By Khalida Sarwari
A man charged in the shooting of another man at a gas station and the carjacking and killing of a Campbell woman during an alleged crime spree in San Jose on Friday has been placed on suicide watch, his attorney said today.
Paul Castillo, 33, of San Jose, was arrested on Sunday after police say he went on a violent one-man crime spree on Friday morning.
Public defender Kenneth Mandel said authorities have placed Castillo on suicide watch while he is being held at Santa Clara County Jail.
“He feels terrible,” Mandel said about his client following his arraignment hearing this afternoon. “He’s obviously got mental health issues.”
Castillo appeared for about a minute in court this afternoon — handcuffed, face scrunched up, and tears running down his cheeks.
He was arraigned on eight felony charges and ordered to return to enter a plea on Oct. 5.
If convicted, he faces life in prison without the possibility of parole and could also be eligible for the death penalty, according to Deputy District Attorney James Leonard.
Prosecutors have charged Castillo with murder, kidnapping in the commission of a carjacking, attempted robbery, assault with a deadly weapon and causing bodily injury on a peace officer or firefighter, robbery with use of a firearm, burglary, assault with a deadly weapon, and unauthorized use or theft of a vehicle.
The charges stem from the alleged crime spree that began around 10 a.m. Friday at a Chevron gas station on Lincoln Avenue, where Castillo approached a 42-year-old man while he was pumping gas and allegedly shot him during a robbery attempt, police Sgt. Jason Dwyer said.
The victim was taken to Santa Clara Valley Medical Center and is expected to survive.
Castillo then allegedly fled the scene in a Nissan 300Z that had been reported stolen nine days earlier. Police later found the car at The Plant shopping center at Monterey Road and Curtner Avenue, about a mile from the gas station.
There, he allegedly carjacked 60-year-old Cindy Nguyen, a real estate agent and popular Vietnamese radio show host, around noon.
A colleague said Nguyen had called her assistant from the area on Friday afternoon to ask for help jumpstarting her car battery, but that she had called back to say some people had come by to help her. That was the last time anyone heard from her.
Castillo wasn’t seen again until six hours later, when police spotted his vehicle near a condo complex near Mabury and North King roads.
An officer fired several shots at him after he allegedly tried to run over the officer, Dwyer said. Castillo crashed the car and fled on foot and could not be located despite an extensive search.
Nguyen’s car, a white 1997 Lexus, was found in the area and her body was found at 8 a.m. Saturday in a home in the 500 block of North 12th Street. Castillo has ties to that home, Dwyer said.
Officers searched for Castillo throughout the weekend, even using a grounded police helicopter, until they finally tracked him down in West Sacramento and took him into custody around 7:30 p.m. Sunday.
On Tuesday night, detectives served a search warrant at the Tree House Marijuana Collective in San Jose in connection with the homicide and crime spree.
Investigators believe that at least two people associated with the marijuana collective aided and abetted Castillo. Dwyer said police are seeking the two, but did not release more information about them because the investigation is ongoing.
