{"id":401444,"date":"2026-07-16T23:31:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T23:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/401444\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T23:31:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T23:31:09","slug":"hit-and-run-driver-who-claimed-her-car-was-stolen-gets-364-days-in-jail-for-killing-long-beach-dad-long-beach-post-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/401444\/","title":{"rendered":"Hit-and-run driver who claimed her car was stolen gets 364 days in jail for killing Long Beach dad \u2022 Long Beach Post News"},"content":{"rendered":"

A hit-and-run driver was sentenced today to nearly a year in county jail and two years probation for killing a 51-year-old Long Beach man more than two years ago in Bixby Knolls.<\/p>\n

Roughly 30 friends and family members of Felix Castro \u2014 who went by Tony \u2013 packed a Long Beach courtroom Thursday morning, where Judge Richard Goul heard from Castro\u2019s wife and four children before handing down the sentence.<\/p>\n

They remembered Castro as a war veteran and loving father who \u201cshowed his emotions through acts of kindness,\u201d his oldest daughter, Makayla Castro, told the courtroom.<\/p>\n

His youngest child, 11-year-old Atticus, recalled learning about the crash when three officers knocked on the door of their Bixby Knolls home.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy heart was pounding thinking it was some kind of joke, but it wasn\u2019t,\u201d Atticus Castro said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Sayana Chhe, center, reacts outside the courtroom after Tiffany Reese is sentenced for the hit-and-run that killed Chhe\u2019s husband, Felix Castro, in Long Beach, Tuesday, July 16, 2026. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/p>\n

Tony Castro was killed on Orange Avenue near Banner Drive on Oct. 6, 2023.<\/p>\n

Nearly every night since, Atticus has slept with a teddy bear programmed with his dad\u2019s voice saying \u201chappy birthday.\u201d When Atticus told his dad that he wanted to be a pilot, the two spent countless hours watching planes at LAX.<\/a><\/p>\n

On the night of the crash, Felix Castro went out for a walk and was trying to cross Orange Avenue outside of a marked crosswalk when he was struck by a 2020 Lexus sedan driven by 48-year-old Tiffany Reese.<\/p>\n

Reese kept driving after the crash, leaving Tony Castro\u2019s mangled body stuck between two parked cars, according to prosecutors. A delivery driver on a bicycle found him and called 911.<\/p>\n

\"\"Felix Castro in his U.S. Navy uniform. Photo courtesy of Sayana Chhe. <\/p>\n

Reese took an Uber to the scene about an hour later and falsely told officers that her car had been stolen and she had only recently discovered it parked near her house with damage to the windshield, according to court records.<\/p>\n

Her attorney, Matthew Kaestner, said Reese, a flight attendant for Southwest Airlines, \u201cpanicked\u201d after the crash and was trying to find a way to keep taking care of her father, who suffers from Alzheimer\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t a good lie, it was a stupid lie, it was a lie based on desperation,\u201d Kaestner told Judge Goul.<\/p>\n

More than a year after the crash, Reese was arrested and charged with felony hit-and-run causing death. If convicted, she faced up to 4 years in state prison.<\/p>\n

She initially pleaded not guilty, but switched her plea to no contest in June, putting herself at the mercy of Judge Judith Meyer.<\/p>\n

Meyer died on July 4<\/a> after a battle with cancer, leaving Judge Goul to take over for the sentencing hearing.<\/p>\n

Kaestner asked Judge Goul to consider granting Reese house arrest for her sentence and reducing the conviction to a misdemeanor so that she could pass a background check and keep her job as a flight attendant.<\/p>\n

Reese was not distracted or speeding during the crash, Kaestner said, and had never even had a traffic ticket.<\/p>\n

\"\"Tiffany Reese, right, glances over as one of Felix Castro\u2019s daughters speaks to the court during Reese\u2019s sentencing for a hit-and-run that killed Felix Castro in Long Beach, Tuesday, July 16, 2026. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/p>\n

Ghoul denied both requests, but honored an agreement Judge Meyer made with Reese to give her 364 days in county jail, 2 years probation. If she violates her probation, she will be sentenced to 3 years in state prison.<\/p>\n

Tony Castro\u2019s wife, Sayana Chhe, said she was satisfied with the sentence and that the hearing felt like a step toward receiving closure for her husband\u2019s sudden death.<\/p>\n

\u201cTime has not softened the loss,\u201d she said in court. \u201cHis absence is still in our home, it\u2019s in our children\u2019s lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chhe continues to have \u201csevere nightmares\u201d and anxiety whenever she crosses a street or watches others cross, she said.<\/p>\n

The family plans to spread Castro\u2019s ashes in the ocean near Bellows, Hawaii, where he took his favorite family vacation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A hit-and-run driver was sentenced today to nearly a year in county jail and two years probation for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-401444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401444","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=401444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}