BY BETH VELLIQUETTE
bvelliquette@heraldsun.com; 918-1042
HILLSBOROUGH -- Jurors in the trial of Alvaro Castillo began deliberating late Thursday afternoon after attorneys for both the state and the defense made convincing arguments about whether Castillo knew right from wrong when he killed his father and shot at students at Orange High School on Aug. 30, 2006.
For the prosecution, Orange-Chatham District Attorney James Woodall argued that Castillo's motives for killing his father and shooting at the students was because he wanted to go down in infamy with his name on the list of school shooters that included his idols, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the Columbine High School killers.
For the defense, Orange-Chatham Public Defender James Williams argued that there was no doubt that Castillo was severely mentally ill when he committed the crimes, and that he was operating under the delusion that God wanted him to sacrifice his father, students at the school and himself to spare them all from the pain and torment of living in this world.
A delusion, as the jury heard many times, is a false fixed belief, and having a delusion is a symptom of psychosis.
"He has this false fixed belief that God wants him to do certain things," Williams told the jury.
As an example that he didn't know what he was doing was morally wrong, Williams told the jury that when his mother suggested he confess after the shootings, he asked her why, stating that he didn't do anything wrong.
Castillo didn't tell his therapists or his family what he was planning to do because he believed God wanted him to sacrifice the people, Williams said.
Another example was Castillo's excited response to the news about the Virginia Tech campus slayings, even after being put on medication at Central Prison. Castillo said he believed the victims had been sent to heaven.
That showed he had a fixed false belief, even after he was put on medication, that school shootings sent people to heaven, Williams said.
Although Castillo was going to school and working in the days leading up to Aug. 30, 2006, that does not mean he was not psychotic when it came to his thoughts about sacrificing people, Williams said.
'It need not be shown that the defendant lacked mental capacity on all matters," Williams said. "A person can be sane on all subjects but one."
Woodall gave a different interpretation to the fact that Castillo kept his plans a secret. That showed Castillo manipulated his therapists, telling them he was feeling good even as he was buying weapons and preparing his attack on his father and students at the school, Woodall said.
His ability to plan and deceive did not indicate psychosis, Woodall said.
"Although the defendant had some psychotic symptoms, he was not out of touch when this occurred. He was in touch with reality," Woodall said.
Woodall also challenged Williams' contention that Castillo believed the killing of his father was a sacrifice.
If he truly believed that sacrificing people was a good thing, he would have sacrificed his mother, as he originally planned to do.
"If he had killed her, wow!" Woodall said. "If he had killed the person who loved and took care of him, that would be sacrifice."
But he changed his original plan to sacrifice his whole family and only killed his father, Woodall said.
Another example of his failure to sacrifice someone -- namely himself -- was when Deputy London Ivey confronted him at the high school. When Ivey ordered him to drop his weapons, he put them down and got down on the ground, Woodall said.
If he was truly delusional, he would have had an unshakable belief that God wanted him to continue with his plan, which included committing suicide or being shot and killed by law enforcement officers, Woodall said. But that unshakable belief changed when he saw Ivey.
"What that meant, he was afraid Deputy Ivey was going to shoot him," Woodall said.
"It was crunch time," Woodall said. "In crunch time, this religious fervor he told you about, it just wasn't enough."
At the end of the day, Castillo hadn't killed his mother, sisters, Ivey or himself, Woodall said.
"He killed one person," Woodall said. "The one person he killed was the one person he didn't really like."
Following the closing arguments, Superior Court Judge Allen Baddour read the jury instructions about the charges and about the law.
The jury instructions were nearly 17¬
