Defense attorney Robert Cummings, alongside his co-counsel Daniel Blanchette (right), listens to opening statements by the prosecution in the trial of Jose Rafael Solano Landaeta in a Redwood City, Calif. courtroom, Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023. Landaeta is facing one count of murder after allegedly killing Karina Castro with a sword last year in San Carlos. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
REDWOOD CITY — Did Jose Rafael Solano Landaeta act out of pure vengeance when he took a sword to the neck of his child’s mother and beheaded her on a quiet San Carlos street as passersby looked on in horror?
Or was he acting out of “imperfect self defense” — a paranoid schizophrenic who was off his medication and fearful for the lives of his brother and mother?
Those dueling narratives emerged Tuesday in the opening day of testimony in Solano’s first-degree murder trial, where he faces 26 years to life in prison for the Sept. 8, 2022, killing of Karina Castro, 27. Tuesday’s proceeding began without Solano seated in the courtroom after he refused to come out of his cell, Judge Lisa A. Novak said.
Displaying a picture of the large sword used to cut down Castro, prosecutor Josh Stauffer said Solano seemed to be “punishing or harming someone in return for what they have done to you” — the very definition of vengeance, he said
Stauffer pointed to messages Solano sent to a friend, where he referenced Castro and said “she looking to get smoked,” and “Imma have to do what I have to do.”
It all stemmed from a “heated argument” that Castro and Solano had on the social media app Snapchat earlier that day, where she accused him of being a rapist and pedophile, the prosecutor said. In that conversation — as well as in messages sent to a friend — Solano sent numerous emojis of ninjas and droplets of blood, Stauffer stressed to the jury.
“B—- is all bad blood, she needa get 86’d,” read one of Solano’s messages, as displayed on a screen for the jury.
Solano, 34, of Hayward, had originally pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. But he pivoted from that tactic just days before jury selection in favor of an “imperfect self-defense” theory — one hinging on the notion that Castro was the true threat that day.
In fact, said Solano’s attorney on Tuesday, the Hayward man met Castro that swelteringly-hot September day in a fevered bid to “de-escalate” a situation that, he said, had grown out of hand after Castro allegedly made numerous threats against his family.
Cummings described Solano as a man who worked as an accountant in Berkeley and who suffered from chronic paranoia and schizophrenia. He took medication for those conditions, but stopped about a week prior to the attack.
“This is not a whodunit — this is a ‘Why?’ said Solano’s attorney, Robert Cummings, during opening statements Tuesday. “And the ‘Why?’ is not vengeance.”
Cummings referenced texts that Castro allegedly sent, where she declared “I know s— that will get you 6-feet under,” and “u got a target on ur back now too.” Some of the messages included vows of violence against Solano’s family, Cummings said.
“In his mind, he’s got paranoia and he’s terrified,” Cummings told the jury.
On Tuesday, neither side disputed that Solano and Castro got into an intense verbal argument just hours after those messages were sent.
Stauffer said Solano called off sick from his job later that morning, went home to Hayward to grab his sword, and then drove to San Carlos to confront Castro. There, they got into shouting match on Laurel Street — one that attracted the attention of three women walking home from brunch, who had to walk into the street to avoid the quarreling couple.
One of those women, Renata Tabellion, said she couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw Solano go back to his car and pull out the sword.
“At the moment, it didn’t hit me, becuase it looked like a prop,” Tabellion said. Weeping and hardly audible, she added: “As soon as he got close to her… he hit her once, he hit her twice. We were all screaming ‘Stop! Stop!’ I thought we were next.”
Stauffer said the other women at the scene were expected to recall watching Castro run away from Solano as he swung the sword over and over — leaving a pool of blood from one arm that was nearly chopped off, as well as a trail of her blonde hair that was being cut from her head with every swing he made.
By the end of the attack, one of Castro’s arms had been nearly cut off, and an autopsy found that she suffered at least 7 strikes to her head and neck with the sword, Stauffer said.
Throughout the trial’s opening hours, at least a dozen of Castro’s relatives and friends — including her father, mother and grandmoother — sat in the gallery, often weeping as prosecutors described the killing.
The particularly gruesome nature of the case prompted a series of unusual moves in the courtroom Tuesday, after Judge Novak issued an order ahead of the trial ensuring that graphic pictures of the crime scene would not be shown to people sitting in the gallery.
Rather than show some images of the crime scene on a television screen, Stauffer handed out printed copies of photos depicting Castro’s headless body lying on a San Carlos street to jury members for each to view individually. Defense attorneys also had to make sure that pictures of evidence displayed on their laptop screens couldn’t be visible to gallery members sitting behind them.
Testimony was continuing on Tuesday afternoon. The trial is expected to last two to three weeks.
This is a developing report. Check back for updates.
Originally published at Jakob Rodgers