{"id":349704,"date":"2026-09-17T22:59:03","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T22:59:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/349704\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T22:59:03","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T22:59:03","slug":"man-accused-of-killing-bronx-autistic-man-dies-in-doc-custody-following-queens-court-hearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/349704\/","title":{"rendered":"Man accused of killing Bronx autistic man dies in DOC custody following Queens court hearing"},"content":{"rendered":"

A man accused of killing a Bronx autistic man<\/a> died after attending a court hearing in Queens for a separate robbery case \u2014 becoming the eighth person to die in Department of Correction custody this year, officials said Thursday.<\/p>\n

Luis Alberto Lopez Castillo, 20, went into medical distress around 6:38 p.m. Wednesday after attending a pre-trial hearing at Queens Criminal Court earlier that day, according to NYC Correction Commissioner Stanley Richards.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn individual in our care tragically passed away following a court appearance in Queens,\u201d said Richards. \u201cThis is a heartbreaking moment for me and the entire department.\u201d<\/p>\n

Department of Correction staff performed CPR on Lopez Castillo until medics arrived. He was transported to Jamaica Hospital, where he died at 7:54 p.m., DOC officials said.<\/p>\n

An autopsy was scheduled to determine how Lopez Castillo died.<\/p>\n

\u201cI extend my condolences to his family<\/a>,\u201d Mayor Mamdani wrote on X Thursday. \u201cIn line with standard practice, the DOC and its oversight partners will investigate the circumstances of his death.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lopez Castillo was in court for a July 10, 2025 robbery for which he was arrested that same day. He pleaded not guilty and was released with non-monetary conditions the following day.<\/p>\n

Less than two months later, in the Bronx, Lopez Castillo fatally shot Ronell Marte<\/a>, 26, in the chest in Starlight Park near West Farms Road and E. 174th St on Sept. 4, 2025, police said.<\/p>\n

\"RonellRonell Marte was fatally shot in Starlight Park, on a path that runs parallel to the Amtrak tracks along the Bronx River on the eastern side of the park, near W. Farms Rd. and E. 174th St. in the Bronx early Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025. (Theodore Parisienne \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

Marte\u2019s family described the victim as a hard worker who was killed walking home through the park because he feared the subway<\/a> following a beating he took in the city\u2019s transit system.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe took a shortcut through the park and, heartbreakingly, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and only five minutes away from home,\u201d his sister Nelroby Marte wrote in a GoFundMe post.<\/p>\n

\"RonellRonell Marte was fatally shot while cutting through Starlight Park on his way home from working the night shift at an Amazon warehouse on Sept. 4, 2025. (GoFundMe)<\/p>\n

Lopez Castillo surrendered at the 43rd Precinct in the Bronx on Oct. 27 and was charged with murder, manslaughter, robbery and criminal possession of a weapon for Marte\u2019s fatal shooting. He was ordered held without bail after pleading not guilty at his arraignment in Bronx Criminal Court.<\/p>\n

Police said Lopez Castillo was homeless at the time of his arrest for Marte\u2019s murder.<\/p>\n

The death in DOC custody drew condemnation from prison watchdog groups.<\/p>\n

\u201cYet another family is now grieving after the horrific loss of a young man who was only 20 years of age and was awaiting trial at Rikers for almost a year,\u201d said Freedom Agenda Co-Director Darren Mack in a statement Thursday. \u201cIt\u2019s past time to stop sending people into this death camp.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scott Young, a member of the Katal Center for Equity, Health and Justice, offered his condolences to Lopez Castillo\u2019s family, saying, \u201cHe was only 20 years old and had his whole life ahead of him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the 8th person to die this year while in the custody of the NYC Department of Correction,\u201d Young said in a statement. \u201cWe are 10 months into the year and already 8 people are dead. This is unacceptable. Why are we still going through all of this when Rikers was supposed to be closing?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cConditions should be improving, but it seems like it is only getting worse.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man accused of killing a Bronx autistic man died after attending a court hearing in Queens for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[262,263,266,85,267,9,24,264,12,63,261,122,124,123,265],"class_list":["post-349704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-city","tag-county","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-county","tag-news","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-crime","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-sub-county-region"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349704","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=349704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}