SAN JOSE \u2014 A former Santa Clara County correctional deputy convicted of helping jail inmates ambush another inmate four years ago was sentenced Tuesday to 45 days in jail, following a trial that accused him of clearing the way for the attack then trying to cover it up.<\/p>\n
Francisco Izayas Castillo, 42, was found guilty March 13 of misdemeanor battery in connection with a Sept. 21, 2022 encounter where two incarcerated men entered the housing unit of another man and beat him. Castillo was charged on the premise that while he did not directly injure the victim, the attack occurred with his blessing and aid.<\/p>\n
\u201cCorrectional officers are sworn to protect the public and the inmates,\u201d District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement Tuesday. \u201cThis officer betrayed the public, betrayed the inmates, and betrayed the badge. My office will hold corrupt correctional officers to account for their behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n
The county Sheriff\u2019s Office, which runs the county jails, told this news organization that Castillo was fired in November 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Sheriff\u2019s Office expects all employees to be accountable for their actions, and when conduct undermines the trust placed in us by the community, we respond accordingly,\u201d the agency said in a statement.<\/p>\n
A sentencing memo filed by Deputy District Attorney Jason Malinsky asked Judge Brooke Blecher for a 60-day jail sentence to account for Castillo abusing his authority and violating his duty to keep the men under his custodial supervision safe. Blecher ordered Castillo to report to jail June 9.<\/p>\n
Shortly before the sentencing, Castillo\u2019s attorney Nelson McElmurry filed a motion for a new trial, which was denied by the judge. He then asked for Blecher to stay her ruling pending the outcome of an appeal he intends to file, and was also denied.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe absolutely maintains his innocence and and plans to continue fighting,\u201d McElmurry said Tuesday.<\/p>\n
According to authorities, on the day of the attack, Adrian and Roney Martinez, who were inmate trustees in Module 4C at Elmwood, approached Castillo\u2019s desk and discussed attacking the victim inmate. Castillo allegedly told the pair to \u201chandle it,\u201d and allowed Adrian Martinez to take rubber gloves from the deputy\u2019s desk.<\/p>\n
The investigation determined that Castillo used his control panel to unlock the third inmate\u2019s cell, and in his line of sight, the pair pulled open the door, entered the cell and proceeded to punch and kick the victim. When the beaten man activated the emergency call button in the cell, Castillo responded by silencing the alert, and later ignored the man\u2019s claim that he had been attacked, and his subsequent request to be moved to another dorm.<\/p>\n
Castillo also allegedly ignored the two Martinez men, who are not related, when they later went to the victim\u2019s unit and warned him against reporting the attack, implying that he would face retribution even if he moved to another housing area.<\/p>\n
Even after other inmates noticed the victim\u2019s head injuries as he stood in a pill call line, Castillo did not acknowledge the attack. It was only after shift change \u2014 about 13 hours after the beating \u2014 that another correctional deputy asked the victim about his black eye, prompting the victim to claim that he fell.<\/p>\n
Suspecting that something was amiss, the second deputy brought the victim into a room under the guise of a virtual attorney meeting, where he could ask about the injuries without drawing suspicion from other inmates. Eventually, the victim corroborated the attack to the deputy.<\/p>\n
What appears to have sparked suspicion of Castillo is his decision to remove the Martinez men\u2019s trustee status \u2014 which bestows them modest privileges and elevated status among their peers \u2014 after learning that the attack was now known to other staff. That prompted the men to turn on Castillo, and they detailed his complicity, according to the investigation.<\/p>\n
That was bolstered by a text message that he later sent to friends and was admitted as evidence, stating, \u201cI\u2019m on admin leave cuz I let 2 guys fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Castillo, who testified in his defense, denied the allegations and said he had no knowledge about what the Martinez were going to do. McElmurry contends that his client, in telling the Martinez men to \u201chandle it,\u201d was alluding to their leadership roles as trustees to resolve their conflict with the victim.<\/p>\n
McElmurry argued that no convincing motive was established for why Castillo would permit the beating, and sought to reframe the text message as his client soberly describing that he was being blamed for the attack. He added that the attackers\u2019 accounts need to instead be viewed skeptically through the lens of men angered after losing their privileges for fighting.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s smoke here, but no fire,\u201d McElmurry said.<\/p>\n
Three other men charged alongside him, all inmates at the time, had pleaded no contest to the same battery charge before Castillo\u2019s trial. That included the two Martinez men and Joseph Hernandez, who did not participate in the beating but was characterized as a lookout who warded off attention from other inmates while the attack was underway.<\/p>\n
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE \u2014 A former Santa Clara County correctional deputy convicted of helping jail inmates ambush another inmate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323089,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[134593,134592,1794,134590,48025,134591,1312,29028,28469,4164,22976,14367,9985,88,90,89,198,3489],"class_list":["post-323088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-abetting","tag-aiding","tag-attack","tag-beating","tag-conviction","tag-correctional","tag-courts","tag-elmwood","tag-guard","tag-guilty","tag-inmate","tag-jail","tag-misdemeanor","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-santa-clara-county","tag-sheriffs-office"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}