By Jacob Kaye<\/p>\n
A 20-year-old man died in Department of Correction custody inside Queens Criminal Court on Wednesday. <\/p>\n
Luis Alberto Lopez Castillo, who was facing a slew of charges related to a robbery in Queens and had just had an appearance before a judge, was found in medical distress by correctional officers inside the courthouse around 6:30 p.m., according to the DOC. <\/p>\n
After receiving CPR from staff inside the court, Lopez Castillo was taken to Jamaica Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. <\/p>\n
The DOC did not share any additional information about his death, the cause of which has yet to be determined by the city\u2019s medical examiner. <\/p>\n
Lopez Castillo is the seventh person to die in DOC custody in 2026. <\/p>\n
\u201cAn individual in our care tragically passed away following a court appearance in Queens,\u201d DOC Commissioner Stanley Richards said in a statement. \u201cThis is a heartbreaking moment for me and the entire department.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOur deepest condolences are with his family members and loved ones. We will investigate the circumstances of this tragedy with city and state authorities,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Lopez Castillo\u2019s attorney did not respond to a request for comment. <\/p>\n
The 20-year-old had been in the city\u2019s custody since October 2025. <\/p>\n
In addition to the robbery, grand larceny, assault and criminal weapons possession charges he faced in Queens, Lopez Castillo was also facing murder charges in the Bronx, according to court records. <\/p>\n
Lopez Castillo was accused by prosecutors of taking part in a botched robbery in a Bronx park that ended in the death of 26-year-old Ronell Marte.<\/p>\n
According to reporting by amNY, Lopez Castillo and his co-defendant, 20-year-old Axel Martinez, allegedly attempted to rob Marte in Starlight Park around 3 a.m. on Sept. 3, 2025. <\/p>\n
The duo held Marte, who had autism, at gunpoint, and demanded he give them his cell phone. Martinez then allegedly shot Marte in the chest, killing him. <\/p>\n
Lopez Castillo turned himself in to police around two months after the shooting.<\/p>\n
The 20-year-old\u2019s death comes around a month after 36-year-old Christopher Rodriguez died after experiencing medical distress in DOC custody. Rodriguez was being held in a jail unit in Bellevue Hospital designed for detainees with serious medical needs. <\/p>\n
Julian Pagan, 29, died in July inside a Bronx courthouse holding cell after being arraigned but before being sent to Rikers Island, the troubled jail complex where over 100 people have died over the past decade. <\/p>\n
In May, Umais Khan and Rajpattie Ramkellawan died within 24 hours of each other in the jail complex. <\/p>\n
Khan, 40, was found unresponsive at the Eric M. Taylor Center on May 19. <\/p>\n
Ramkellawan, 41, allegedly experienced a medical emergency at the Rose M. Singer Center the day prior and was later pronounced dead. <\/p>\n
Similarly, John Price, 49, and Barry Cozart, 39, died in quick succession of one another in March. <\/p>\n
Price died at Elmhurst Hospital on March 29 after suffering a medical emergency on Rikers. <\/p>\n
Cozart, who also allegedly was found in medical distress, died at the George R. Vierno Center four days prior, on March 25. <\/p>\n
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Jacob Kaye A 20-year-old man died in Department of Correction custody inside Queens Criminal Court on Wednesday.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-349410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}