A state appellate court panel Friday rejected an appeal from a man who was convicted of his estranged wife’s 2010 stabbing death in Pacoima after being extradited for the crime.
The three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected the defense’s contention that there was insufficient evidence to support the special circumstance allegations of murder while lying in wait and torture against Napoleon Eduardo Castro involving the killing of his 33-year-old estranged wife, Olga Martinez.
The appellate court panel noted in its 19-page ruling that the evidence presented at Castro’s trial “demonstrated that defendant spent nearly 20 minutes attacking Martinez” and that substantial evidence supports “the element of a surprise attack on an unsuspecting victim from a position of advantage.”
The justices noted that the woman was stabbed 32 times.
Authorities said the woman was attacked in the garage of her condominium building in the 11000 block of Glenoaks Boulevard, near Pierce Street, in the early morning hours of May 1, 2010.
Her body was found in a pool of blood at the entrance to the garage, according to the FBI.
Authorities had named Castro as the suspect in the killing shortly after the crime, and state and federal warrants were subsequently issued for his arrest. The wanted poster distributed by the FBI noted that he had the name “OLGA” tattooed on his chest.
Castro was taken into custody in El Salvador, according to the FBI, which announced in February 2019 after his arrest that a reward had been paid in connection with the investigation. He was turned over to Los Angeles police in February 2019.
Jurors had deadlocked in his first trial. The second jury to hear the case against him found him guilty in May 2024 of first-degree murder, along with finding true the two special circumstance allegations and an allegation that he used a deadly and dangerous weapon.
Castro, now 50, was sentenced in June 2024 to life in prison without the possibility of parole.