A California murderer was granted parole almost 30 years after being convicted of stabbing his wife to death in a bedroom while his children were home — leaving his son outraged that he's able to walk free .
Robert Castorena was granted parole in March and then walked free on Wednesday this week after serving over 20 years for killing his wife, Janice Baker-Castorena, 38, inside the family's Sacramento home back in 1996, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation revealed, according to Law&Crime .
It was a harrowing evening for the Castorenas — then-38-year-old Robert, who was a high school teacher, flew into a fit of rage and stabbed and bludgeoned Janice to death on Oct. 1, 1996.
Her body was left in the home, it was reported, and he told the couple's children — an 8-year-old boy and 14-year-old daughter — not to look into the master bedroom or say anything. He reportedly stayed with them at the home for several days, then started threatening them, holding a knife to his daughter's throat and threatening her if she said anything. He also reportedly threatened to stab his son, who was not named as he spoke to KXTV.
"It's ridiculous," the man told the outlet. "He's going to be free, and that just seems so wrong on so many levels." After threatening his children, Robert reportedly fled the scene, telling his children, according to then-Sacramento police homicide Detective John Cabrera, that he "had to go fight the enemy." It wasn't clear what he meant.
Then, he got in his car, left them alone at the house, and they never saw him again. It wasn't until two weeks later that the son went to a local store and shoplifted so he could tell the police about the murder, the Los Angeles Times reported. The children had been left with their mother's body for two weeks.
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Michael Heenan, a spokesperson for the Sacramento Police Department, reportedly said at the time that the son felt that was his only way of getting someone to the home. He said neither of the children opened the bedroom door, reportedly having been in too much shock and denial.
Castorena was reportedly caught in Mexico and extradited to face murder charges in the U.S. in November 1996. He was charged with murder, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon and was then found incompetent to stand trial in 1997 before that competency was restored in 1998. In 1999, he pleaded no contest, sentenced to 15 years to life in a state prison and then was admitted to a state hospital for the attempted murder conviction — reportedly to restore his sanity. That was deemed restored in 2014.
The man was tried again in 2016, sentenced to life with the possibility of parole for second-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon, started serving his state prison sentence on April 18, 2017, and was then released on parole this Wednesday.
The agency that granted parole reportedly failed to inform Castorena's son of what had occurred. He called the situation "pretty enraging" as he said it felt like the system "failed us," referring to him, his sister, his mother and the rest of their family who suffered as a result of what his father did.
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