ST. PAUL, MN – A man from Minnesota has received a prison sentence exceeding 33 years for fatally stabbing his wife during a Bible study gathering. Robert Castillo, 41, had pleaded guilty to second-degree murder back in March and expressed his remorse in court on Friday for the homicide of his wife, Corinna Woodhull, as reported by the St. Paul Pioneer Press. The couple had been married for roughly two years and were parents to five children, currently aged between 11 and 24.
During a Bible study hosted by Castillo’s sister at her St. Paul residence on the night of March 21, 2023, Castillo and Woodhull were seated together on a couch when he whispered something to her. After Woodhull indicated refusal by shaking her head, Castillo attacked her with a hunting knife, stabbing her multiple times. Eventually, family members managed to disarm him.
Castillo’s defense attorney, Mark Austin, informed the court that his client was under the influence of a drug-induced psychosis during the incident and did not recall what happened afterward.
Although Austin asked the court for a 25-year sentence on the grounds of Castillo’s remorse, the criminal was sentenced to 33.33 years in prison by Ramsey County District Judge Richard Kyle. In Minnesota, convicts generally serve two-thirds of their sentences in prison and spend the remainder on supervised release.
Castillo has a track record of eight previous felony convictions, which also include a second-degree assault for attacking another woman with a hammer back in 2014. At the time of the stabbing incident that resulted in Woodhull’s demise, Castillo was under intensive supervised release. There was an outstanding warrant for his arrest since he had failed to turn up for a court hearing for an assault-related incident in 2020.