A
35-year-old Houston man who held a woman captive in a house while
beating and torturing her until she gave him money and signed over the
title to her Mercedes-Benz
has been sentenced to 40 years in prison, Harris County District
Attorney Kim Ogg announced.
“Domestic
violence can take many different forms, which is why we take these
cases so seriously,” Ogg said. “This man preys on women and when they
don’t do what he wants,
the violence escalates. We are glad this woman survived her ordeal and
got justice.”
Andrew
R. Castillo, 35, was convicted by a Harris County jury and sentenced to
40 years in prison earlier this month after six days of trial for
brutally beating and
burning a 42-year-old woman he had been in a relationship with before
the attack. He was sent to prison Wednesday after a hearing in which the
woman made a victim impact statement.
“You
are a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” the woman told Castillo during her
statement in court. “I saw the devil in you on the day of the robbery.”
The
woman and Castillo had been in a dating relationship but stopped seeing
each other after Castillo was arrested on several other charges,
including human trafficking
and aggravated sexual assault of a child.
Castillo
is a musician with an Instagram following of 106,000 followers under
the name Sir Freakalot Fresh (@sirfr3akalotfresh). The victim had a
cellphone that Castillo
used, and she turned it over to law enforcement to help build the case
against him.
Castillo,
who was arrested for those crimes and then freed on bond, lured the
victim to the vacant house of a mutual friend. Once she was there,
Castillo ordered another
woman to repeatedly physically attack the victim over the course of 13
hours.
Castillo
threatened the victim with a handgun to force her to transfer money to
him. He later used that money to go shopping for new shoes.
While
she was trapped at the house, the victim was severely beaten and
tortured, including being burned with a torch lighter until she signed
over the title to her Mercedes-Benz
sedan.
Assistant
District Attorneys James McKenney and Tim Boman, who are assigned to
the DA’s human trafficking/exploitation division, prosecuted the case.
“He
acted as a parasite and a master manipulator,” McKenney said. “He is a
narcissist who finds people and uses them for the money. He’s truly
evil.”
Castillo
must serve at least half of his sentence before he is eligible for
parole. The remaining charges against him are pending.