near Castro’s house, said that he’s known Castro since he was a baby.
Gonzales, who will turn 49 on Monday, described Castro as a polite, respectful boy.
He said that Castro was often at his house playing with his children, including the evening before Castro broke into the San Marcos residence early the next morning.
Gonzales said Castro left around dusk that night, saying he was going home to go to bed.
“I think Frankie has learned something,” Gonzales said when Peach asked whether Castro should be sentenced to probation. “I think he would take things more seriously. … I honestly think he would.”
When Hays County Assistant District Attorney Fred Weber asked whether in light of the what happened in San Marcos it was fair to say there was a side of Castro that he didn’t show Gonzales, Gonzales said he didn’t know, suggesting that Castro had fallen victim to peer pressure.
His wife, Irene Gonzales, later testified that Castro often ate meals at the home and attended church with the family. She said that school was important to him even though Castro has learning disabilities — he told a detective in 2009, when he was 17, that he was in ninth grade.
Both husband and wife said that they had never seen Castro with a gun.
Since Tuesday, Hays County prosecutors have called a number of people, largely law enforcement officials, to testify at the stand. Peach has yet to formally start calling her witnesses.
The Gonzaleses were permitted to take the stand early due to health problems, and the state will continue to lay out its case today.
Permalink | Categories: Home invasion
February 14, 2012
Sentencing under way for Luling man involved in fatal home invasion
The sentencing trial is under way for a Luling man who pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery after he was charged in connection with a home invasion that led to two deaths.
Frank Castro was accused of breaking into a home along with three other teens in September 2009 to steal marijuana from a person who lived there. A resident of the home shot the three teens, killing two and injuring a third.
A Hays County grand jury indicted Castro, now 20, on a charge of capital murder, two counts of murder and aggravated robbery.
Lynn Peach, Castro’s attorney, said that he pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery on the condition that the murder charges were dropped. They were dismissed in District Judge Bill Henry’s courtroom Monday.
The aggravated robbery charge carries a sentence of five to 99 years, Peach said. So far today the state has presented two witnesses. Peach said she doesn’t expect to present her evidence until at least Wednesday.
Hays County Assistant District Attorney Fred Weber declined to comment until the trial is over.
In October, Castro rejected a plea deal that would have put him in prison for 10 years. His wife, Stacey Castro, said then that her husband hoped a jury would hand down a lesser sentence.
Castro’s arrest affidavit said that about 2 a.m. on Sept. 4, 2009, Castro, along with 16-year-olds Rudy Tinoco, John Alvarez III and Jordan Mendez, entered a home in the 900 block of Chestnut Street armed with pellet guns, a pellet rifle and a Ruger pistol.
Castro told police that a resident sold marijuana there, the affidavit said. The teens tried to rob the man, but when they went inside, a resident began shooting, the affidavit said. Tinoco and Alvarez were fatally wounded. Mendez was injured but survived.
Castro, who was unharmed, fled during the shooting but was arrested after returning to the scene, officials said.
Officials said Castro could be held legally responsible for the teens’ deaths if it was proved that he was involved in the commission of a crime in which they died.
Weber said today that a case against Mendez was pending.
Permalink | Categories: Home invasion
February 9, 2012
Leander police: Tips pouring in on home invasion
A flurry of tips related to Tuesday’s Leander home invasion is helping police compile a list of potential suspects, officials said Thursday.
“We’ve had numerous tips come in from Crime Stoppers and neighbors in the area saying that they’ve seen a guy that looks like this guy,” Leander police Capt. Greg Minton said.
Minton said the department has put together a list of seven or eight people that match descriptions of the two men that entered a home on Elkhorn Ranch Road in the Lakeline Ranch neighborhood about 7:45 p.m. Tuesday with stun guns and bound two women’s hands with tape before demanding to know the location of a safe.
Police said the home invaders are both white. They said one was 5-foot-10 to 6 feet tall, had a goatee and was wearing a dark-colored suit and black beanie-style cap with eye holes. He also had the word “LOVE” tattooed across his right knuckles. The second robber is 6 feet to 6-foot-2 and was wearing a black ski mask, dark shirt and work pants, police said.
“Apparently there are a lot of people with ‘LOVE’ tattoos on their hands,” Minton said, referring to the number of calls police have received.
Tuesday’s home invasion was the second in a little more than a month to occur on the same cul-de-sac. In a December case, the robbers were also armed with stun guns and demanded the location of a safe.
Minton said that there are several similarities between the two instances, though police are not “100 percent sure” they are related. Minton also said the fact that the suspects broke into two homes on the same small street demanding a safe indicates they are looking for something specific.
“Usually they know there’s something there that they want; it’s not usually just a random ‘take a chance at it,’ ” he said.
Permalink | Categories: Home invasion
December 29, 2011
Police seek robbery suspects who restrained mom, three kids
The Leander Police Department is looking for two men who broke into a house, used duct tape to restrain a mother and her three children, and stole two cell phones.
The victims were not injured, police officials said.
The incident happened between 7:30 and 8 p.m. Dec. 21 at a home in the 2400 block of Elkhorn Ranch Road in Leander, police said.
Two men approached the house, knocked on the door and entered the house after three children answered the door, police said.
The men then placed ski masks over their faces, police said. One of the men was armed with a stun gun and demanded the mother give him cash and disclose the location of the house’s safe, police said.
The man called the second suspect “Marty” during the course of the robbery, police said. The two men tied up the victims with duct tape and put them on the floor before fleeing with two cell phones owned by the victims, said police.
Leander authorities released the following sketches of the suspects, who were both described as possibly being in their 20s:
