‘Bad Dream’ Nets Killer 30 Years to Life in Prison

A 30-minute crime spree that ended in the random shooting death of a Moorpark motorist will mean 30 years to life in prison for the man who pulled the trigger.

Michael Castro, a 21-year-old illegal immigrant who lived in Camarillo, was sentenced Friday for his part in the drunken crime spree that he called “a bad dream.”

Castro pleaded guilty last month to second-degree murder, drive-by shooting and robbery in the spree that started with an attempted robbery of a Camarillo Taco Bell and culminated in the shooting of 25-year-old Jesus Zamudio Manjarrez.

Castro was riding in the back seat of a Pontiac sedan with three other admitted gang members when, by chance, the gang members came across Manjarrez, stopped in his car at a red light, prosecutor Matthew J. Hardy III said.

The occupants of the car taunted Manjarrez with the gang challenge “Where you from?” court documents show.

Manjarrez, who was driving to a fast-food restaurant after a day’s work as a movie theater usher, answered “Nowhere, man.”

At that point, Castro jumped out of the car and fired six shots from a .38-caliber handgun into Manjarrez’s car.

One bullet struck Manjarrez in the forehead above the left eye.

“This is exactly the type of conduct that fills you with dismay,” Superior Court Judge Charles W. Campbell Jr. said in rejecting Castro’s plea for leniency. Defense attorney Robert Willey had argued for a sentence of 19 years to life, calling the crime spree “30 minutes of abject stupidity” fueled by drink and drugs.

But Campbell was not swayed.

“I don’t think it is up to the court to try to understand this or forgive this,” he said.

Castro sobbed at the defense table through most of the hourlong proceeding as his mother and sister clung to each other and cried in the gallery.

“My mind is very troubled for everything that happened. It’s like a bad dream, but unfortunately it’s true,” Castro wrote in a letter to Campbell. “Perhaps I will spend my life in prison, all because I drank one night.”

Castro said he drank heavily, smoked marijuana and snorted methamphetamine with three fellow gang members in the hours before the early-morning crime spree on Dec. 3.

Castro, who worked for a furniture moving company, had told his companions that he had stolen a .38-caliber handgun from a home in Simi Valley while working, Castro told Probation Department officials.

He told the probation officials that he had bought a box of ammunition from “a street addict” a few days before the killing.

Castro and his companions went to his house and retrieved the gun before starting off on their night of mayhem, the probation report showed.

“He was the person who introduced the gun into this violent mix of gangs, alcohol and drugs,” Hardy said in arguing for the harshest sentence possible.

Manjarrez had no gang connections and did not know the occupants of the “murder vehicle,” Hardy said.

Manjarrez’s mother told officials that her son had moved from Mexico five years ago, which was the last time she saw her eldest son until his funeral.

Meanwhile, one of Castro’s companions, a 17-year-old boy, has already pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of robbery related to the crime spree. Two other acknowledged gang members face jury trials later this year.

Arturo Contreras, 18, the alleged driver, is charged with the same crimes as Castro, and Jose Duarte, also 18, is charged with robbery and false imprisonment.

Both have pleaded not guilty to all charges.