Woman Feared Husband, Co-Workers Testify

Months before her gruesome death, Maria Pinaloza Ambario confided to co-workers that her husband beat her constantly and she feared he would kill her.

“She would tell me that he would beat her up,” said Sonia Rodriguez, who testified Monday during the Ventura County murder trial of Ambario’s husband and accused killer, Alfonso Castillo.

Rodriguez and other employees at the food-packaging company where Ambario, 34, worked told the judge presiding over Castillo’s trial that Ambario often showed up to work with bruises on her body.

“She was always arriving black-and-blue--everywhere,” Rodriguez said. “A lot of mistreatment.”

Castillo, 38, a Panorama City tile setter, is charged with first-degree murder for allegedly strangling Ambario, cutting up her body and dumping the remains off the Ventura County coast.

Prosecutors contend that Castillo killed his wife of two years after she threatened to leave him.

Castillo was arrested Dec. 6 after a Ventura County sheriff’s deputy stopped near Mugu Rock to investigate an illegally parked truck and spotted Castillo, splattered in blood, climbing up a rocky area from the surf.

Castillo told authorities the blood on his clothes came from a cut on his arm and that he was climbing the rocks to dispose of a cat he had run over earlier that evening, according to court testimony.

But deputies shining searchlights on the water saw human limbs floating in the surf and later recovered several of Ambario’s body parts, including her head.

Dr. Dean Hawley of the Indiana University medical school testified that hemorrhages near the eyes suggest Ambario was strangled before being dismembered.

Sheriff’s Sgt. James Panza told Superior Court Judge Herbert Curtis III that he found trash bags, gloves and a plastic storage bin during a search of Castillo’s truck.

Panza said he also found a Wal-Mart sales receipt for a chef’s knife. The receipt shows the sale occurred Dec. 5 at 5:18 p.m. Prosecutors suspect Castillo had strangled Ambario the day before.

During a search of Castillo’s apartment, Panza found a bow saw and plastic sheeting on the floor. Panza said he also found a human heart inside the garbage disposal.

Friend Maria Gutierres testified that, three months before her death, Ambario left the apartment she shared with Castillo and moved in with Gutierres. But she said Ambario stayed only one night before returning to her husband.

Los Angeles Police Officer Carol Hale testified that in June 2000 she responded to a domestic-violence call at the couple’s apartment. Hale took photographs of a bruised Ambario, who had allegedly been hit in the face. Hale said Ambario refused an emergency protective order.

Castillo, who waived his right to a jury trial, is being held in lieu of bail of more than $1 million. His trial is expected to last about a week. Testimony is scheduled to resume today.