Council Offers Reward in Fatal March Stabbing

The Los Angeles City Council voted Friday to offer a reward in the apparently unprovoked March 8 stabbing death of a man near Victory and Laurel Canyon boulevards.

Andres Munoz Castillo, 31, and his girlfriend, Lidia Fuentes, were walking in the 12000 block of Victory Boulevard about 1:45 a.m. when a man--who had approached them earlier on foot to ask for a quarter--drove up and asked the couple to drive him home, said Det. Mike Coffey of the Los Angeles Police Department’s North Hollywood station. The stranger claimed to be too intoxicated to drive himself.

When Castillo approached the man’s light blue, American-made sedan to refuse the offer, the man allegedly stabbed Castillo in the upper body, officials said.

Castillo was pronounced dead at 2:45 a.m. at Pacifica Hospital in Sun Valley.

Fuentes was not injured during the incident.

Police describe the assailant as a male Latino in his late 20s, standing 5 foot 5 and weighing 150 pounds. The man had a mustache and black hair cut short on the sides and combed straight back on top. He was wearing a light blue, long-sleeved shirt and dark pants on the night of the slaying.

The assailant’s car had three large spots of primer paint on the passenger side.

Castillo and Fuentes were returning home after a night out at the El Zorro night club on Lankershim Boulevard when they were stopped by police about 1:30 a.m. at Radford Avenue and Victory Boulevard for expired vehicle registration.

Police discovered Castillo was an unlicensed driver and impounded his car. After refusing police offers to call a cab for them, the couple walked to a nearby pay phone to call Fuentes’ sister for a ride. The assailant first approached the couple at the pay phone.

Castillo is survived by a brother and two children who live in Mexico.

Anyone with information on the slaying can call North Hollywood homicide detectives at (818) 623-4075, or after hours at (818) 623-4016.