A man who accidentally killed a 21-year-old woman during gunplay at a Woodcrest property is slated to be sentenced Friday.
Brady Matthew Castillo, 23, of Riverside pleaded guilty in June to voluntary manslaughter, along with a sentence-enhancing gun use allegation.
The plea was directly to Riverside County Superior Court Judge Gary Polk, without input or objection from the District Attorney’s Office. Polk did not indicate a potential sentence at the time of the plea.
The defendant is being held without bail at the Robert Presley Jail in Riverside.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit filed by sheriff’s Investigator David Sandoval, Castillo was with Isabella Ruiz at an unnamed friend’s residence in the 18000 block of Gentian Avenue, near Chicago Avenue, on the night of March 31, 2023, when the shooting occurred.
Sandoval said earlier that day, the defendant had been “hanging out with his friend” when he grabbed a semiautomatic handgun stashed in a drawer at the house and “took selfies,” posing with the pistol before handing the gun to his friend and leaving.
“Later that evening (about 11:45 p.m.), Castillo returned to the same place and was hanging out with Ruiz and the previously noted friend,” according to the sheriff’s declaration. “Castillo noticed the same firearm from earlier on top of a table in the bedroom. He picked up the firearm with his left hand, racked the slide to the rear, pointed the firearm at Ruiz’s face, and three to five seconds later, pulled the trigger, striking her.”
Sandoval wrote that Ruiz was sitting in a chair situated at a desktop computer, “looking at Castillo when he pulled the trigger, and neither party said anything to each other.”
“Castillo was unaware if the firearm was loaded and assumed it was not,” the investigator said.
Castillo’s friend called 911 immediately after the shooting, and the victim was taken to Riverside University Medical Center in Moreno Valley, where she died about 90 minutes later.
The defendant told detectives he had not had any “formal gun training” but realized “the dangerousness of firearms,” the affidavit stated.
He was arrested on the afternoon of April 1, 2023, but posted an $80,000 bond and was released from custody. His bail was revoked three months later when he failed to make a court appearance.
Castillo has no documented prior misdemeanor or felony convictions in Riverside County.