'Insignificant, little man with a big gun': Judge upbraids 'coward' who ambushed and murdered several members of ex-girlfriend's family after she broke up with him

Inset: Joseph Castorena (Aurora Police Department). Background: The area near where Castorena murdered four people (Google Maps).

A Colorado man will spend the rest of his life behind bars for shooting and killing multiple members of his ex-girlfriend’s family in an apparent bout of vengeful rage after she accused him of domestic violence and broke things off.

In May, Joseph Castorena , 23, was convicted on four counts of murder in the first degree and one count of attempted murder by a jury in Arapahoe County. In the Mile High State, first-degree murder convictions are essentially a foregone conclusion in terms of sentencing; such defendants are automatically subject to life sentences in prison without the possibility of parole.

But the judge overseeing Castorena’s sentencing hearing earlier this week was not content to simply administer the mere formalities of final judgment. The court took the opportunity to sharply upbraid the killer for the fatal violence and the historical smallness of his life.

“Your actions were those of an insignificant, little man with a big gun who had to control the people in his life that he supposedly loved, and did so with such abject violence,” Arapahoe County District Judge David Karpel said, according to a courtroom report by Denver-based ABC affiliate KMGH . “This insignificance of yours will dissipate in time into ether where you will become forgotten.”

On Oct. 30, 2022, Castorena broke into his ex-girlfriend’s home on North Geneva Street in Aurora. There, he brutally executed Maria Anita Serrano, 22, his ex’s sister, Jesus Serrano, 51, the sisters’ father, Kenneth Eugene Green Luque, 20, the sister’s husband, and Rudolfo Salgado Perez, 49, a tenant who stayed in an RV on the property.

“This coward executed an entire family and innocent tenant,” Senior Chief Deputy District Attorney Darcy Kofol said in a press release issued after the sentencing. “This defendant couldn’t accept the fact that his ex-girlfriend wanted to move on with her life. Instead, he decided to viciously murder everyone she loved.”

After the bloody ambush, the since-condemned man fled to Mexico.

Castorena was finally arrested through the work of an international task force that included the FBI, Mexican immigration agents and other federales, and local police, according to the Aurora Police Department. He was extradited to Colorado in March 2023.

“This defendant committed a series of heinous crimes and then tried to avoid facing accountability by fleeing to Mexico,” Deputy DA Lauren Raible said. “The Aurora Police Department deserves tremendous credit in helping us track him down and bring him to justice.”

At the time of the slayings, Castorena’s ex-girlfriend was on the phone with police. Then, several shots rang out. While she and her two children were not harmed, prosecutors also tried and convicted Castorena for attempting to murder her. The killer was given a separate 24-year sentence for that crime — which the judge assessed to run concurrently, or at the same time, as his multiple life sentences.

The defendant, for his part, reportedly kept mum during the hearing.

The government worked to make clear how Castorena felt about the slaughter after nearly two years. Calling the killer remorseless, prosecutors said he blamed his ex-girlfriend “until the very end.”

Just one week before the massacre, the defendant’s ex-girlfriend and her father obtained a restraining order that prohibited Castorena from contacting her or coming near the family’s home.

“I’ve had many people stand before me as defendants and say, ‘I’m not a bad person, I just did the wrong thing’ and I’ve sometimes agreed with them,” Karpel went on. “But Mr. Castorena, you are the biggest exception to the rule.”

The post ‘Insignificant, little man with a big gun’: Judge upbraids ‘coward’ who ambushed and murdered several members of ex-girlfriend’s family after she broke up with him first appeared on Law & Crime .