Landaeta gets 26 years to life for brutal San Carlos murder

“It’s as over as it can be, but I’m going to leave here feeling the same as when I got here,” Castro’s father, Martin Castro, said outside the courtroom to reporters. “My closure will be the day I die.”

A jury swiftly convicted Landaeta, 34, of first-degree murder after a two-week trial detailing his attack on Castro Sept. 8, 2022, when he nearly beheaded her with a samurai sword in broad daylight on a residential San Carlos street.

“This is by far the most difficult trial that I’ve ever presided over, because of the true horror of the crime you committed in butchering Karina Castro,” Novak said.

Landaeta received a sentence of 25 years to life for the murder, per California law, with an additional one year added for use of the weapon. He will become eligible for parole after 26 years in prison, with 512 days already served, Sean Gallagher, chief deputy district attorney for the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office, said.

“The sentence just imposed just does not feel sufficient,” Novak said at the end of her remarks.

Landaeta’s defense primarily revolved around claims of imperfect self-defense by a man with mental health issues, as he had previously been diagnosed with schizophrenia — an assertion prosecutor Josh Stauffer lambasted at trial, which Novak reiterated during sentencing.

“This incredible act of violence is not in any way a byproduct of mental illness, and it is an affront to those suffering from mental illness to suggest that somehow your culpability should be limited because you suffer from mental illness,” she said.

Multiple doctors said during the trial that Landaeta showed no current symptoms of psychosis and previous diagnoses had no “genuine causal nexus” to the killing.

Stauffer, who asked the judge for the harshest possible sentence — although, bound to California law, she had little leeway — reiterated various instances of Landaeta faking his mental illness in an attempt to get away with the crime. This included not taking his medication two weeks before the trial with the hope it would be thrown out, he said, as well as his behavior inside the courtroom that included moments of sustained catatonia.

“The defendants’ behavior in court also illustrated his manipulation, and put on full display before this judge, your honor, and the jury — when the defendant testified for several hours of direct examination, and then decided to try to hide by taking a bathroom break, refusing to come back to the court. And when that didn’t work, pretended to go catatonic, refusing to answer questions,” Stauffer said.

He also read into the record Landaeta’s criminal record, which included a 2012 prior for having sexual intercourse with a 15-year-old victim who was unconscious at the time.

Landaeta’s defense maintained throughout that text messages the night before the murder from Castro, which included “u got a target on ur back now too, haha I already got a green light,” “tell yo mom to plan a r f— service,” made Landaeta feel his and his family’s life was in imminent danger.

For Castro’s grandmother Danielle Gannon, relief at the end of the trial and sentencing process is tampered by the potential for Landaeta to once again walk free.

“I’m glad it’s over, but he should never see the light of day again,” she said. “At least he won’t get out in my lifetime.”