He said Castillo, the last to testify, offered “some pretty riveting testimony. . .”Hernandez’s attorneys tried to maximize that Castillo was agreeing to a sentence of life without parole but he replied that he wanted the death penalty and only accepted the deal to be spared from execution for his family. Castillo told the court his mother wants to die before he does.“These individuals knew what they knew,” Commander Hanson added. “You can say they’re not nice people because of their backgrounds - Castillo, at a minimum was a two-time killer before he was 21 - but nevertheless, he knows what he knows. They bragged about doing the shooting and bragged to the wrong people. We [SPPD] said Hernandez was the other shooter all along and the judge agree there was enough evidence to send him to trial.”Hernandez will be arraigned on May 15 in Ventura County Superior Court.The families of Regollar and Strobel were asked before Castillo’s secret guilty plea was accepted if they approved of waiving the death sentence in exchange of his testimony against Hernandez. Both families - who have made public statements in the past that they did not want the death sentence applied - agreed to the deal with Castillo in exchange of his guilty plea.Castillo and Hernandez were arrested for the Regollar murder in April 1999 but Hernandez was let go less than two weeks later for a lack of evidence. He was arrested again on charges related to a bat and knife attack and subsequently was rearrested for the Regollar homicide.
Plea bargain: Castillo testifies Hernandez fired fatal shot at SP shopkeeper Regollar
May 05, 2000
Santa Paula News
A suspected secret deal with prosecutors proved true when a Santa Paula gang member testified against his former friend in the killing of a shopkeeper.
Jose “Pepe” Castillo, 22, is being spared execution in return for his testimony against Alfredo “Freddy” Hernandez, 23, who Castillo said fired the fatal shot that killed Mira Regollar on June 2, 1998. Castillo pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, attempted robbery, burglary and related allegations in the Regollar murder on March 1 in a secret court action.The plea bargained cleared the way for him to testify against Hernandez, also a Santa Paula resident, Monday in a Ventura County Superior Court.Regollar, a 25-year-old Oxnard resident and nursing student, was shot twice during a botched robbery at Junior’s Market after the victim - the married mother of two small children - activated a silent alarm. Regollar was alone in the tiny neighborhood market, located on Oak Street east of Santa Paula-Ojai Road/Highway 150, when the two entered shortly after 11 a.m. Castillo said in court that Hernandez became infuriated when Regollar pressed the touch pad of a silent alarm and then smiled at them; after Hernandez shot Regollar in the head Castillo shot her in the back as she fell.Castillo testified that he and Hernandez - who fled the market after the shots were fired without taking any cash - attempted to rob the market to get money to pay a drug debt. Castillo said he was “coming down” from a drug binge and had been using methamphetamine, known as crank.Methamphetamine is considered a highly dangerous drug that causes paranoia and can often can cause users to become violent.Castillo lived less than two blocks from Junior’s Market and shortly after the murder a friend, Rene Moreno, visited the house. Moreno, now in a witness protection program, testified that Castillo and Hernandez said they had shot Regollar and displayed the .22 caliber and .32 caliber guns used.Moreno later wore a wire to record conversations with the two after he started to cooperate with Santa Paula Police investigators on the case. While Moreno was taping the conversation, Castillo admitted to stabbing 17-year-old Jesse Strobel of Ventura to death in 1993; this confession led to Castillo being tried as juvenile - he was 15 at the time of Strobel’s slaying - last year where he entered a guilty plea.Santa Paula Police Sgt. Carlos Juarez also testified, said Commander Mark Hanson, who attended the preliminary hearing.
