After deliberating for seven hours on Friday, an Orange County jury found Alvaro Castillo guilty of murder. He was sentenced to life without parole.
Castillo, who had a history of mental illness and was obsessed with the Columbine school shootings, shot and killed his father on Aug. 30, 2006. He then drove to Orange High School, where he began firing at students, wounding two. After his gun jammed, he was subdued by an Orange County Sheriff’s deputy and an off-duty highway patrol officer.
Castillo’s lawyers mounted an insanity defense, but jurors sided with prosecutors, who detailed Castillo’s planning.
A defense witness – a social worker with Caring Family Network in Hillsborough – testified that Castillo was denied mental health care by a UNC-run facility, after screeners there questioned whether Castillo was actually having the delusions he claimed. The social worker had referred Castillo to the UNC facility after she was told there would be a six-week wait for him to see a psychiatrist at Caring Family Network, which was contracted with the county at that time to provide psychiatric services.