SCRANTON — Pennsylvania State Trooper John Medrano and Cpl. Kevin Murphy of the Lackawanna County Sheriff’s Department testified Monday that a Throop man with five DUI violations since 2014 showed remorse following a fatal wrong-way crash on Interstate 380 on Feb. 27 in which police said he was driving under the influence.
Testifying at a preliminary hearing, Medrano said Mark Castillo stumbled over to his patrol vehicle at the scene and said that he “messed up.”
Murphy testified Castillo made statements during a preliminary arraignment the morning after the crash, saying he felt bad about what happened, even after Magistrate Paul Ware twice told Castillo he had the right to remain silent.
“The defendant said he wanted to commit suicide … he wanted to drive into a tree, but he ‘chickened out’ and he said I decided to drive in the wrong direction with my eyes closed,” Murphy said.
Murphy added that Castillo also said during the arraignment that he felt bad about hurting somebody else.
Castillo didn’t make any comments during the hearing on Monday.
Medrano recalled seeing a vehicle — identified as a Chevrolet Cruze — upside down, off the left shoulder, and two females outside the vehicle screaming after he arrived on the scene.
A front-seat passenger in the vehicle Castillo hit, Darrel Ambrose Jr., 24, of Tobyhanna, died at the scene from multiple traumatic injuries, Lackawanna County Coroner Tim Rowland said.
Rowland also testified that the manner of death was ruled homicide because the death was caused by another individual.
The rear passenger of the Chevrolet, India Taylor, suffered a severe hip injury to the point where she’s still in a wheelchair today, police said. She also had multiple broken ribs and brain bleeds as a result of the crash, police said.
The two women who were outside — Kasia Porter and Monique Wright — also were transported to the hospital.
Matthew Mascaro of the Pennsylvania State Police — a collision analysis and reconstruction specialist — testified that the crash was caused by Castillo’s negligence of operating the vehicle while under the influence of alcohol and drugs, making the conscious decision to drive the wrong way on the interstate, the fact that he wasn’t in control of the vehicle with his hands off the steering wheel, and the fact that there was no indication he tried to maneuver out of the way of the other vehicle.
Castillo’s blood alcohol content was .186% and there was cocaine and marijuana in his system, Mascaro said. Castillo’s Kia Sorento was traveling 103 miles per hour at the time of the crash, he said. In Pennsylvania, the legal limit for driving is 0.08%.
Castillo is next scheduled to appear in court June 12 at 9:30 a.m. for a pre-trial conference in the Lackawanna County Courthouse.
Castillo — who remains in Lackawanna County Prison without bail — faces charges of third-degree murder, aggravated assault by vehicle while DUI, recklessly endangering another person and related counts.