After the family of Ruth Castillo-Yanez told a judge how angry they were at Telesforo Hernandez-Roa for brutally stabbing his former wife to death 17 months ago, Hernandez-Roa stood up in court and asked for forgiveness.
“I’m very sorry,” Hernandez-Roa said through an interpreter on Friday prior to his sentencing in King County Superior Court in Kent. “I want to ask for forgiveness from all of her family and from my family. I hope that God will help them find pardon for me.”
Hernandez-Roa, 42, of Burien, spent much of the 90 minutes in court in tears with his head down. He didn’t look at any of his former-wife’s relatives or his family who spoke at a podium to his right.
Judge Laura Middaugh sentenced Hernandez-Roa to 16 years in prison for the second-degree murder of Castillo-Yanez, 39, of Federal Way, on July 20, 2014 in Kent. Defense attorneys asked for an exceptionally low sentence of just more than eight years. State guidelines put the sentence range at 12 to 20 years. Prosecutors asked for 16 years.
Deputy Prosectuor LaKeysha Washington said the state considered filing a first-degree murder charge but agreed to drop it to second-degree murder after Hernandez-Roa pleaded guilty in November.
Defense attorney Sarah Perez wanted a lower sentence because Hernandez-Roa turned himself into police the same evening of the killing. Seattle Police contacted Kent Police after Hernandez-Roa told Seattle officers that he had an altercation with his wife earlier in the day.
Kent Police found Castillo-Yanez dead in the backseat of her red Nissan Pathfinder in the Metro Park & Ride lot in the 23400 block of Military Road South. Prosecutors say Hernandez-Roa stabbed the woman at least 25 times.
“I’m extremely angry in the way that I know that he killed her,” said Ruth’s mother, Josefina Castillo Yanez-Condes, to the judge. “And seeing my granddaughters missing their mother. They’ve gone through two Christmas’ without her. Before when my daughter was alive it was very joyful. Now it’s only sad. We all see each other and we all have such sadness in our hearts.”
Judge Middaugh said she started looking at the low end of the sentence range because the defendant had no criminal history. The defense filed a psychologist’s report about the rough upbringing Hernandez-Roa had, abandoned at age 3 by his parents and growing up in a violent household. But she decided that report had no validity because it didn’t take into account anything from Castillo-Yanez’s family, especially the two daughters who witnessed domestic violence by Hernandez-Roa.
Middaugh didn’t want to go on the low end of the sentence because it was such a brutal killing.
“It is difficult to stab someone 25 times when they are seated in a car,” Middaugh said. “And the question in my mind was why did he have that knife? It made no sense to me that he said he just had it in the car.”
On that fatal day in July of last year, Hernandez-Roa met up with his ex-wife at church on a Sunday afternoon and invited her to dinner at BJ’s Restaurant at the Southcenter Mall. He then drove her to the Park & Ride lot on Kent’s West Hill where he stabbed her to death.
Hernandez-Roa told police he had learned Castillo-Yanez was cheating on him and the man she was dating had recently sent naked photos of her to him. Washington, the prosecutor, said Hernandez-Roa couldn’t handle that his former wife had been with another man and wouldn’t be with him anymore.
“She decided to tell the defendant she was done and she did that over dinner,” Washington said. “She wanted nothing else to do with him and wanted him to leave her alone.”
Washington said it was “absurd” for Hernandez-Roa to blame Castillo-Yanez for her own death because of her actions with another man.
“For the defendant to say that Ruth, who was divorced from the defendant, and engaged in a consensual sexual relationship is the reason why she is dead, is actually more evidence that he is a classic domestic violence perpetrator,” Washington said.
Two sisters and a cousin of Hernandez-Roa spoke before the judge. They told him they would always be there for him and that they loved him.
“I am always going to be there along with my family for my brother when he gets out of this place,” said sister Erika Hernandez.
Susanna Hernandez, another sister, said her family will support him.
“I’m not here to judge you,” she said. “I’m here to tell you how much you are loved. And Erika is already talking about what we can do when you get out. …There is not a day that goes by that I don’t think of you. We will always love you.”
Ashley Ortiz, Ruth’s daughter, said she feared Hernandez-Roa.
“I’m afraid that when he comes out he will come searching for us,” Ortiz said. “My mom didn’t deserve to die that way. …I’m very angry.”
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