MIAMI (Court TV) — A man who had screamed at a judge over a potential plea deal has changed his mind and accepted the terms prosecutors offered.
Onelio Castro-Arroyo (Florida Dept. of Corrections)
Onelio Castro-Arroyo, 59, appeared in court this week to change his plea to guilty to a charge of second-degree murder in the death of his estranged wife, Yanelys Santander. Under the plea agreement, prosecutors dropped a charge of tampering with evidence. Judge Ellen Sue Venzer sentenced the defendant to 20 years in prison, according to records reviewed by Court TV.
Prosecutors extended the same plea offer to Castro-Arroyo at a brief hearing in August. At that time, Castro-Arroyo rejected the plea deal and began yelling in Spanish at the judge, saying, “I don’t believe in this,” and “I don’t trust the attorney or you.” The defendant also asked to represent himself; Venzer denied the request.
Investigators said Castro-Arroyo and Santander had a “troubled relationship” for several years before her death and had recently separated. On May 21, 2019, Castro-Arroyo attacked the victim in their 2014 Cadillac SRX, stabbing her 16 times while she was in the driver’s seat. The couple’s 7-year-old daughter, identified as “K.C.” in court documents, witnessed the stabbing from the vehicle’s back seat. A neighbor also witnessed the attack from a balcony and ran down to retrieve the child from the car. When police arrived and spoke to the child, she said that her “daddy killed” her mother.
After the stabbing, surveillance video showed Castro-Arroyo removing his shirt and dropping it, along with the knife, into a dumpster. Police later recovered the evidence. In an interview with police after his arrest, Castro-Arroyo confessed to stabbing the victim.
At his sentencing this week, the defendant’s older daughter from a previous relationship had harsh words for her father, the Miami Herald reported. “I want you to look at me, because this is the last time you’re going to hear about me or my sister,” she said. She also read a message on behalf of K.C., which said, in part, that the defendant was a “disgusting monster who does cruel things just for the pleasure of it. … You’re nothing else but a sick and wild animal. You should be in a cage.”
At the time of the killing, Castro-Arroyo was on probation after he had pleaded guilty to first-degree arson in 2015. The arrest and conviction for second-degree murder led to the revocation of his probation, and he was sentenced to 60 years in prison for the earlier crime. The new 20-year sentence will run concurrently with the 60-year sentence, Venzer said.
