SAN MARTIN
– A 24-year-old Gilroy man who tried to sell a sexually explicit
videotape of he and an 11-year-old girl to a co-worker plead guilty
to a host of felony charges Monday following the opening arguments
in his trial.
SAN MARTIN – A 24-year-old Gilroy man who tried to sell a sexually explicit videotape of he and an 11-year-old girl to a co-worker plead guilty to a host of felony charges Monday following the opening arguments in his trial.
Pablo Enrique Castillo, who has been in county jail on $1 million bail since his Oct. 18, 2002, arrest, will now spend at least the next 45 years of his life in state prison, according to Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Edward F. Lee, who oversaw Castillo’s trial.
Castillo plead guilty to four felonies Monday, including three counts of aggravated sexual assault of a minor under the age of 14 and one count of creating child pornography for commercial purposes. Each count carries a 15-years-to-life prison term.
Castillo, who lives in unincorporated Gilroy, could have faced 14 consecutive life terms in prison if convicted by the jury who listened to opening arguments in the trial Monday morning before being informed by Lee of Castillo’s noontime decision.
The guilty plea improved Castillo’s chances for future parole.
“The conduct in this case is so outrageous,” Lee explained to the 14 jurors from throughout the county on hand at the South County courthouse in San Martin on Monday. “That’s why stiff penalties like this have become available (for sex crimes involving minors).”
Santa Clara County Sheriff’s deputies arrested Castillo in October after a Hollister co-worker of Castillo’s alerted authorities to a videotape showing Castillo and his 11-year-old relative in various sexual acts.
The co-worker told police that Castillo had solicited him to purchase the videotape for an unspecified price.
Sheriff’s deputies confiscated the tape, which was filmed in 2000, from Castillo’s home when they arrested him, and prosecutors planned on showing the tape to the jury.
“Now we won’t have to look at the tape,” Lee told the jury Monday afternoon, revealing that the court had arranged for post traumatic stress councilors to talk with the jurors after they watched the videotape. “That’s a very good thing for all of us because this tape was so awful.”
The mother of Castillo’s victim attended the opening arguments of Castillo’s trial Monday morning, but was not present when Lee informed the courtroom of the plea.
The prosecutor in the case, Deputy District Attorney Stacey Rubino, said the victim’s mother had reservations about the stiff penalties facing her relative, but that the mother also recognized the overwhelming evidence against Castillo.
Castillo had no previous criminal record.
“There was an inordinate amount of evidence in this case because of the videotape,” Rubino said. “It is often difficult for law agencies to get search warrants for videotapes in a case like this, so this is unusual (to have the tape as evidence).”
Castillo’s public defender, Kelly Paul, fielded questions from the jury about her role defending Castillo. In many criminal cases, jurors are allowed to ask questions to the judge and attorneys following the verdict.
One juror asked Paul how she could defend someone like Castillo.
“This case pushed me to the wall – it was definitely worse than most,” she said. “But I believe in the process.”
Paul also said Castillo’s victim and her family have been receiving counseling since Castillo’s arrest, and that the girl is “doing remarkably well.”
Judge Lee credited recent legislation clamping down on juvenile sex offenders for enabling the prosecution to seek such a stiff penalty for Castillo, who Lee said wouldn’t be eligible for parole until he was 69.
Castillo is scheduled to be sentenced at 9 a.m. on Aug. 18 in San Martin.
“I don’t think (Castillo) will ever get out (of prison),” said Rubino, pointing out that parole boards usually frown on violent child sex offenders. “That’s what I wanted.”
