Karina Castro remembered as ‘hero’ after killer found guilty by jury

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (KRON) — A San Mateo County jury delivered its second verdict for Karina Castro’s killer on Tuesday. One day after convicting Jose “Rafa” Solano Landaeta of first-degree murder, jurors also found several aggravating factors to be true.

The Hayward man plotted and murdered his 27-year-old ex-girlfriend in a manner that was egregiously vicious and cruel on Sept. 8, 2022, according to the second verdict.

Prosecutor Josh Stauffer said the case’s level of pre-meditated planning, violence, and the victim’s vulnerability were all aggravating factors. Landaeta chased Castro with a sword outside her San Carlos apartment building, nearly slashed off her arm, and decapitated her. Eye-witnesses testified that he continued swinging the sword into her head and neck even after she was dead.

The victim’s two young daughters, both under age eight, were inside the apartment at the time. Landaeta was the father of the youngest daughter.

Martin Castro said his daughter should be remembered as an amazing mother and a “hero” who protected her children from a murderous man.

“She loved her kids more than anything. Their mom was a hero as far as I’m concerned. There’s no telling what could have happened if she had (stayed) in the apartment and he went up there at her. She kept him outside and away from them,” Martin Castro said.

Trial evidence showed Landaeta planned the sword attack. That morning, he told his boss in Berkeley that he was sick, went home early and retrieved the sword in Hayward, told his friend through social media messages about his plan, and drove an hour to Karina Castro’s home.

Stauffer told the jury that even though the murder plot was not cunningly devised nor sophisticated, it was still planned and thus an aggravating factor.

Even on Day 1 of the trial, tears were flowing in the courtroom. The victim’s friends and family cried in the courtroom’s gallery. A bystander who witnessed the grisly beheading wailed on the stand. The jury’s foreman wiped tears from his face while looking at photographs of Karina Castro’s decapitated body.

From listening to weeks of testimony from sheriff’s deputies, eye-witnesses, psychiatrists, and the killer himself, Martin Castro said he learned a lot about what happened to his daughter during her last moments alive.

“We got the verdict we were looking for. He’s guilty. While I’m glad he’s going to be in prison for as long as possible, my daughter is still gone. My daughter was my life. I just want her back,” Martin Castro told reporters outside the courthouse Monday evening.

Despite a mountain of evidence against him, Landaeta remained optimistic that he would be found not guilty by the jury and regain his freedom. “He was pretty sure he was going to walk out the front door. I was not as optimistic myself,” defense attorney Robert Cummings said after the verdict.

Landaeta will face 25 years-to-life in prison when he is sentenced on January 9, 2024 by Judge Lisa Novak.

“I’m hoping he gets life,” Martin Castro said.

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