What to Know
- Castillo he had a relationship with Kristin White after separating from his wife. They broke up, but he called and wrote White from jail.
- The prosecution questioned Castillo's alibi, namely the black eye he received the night she died and his trip to his friend's house.
The Virginia CEO accused of killing his wife testified Tuesday that he had someone follow her when he suspected she was having an affair.
Braulio Castillo said he was upset when information he learned led him to believe his wife cheated on him. Castillo found out about September 2013, the same month Michelle Castillo filed a protective order against him.
In Tuesday's cross-examination, the prosecution attacked Castillo’s alibi, questioning his testimony about a black eye he received the day before his wife was found dead and his trip to his friend’s house during the timing of her death.
Michelle Castillo died after she was beaten and suffocated in her home in March 2014, prosecutors say. She was found hanging in her basement shower the next morning in what investigators said was a murder made to appear like a suicide. Castillo was arrested 10 days later on a charge of first-degree murder.
The night his wife died, Castillo did a web search on how to treat a black eye at 5:01 p.m. Castillo testified Monday that he sustained the injury when his son, Zachary, 8, threw a flashlight at his head because he was mad at being sent to time-out during a football game.
The prosecution questioned why Castillo did not tell his wife about the flashlight incident. The two communicated frequently through the separation, mainly about their kids.
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“I wouldn’t tell on Zachary… regarding that incident,” Castillo said.
But the prosecution showed text messages of Castillo telling his wife about the boy before.
Castillo testified earlier that he was fixing a drain at his friend Bill Beyer’s house the night his wife was killed. But the prosecution also raised doubts about this alibi, which would suggest he was traveling between his house in Ashburn and Beyers’ in Reston. Castillo owned an E-ZPass, so it should have charged him as he passed through tolls on the road. The prosecution did not say whether Castillo’s E-ZPass was charged at that time.
Castillo also testified about a relationship he had with another woman after separating from his wife in 2013. The relationship ended in February 2014, but he called her 460 times from jail after he was arrested. He also sent her letters from jail.
“I felt like a failure for the first time in my life when Michelle filed for divorce,” Castillo wrote to her. “You restored me, you gave me strength.”
He also wrote to her, “I want to share and do life with you.” And he wrote, “I miss you. We will be together soon. Everything is going to be all right.”
When the prosecution asked whether Castillo wanted to share family and life with her, Castillo replied, “Yes.”
Since the protective order was filed against him, Castillo could not live in the Belmont Estates home he shared with his wife, and he could only go there with her permission. He was not allowed to coach his sons' sports teams on days he didn’t have the kids, and his church wouldn’t let him teach Sunday school anymore because of the separation.
But Castillo said, “The hardest part was splitting the money.”
The prosecution pointed out that with his wife dead, Castillo did not have to worry about any of this.
"Yes, that's right," Castillo replied.
