A horrifying story out of Michigan came to a bizarre conclusion in court this week:
Police say a Marine recruiter named Ricardo Perez Castillo recently entered a neighbor’s home in Rockford, Michigan, took a knife from a kitchen drawer, and removed his pants.
He proceeded upstairs to the bedroom of an 11-year-old girl, whom he repeatedly stabbed.
The girl was sleeping over at a friend’s house, and thankfully, the friend’s parents interrupted the attack before it was too late.
“He went upstairs and the first room he checked was the parents, they were sleeping, so he shut that door,” Kent County Chief Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Elizabeth Bartlett recently told People magazine.
“The second bedroom was locked. And then the third bedroom was the girls.
“The victim was sleeping on an air mattress in the middle of the room, and the homeowner’s daughter was in a top bunk, and he gets on top of the mattress over the girl, and he starts stabbing her, he thinks in her neck, but it’s her shoulder and then her arm,” Bartlett continued.
“She screamed, and then her friend screamed, and then the dad woke up and went into the room.”
Earlier this week, Castillo was sentenced for the shocking attack.
Despite being caught in the act, he pleaded no contest to assault with intent to murder, first-degree home invasion, and second-degree assault with intent to commit criminal sexual conduct.
“I ask for forgiveness for all of you, for both families, for the whole community of Rockford, I ask for forgiveness. Sorry. I’m sorry,” he told the court.
“I know I don’t deserve it,” he continued.
“I can’t imagine all the nightmares. I can’t imagine anything that you have felt for the past 15 months. But I’m sorry. I’m truly from the bottom of the heart. I was a lost person. I have found God and made me realize how much, how much I truly am lost.”
In the video above, Castillo weeps and falls to his knees as he pleads for mercy. But the judge in his case was not moved by the emotional display.
“This case is disturbing on so many levels,” Judge Christina Mims said at last week’s sentencing, WOOD Grand Rapids reported.
“What you engaged in was — just what comes to mind is a real-life horror movie or a horror show where you’re stabbing this child. It’s just by the grace of God that she wasn’t killed.”
“I remember being in a lot of pain on the floor,” read a statement written by the victim and read by a prosecutor.
“I remember seeing all my blood everywhere. I remember feeling warm running down my body from the blood. I remember the smell of it. I could still feel the sting of the pain,” the victim described.
“I remember being very scared and not understanding why this happened to me. I was terrified. I never would have guessed an innocent sleepover would have left me in the hospital with bad injuries.”
Castillo has been sentenced to 40 years in prison. His victim is expected to make a full recovery.