Man gets prison for killing his mother, wounding 4-year-old niece in Placerville
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- An El Dorado County judge sentenced Bernardo Castillo to 28 years to life in prison.
- Castillo killed his mother and wounded his niece in the Placerville stabbing.
- Authorities found Castillo in Southern California with victims’ blood on his clothes.
An El Dorado Superior Court judge on Friday sentenced a man to 28 years to life in prison for brutally stabbing his mother and his 4-year-old niece, killing the 49-year-old woman and seriously wounding the little girl at a Placerville home.
Bernardo Castillo, 32, was sentenced to prison for the June 13, 2017, attack that killed his mother, Silvia Castillo, and wounded his 4-year-old niece, the El Dorado County District Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday in a news release.
Earlier that day, the girl’s parents were heading to work and had dropped off their daughter, identified by prosecutors as “O.E.,” at her grandmother’s home. Prosecutors said Bernardo Castillo had been temporarily living at his mother’s home and was there that day.
El Dorado County sheriff’s officials have said Silvia Castillo and the child were stabbed at a home in the 3000 block of Newtown Road in Placerville.
Prosecutors said the girl’s father returned to the Newtown Road house later that evening and discovered Silvia Castillo dead with stab wounds in the living room and his daughter on the floor with more than a dozen knife wounds.
The wounded girl was rushed to a hospital, where she underwent treatment for life-threatening injuries that included a collapsed lung and a lacerated liver, according to the District Attorney’s Office. The girl ultimately survived.
Prosecutors said an autopsy confirmed that Silvia Castillo died after suffering 41 stab wounds to her head, chest and back.
Investigators then earned that Silvia Castillo’s vehicle was missing from her home.
Later that day, law enforcement officials found Bernardo Castillo in the Southern California town of El Centro, driving his mother’s stolen vehicle. Prosecutors said his clothing was soaked in blood.
California Department of Justice testing later confirmed that blood found on Bernardo Castillo’s clothes belonged to his mother and niece.
“This was an act of unimaginable violence,” District Attorney Vern Pierson said in a news release. “While no sentence can undo the harm done to this family, we are grateful that O.E. survived and that justice has now been served. Our hearts are with the survivors as they continue to heal from this tragedy.”
