Doctors say alleged San Carlos sword killer is sane

Following the alleged crime, Landaeta walked away and then returned to the scene within minutes of police arriving, not saying anything, the DA’s Office previously said.

Landaeta’s attorney Robert Cummings said the issue with the doctor’s reports is they evaluated Landaeta 10 months after the alleged crime and he is now medicated. Cummings said he approached the judge Tuesday requesting to take Landaeta off of his medications but he will need to make a motion to do that.

“It would make sense to see somebody in their natural state,” Cummings said. “Taking him off of those medications, under induced psychosis, what does he become when he doesn’t take those medications?”

The case is not so much about determining if Landaeta did the crime but more if he was sane during the crime, Cummings said. He added Landaeta has a long history of mental illness and is currently medicated for schizophrenia. Landaeta pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in May. Insanity is a person’s mental state at the time of a crime while competency is a defendant’s ability to aid in their own defense.

If Cummings’ request is granted, it could mean another delay in what would follow several others and the entire process has been frustrating for Castro’s mother, Laura Engman, who said she feels like it is all just getting started.

“I just want it to be over, and now it is barely starting, and it’s already been a year,” Engman said. “It’s not even fair for my daughter, for the sake of her. It is crazy that it has to go on more than that. It just feels like it’s taking forever, he is still alive, breathing, going to sleep and waking up in the morning.”

While Tuesday’s news was a small step toward gaining justice for Engman, it is difficult for her to see Landaeta in the courtroom. He appeared to nod and smile at his mother, a privilege that Engman no longer has, she said.

“Just for him to come out and look at his mother, there should be no expression on his face because he killed a beautiful person that should be here taking care of her kids,” Engman said.

The doctors’ reports confirm what Engman already believed, that Landaeta was sane at the time of the murder, she said. Engman also believes Landaeta planned the vicious attack.

However, Cummings said Landaeta may have not been regularly taking medication before the alleged crime and he was heavily stressed out from arguments with Castro earlier that day.

“She made threats to him that she had a hit out on him and a green light on his mother and brother and she was going to take out the grandmother, too. And Rafa [Landaeta’s nickname], in his mind, thought several gang members were gonna kill them,” Cummings said. “She [Castro] was trying to tell the gangsters in EPA [East Palo Alto] that he was a pedophile and he’s a homosexual and he isn’t — from what I understand.”

Engman believes Landaeta was just fed up with Castro and the arguments they were having.

“It was planned, he wasn’t supposed to be there anyway, and feelings got involved and you want to make it go away. But, you still have two kids that won’t have parents ever again because of this,” Engman said.

Engman said Landaeta had a history of physically abusing Castro. Two weeks prior to the murder, Engman paid for Castro to stay in a hotel to avoid Landaeta because he had assaulted her, she said.

Although Engman said Castro and Landaeta did break the restraining order, she believes Castro did it because she wanted things to work out and she needed help with her two children. The youngest is Landaeta’s daughter. Both are now in the care of Child Protective Services.

“Now my grandkids are suffering because of it, they don’t have a mother or a father,” Engman said.

The crime gained national attention and made waves locally due to its grisly nature. The Community Foundation of San Carlos and the city of San Carlos accepted more than $50,000 in donations from 516 donors that will go to a trust fund for Castro’s two children. The tragedy also nudged local leaders to increase domestic violence awareness.

Landaeta remains in custody to answer on charges of murder and an extra enhancement charge for using a deadly weapon. He faces 26 years to life in prison. His pretrial conference is set for Sept. 12 and the jury trial is set for Oct. 27, according to the DA’s Office.