Man Admits to Fatal ’93 Stabbing of Teen

Wrapping up a sensational murder mystery that lasted more than six years, a Santa Paula man admitted Wednesday to fatally stabbing Ventura teen Jesse Strobel in 1993, authorities said.

The killing has made headlines because it went unsolved until Jose “Pepe” Castillo was arrested earlier this year and because the 21-year-old defendant has also been charged with a slaying that occurred last summer.

Castillo, described by authorities as a Santa Paula gang member, admitted to a petition charging him with Strobel’s murder in Juvenile Court. His admission was equivalent to a guilty plea in an adult court.

More than a dozen members of Strobel’s family--his parents, grandparents, siblings and aunts--attended the emotional hearing.

“I don’t have any satisfaction. That young man’s life has turned into such a disaster and I have to equate that with Jesse, who had all the potential in the world,” said a tearful John Strobel III, the victim’s grandfather.

“I think Castillo might have had the same potential if he chose a different path. Not one, but two lives have been lost,” he added.

Strobel said he was glad that justice had finally caught up to Castillo, but that he won’t truly believe the case is over until the judge decides the term of his confinement, scheduled for Sept. 10.

“I’m still looking at it with a jaundiced eye until I hear the pronouncement of sentence,” he said.

During a series of questions asked by a prosecutor, Castillo admitted to killing and attempting to rob Strobel on Jan. 29, 1993, while Strobel was walking home from his father’s Ventura pizzeria.

Police say Strobel, a 17-year-old Ventura High School football player, was confronted by a group of men who tried to rob him and that he fought back and was stabbed with a knife.

Castillo was arrested in April after authorities received a tip from a source who said Castillo inflicted the fatal knife wounds.

He was charged in Juvenile Court because he was 15 at the time of the killing. Although he is now an adult, he will likely be confined for only four years because juvenile offenders can be held at the California Youth Authority only until age 25.

Even if he receives the maximum penalty in this case, Castillo’s legal troubles are far from over, said Santa Paula Police Sgt. Carlos Juarez.

Castillo is scheduled to be tried, this time in adult court, in the June 2, 1998, slaying of Santa Paula store clerk Mirna Regollar.

Last month, the Ventura County Grand Jury indicted Castillo on charges of murder, attempted robbery and burglary. The grand jury also handed down two special circumstance allegations that make him eligible for the death penalty.

Prosecutors have not decided whether to seek the death punishment. If they do not, Castillo would spend the rest of his life in prison if convicted.

Authorities say Castillo was one of two men who fired on Regollar during what they described as a botched robbery attempt at her family’s Oak Street market. Regollar, a 25-year-old mother of two and a nursing student at Ventura College, was shot in the head and back.

Authorities arrested Castillo and a second man in the slaying but have only charged Castillo, who remains in jail without bail. The second man was released without being charged.

Castillo’s attorneys, who could not be reached Wednesday, said last month that he was considering admitting his guilt in the Strobel case so that his defense team could spend its time preparing for the more serious set of charges in the 1998 murder case.