Deputy pleads no contest to vehicular manslaughter in killing of 12-year-old boy in high-speed off-duty crash

A Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy charged with murder after killing a 12-year-old boy in a high-speed crash while off duty has pleaded no contest to vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence.

Ricardo Castro, 30, was at the wheel of his pickup truck on Nov. 3, 2021, when it rammed a car turning left in front of him at an intersection, killing Isaiah Rodriguez in that vehicle's passenger seat and injuring the boy’s 19-year-old sister, according to authorities. Castro was off duty at the time of the crash. Isaiah, who lived in South Gate, died at a Long Beach hospital, and his sister was treated for broken bones.

Castro was charged with second-degree murder last year along with vehicular manslaughter. He entered the plea Thursday in a downtown courtroom; he is expected to receive six years in state prison when he returns there for sentencing on Sept. 25.

The deputy, who was relieved of duty after the crash, will surrender his Peace Officer Standards and Training certificate, effectively ending his law enforcement career, according to prosecutors. If Castro had been convicted of the murder count, he could have received a life sentence.

In announcing the charges last year, L.A. County Dist. Atty. George Gascón called the deadly crash a preventable tragedy.

“Mr. Castro’s recklessness ended the life of a boy with an entire future ahead of him and destroyed a family,” said Gascón, standing next to two posters displaying pictures of a smiling Isaiah. The prosecutor said the deputy's speeds neared 95 mph in a 25-mph school zone as he approached a busy intersection.

South Gate Police Chief Darren Arakawa said the charges were the result of a 16-month investigation by his department.

The high-speed crash at the intersection of San Juan Avenue and Firestone Boulevard was captured on surveillance video. Footage shows the car being struck, spun around and tossed by the impact.

The road is marked for 35 mph, but because it is a school zone, a 25-mph speed limit would have been in place at the time of the 4 p.m. crash.

Castro had received “rigorous” training on safe driving as a sheriff's deputy, yet had been involved in multiple collisions and received a number of traffic tickets, including some for speeding, Gascón said Wednesday. He added that Castro had also been a passenger in a fatal crash a few months before the collision that killed Isaiah.

Aerial television video from the day of the South Gate crash showed that the vehicle Isaiah was riding in came to a stop at least 75 feet from the point of impact.

After the crash, a good Samaritan tried to stop Isaiah's bleeding by wrapping his head in her sweater before the siblings were taken to the hospital, according to the family’s GoFundMe page. Firefighters used hydraulic “jaws of life” to pull the boy from the wreckage.

According to the GoFundMe page, Isaiah suffered “severe injuries to his head, brain and abdomen.” Despite efforts by the emergency room team at Long Beach Memorial Hospital, Isaiah was pronounced dead about 8:30 that night.

According to the family, the 19-year-old sister was treated at St. Francis Medical Center for a concussion, broken bones and lacerations. She was released a few days later.

When the charges were announced, Isaiah's mother, Betsabe Suarez, said her son had been on his way to buy a new ruler for a girl who’d been bullied and had her own ruler taken away. She remembered him as a brave, thoughtful, caring child.

Three days before he was killed, Isaiah told her he wanted to get baptized so he could be a “new man,” she said. “My son didn’t deserve this,” she said. “He was only 12.”

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times .