A Minnesota man was sentenced to more than 33 years in prison for stabbing his wife to death during a Bible study session.

Robert Castillo, 41, who pleaded guilty in March to second-degree murder, apologized in court Friday for killing his wife, Corinna Woodhull, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported. They had been married about two years and have five children, who are now ages 11 to 24.

Castillo’s sister told police she hosted a weekly Bible study at her St. Paul home. On the night of March 21, 2023, the couple was sitting on a couch when Castillo whispered something in Woodhull’s ear. After she shook her head “no,” Castillo pulled out a hunting knife and stabbed her multiple times, until his own family disarmed him.

  • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
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    3 months ago

    Castillo had eight prior felony convictions, including second-degree assault for beating another woman with a hammer in 2014. At the time of the knife attack, Castillo was on intensive supervised release and had a warrant out for his arrest after he failed to show up at a court hearing on charges that he assaulted two correctional officers at the Stillwater state prison in 2020.

    I’m generally against the carceral system, but this guy is a threat to others and needs to rot.

  • Cocodapuf@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I wish people in this thread would pay less attention to the bible study and more attention to the violent crime repeat offender recently out of prison who clearly never got the psychiatric help he needed (cause that dude be cray cray).

    So yeah, a well intentioned woman thought she could fix him (with the help of the Lord) and decided to tie the knot with an unstable convinced felon. That’s… misguided, but a mistake that has been made a great many times before by a great many people. But truthfully, religion is barely a part of this story. Mostly this is a story about how many Americans aren’t encouraged to get the mental help they need, about one of the many ways in which our correctional system doesn’t work, and about how you really shouldn’t try to “fix” that bad boy that I’m sure has a heart of gold deep down. That last part is just so dangerous… please don’t do it.

  • ulkesh@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    But morals have to come from somewhere…right? Aren’t we told repeatedly and vehemently while figuratively bashing our collective brains in with it, that it’s the Bible?

    apologizes in court Friday for killing his wife

    As if an apology means a damn thing for this.

    • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
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      3 months ago

      You mean that book that’s about killing your enemies and making them your slaves? I’m pretty sure that’s not the place to learn how to behave.

  • ArtVandelay@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    So he already had a hunting knife on his person and was just waiting for an answer? That sounds more premeditated than simply second degree

      • girlfreddy@lemmy.caOP
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        3 months ago

        Not necessarily a hunting knife tho. That’s a pretty big knife to just shove in your pocket.

        • ifItWasUpToMe@lemmy.ca
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          3 months ago

          It’s pretty common for hunting knives to be foldable.

          The other alternative is he keeps it in his meat pocket. Much more room than pants pocket.

          • girlfreddy@lemmy.caOP
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            3 months ago

            Real hunting knives are full tang so they can take the stress of butchering game … so not foldable.

            • ifItWasUpToMe@lemmy.ca
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              3 months ago

              I’m no expert but if you google “hunting knives” you’ll get results with folding and non folding. It’s pretty easy to assume whoever wrote the article could call any of these knives in the search result a hunting knife. Why is this even a discussion?

  • voracitude@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Castle had a message afterward about domestic violence: “Women need to understand: Don’t accept this kind of behavior. It’s not OK.”

    Oh yes, women need to understand this isn’t okay. Fucking Jesus fucking wept, was this dickwipe trying to win Tone-Deaf Asshole Of The Century award?

    Edit: okay, I had a visceral reaction to the statement and wasn’t being fair to him in how I read it. I think he chose very poor words, but he’s obviously not going to be eloquent at a time like that.

    • mosiacmango@lemm.ee
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      3 months ago

      The context makes this statement different.

      The above is the victim’s mother, who begged her not to marry her murderer. She says this after stating she found divorce papers in her daughter car after her death, which led her to believe he killed her because she was planning on leaving him.

      The above is a statement trying to help women to avoid brutal men to begin with, not blaming them for being victims. It’s saying “if he does this kind of shit, don’t put up with it like my daughter did. Get out immediately.”

      • voracitude@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Fair point. I know I’m not alone in being entirely sick of hearing victims get blamed using words just like this, but you’re right that it’s extremely unlikely he meant it that way.

  • WoahWoah@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    They must have been studying Exodus 22:18.

    Edit: For those downvoting, that’s one of the like dozen reasons you can kill your wife or a woman generally in the Bible. (If she be a witch, ya see.) Maybe he whispered, “hey, shake your head if you’re a witch,” and then she did, so he followed the word of God.

    • Flocklesscrow@lemm.ee
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      3 months ago

      People are down voting you for citing actual religious nonsense. Like raccoons hoarding trash.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      My dad, who was only vaguely theistic but had a very good knowledge of the old (and new) testament used to go to Torah study and argue with the Rabbi whenever a point of contention came up.

      It resulted in good entertainment for my mother.

      • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        sounds like a fun time.

        I love a good debate. (like. not an angry debate, but a seriously good discussion.)

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          It would definitely not have been angry. They liked each other. The Rabbi came over for dinner all the time and stuff. It was weird, his religion was only vague deism and my mother is an atheist but they both got super involved in the temple in their old age, long after I had moved away. My father is no longer with us, but my mother still goes every week. She was even president of the temple for a while. But if you asked her, she would say, “I don’t believe in any of it.”

      • xkbx@startrek.website
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        3 months ago

        Just a quick safety PSA, bibles are only good for protecting against Judeo-Christian demons. I always recommend keeping an oonusa for yokai, a copy of Bhagavata Purana for preths, etc

        • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Naw. I’ve yet to meet a demon that can withstand the power of disbelief. that’s why I keep a copy of A Brief history of Time

    • Heikki@lemm.ee
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      3 months ago

      Besides not kink shaming for beastality and taking large loads, bukkake maybe(?), no.

  • DancingBear@midwest.social
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    3 months ago

    “A quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping on a rainy day; restraining her is like restraining the wind or grasping oil with the hand.” Proverbs 27:15-16

    • RamblingPanda@lemmynsfw.com
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      3 months ago

      I think what you should take from religious texts is “don’t be an asshole”. Everything else should build on that.

      And I don’t need religion to not be an asshole.

        • RamblingPanda@lemmynsfw.com
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          3 months ago

          Yeah, that on top. I think if you’re a bad person from the start, praying won’t change much. Being a cunt and then ask for forgiveness makes it worse to be honest.

    • darkmarx@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Historically, this is exactly how theological disputes were handled. See Crusades on Wikipedia for more information.

  • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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    3 months ago

    Another one to add to the long list for responding to “if they let God into the schools, there wouldn’t be any school shootings” bullshit.

  • TheTechnician27@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    The judge sentenced him to 33 1/3 years. In Minnesota, defendants typically serve two-thirds of their sentence in prison and the rest on supervised release.

    Castillo had eight prior felony convictions, including second-degree assault for beating another woman with a hammer in 2014. At the time of the knife attack, Castillo was on intensive supervised release and had a warrant out for his arrest after he failed to show up at a court hearing on charges that he assaulted two correctional officers at the Stillwater state prison in 2020.

    Fingers crossed this worthless piece of shit dies in prison, but it doesn’t seem likely if he’ll only serve about 22 years. I’m usually pretty heavy on rehabilitation, but this one seems too far-gone. Hopefully they can at least get him a ton of psychiatric help and counseling before he’s released on the slim chance he can change.

    • p3n@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I’m not sure how you interpret this story to represent this comment, but it appears to me that Robert’s sister likely invited him to her Bible study, not because he is a Christian but expressly because he is not. He was likely dragged there by his wife Corinna. This seems to be corraborated by the ABC story:

      Members of both Woodhull’s and Castillo’s family urged her not to marry him.

      “It’s a testament to the kind of person she was that she went through with it, thinking she could help him,” the prosecutor said. “I can’t believe that she knew her wedding vows would ultimately be her death sentence.”

      So Corinna, against the advice of everyone who knows Robert, marries into an abusive relationship thinking she can help him, and brings him to his sister’s Bible study, where he stabs her in a supposed drug induced rage, and you interpret his actions as an accurate representation of Christian love? Robert doesn’t represent even Wordly love in this story, let alone Christ like love.