Christian Castro, 20, was arrested early Tuesday morning by Lubbock Police for assault/domestic violence, interference with an emergency call, possession of a controlled substance, and speeding.
Castro was named publicly by Lubbock Police in June of 2015 as a “person of interest” in the murder of Mark Ysasaga. Castro was never charged in the Ysasaga case. His former roommate, Jose Angel Simental, 21, was charged with murder in May of 2015.
Ysasaga was 15 when he disappeared in 2012. He was listed as a missing person until Simental was charged with murder.
As for Castro’s most recent trip to jail, police were called late Monday night to the 2500 block of 52nd Street for a shooting. Police were told that someone fired a gun from an SUV at a man and instead hit a vehicle owned by someone else.
The intended victim had no idea who shot at him according to one of the police reports.
Then, a few minutes after midnight on Tuesday, police were called to the 2900 block of 3rd Place. Police were told that Castro argued with a woman who is both the mother of his child and the owner of the SUV.
The argument was in reference to Castro and a friend of his using her SUV.
“They had been involved in a shooting and had been running from police,” the second of two police reports said.
“[Castro] became angry with [the victim] and struck her in her face with his fist,” a police report said. “[Castro] then threw her onto the ground and got on top of her.”
“[Castro] delivered an unknown number of strikes to [the victim’s] head and face area. [Castro] then placed both of his hands around [the victim’s] neck and applied pressure.”
Eventually he let her go, according to the police report. Castro took her cell phone to keep her from calling 9-1-1, but she was still able to call using a neighbor’s phone.
Police found Castro and his friend in the SUV in the 2900 block of 1st Place and arrested them both.
Castro was arrested for unrelated charges in June of 2015 at about the same time he was named as a person of interest in the Ysasaga murder case. The 2015 charges for robbery and kidnapping against Castro were dropped when police received a Crime Line tip leading officers to Ysasaga’s body near 120th Street and Highway 87.
Sources said – and a combination of social media statements and public records seemed to corroborate – that Castro collected a $10,000 Crime Line reward.
A few weeks later, public records showed that Lubbock Police Department illegally deleted a police report concerning Castro rather than turn it over to EverythingLubbock.com in an open records request.
Additionally, police eventually admitted that a news release concerning Castro’s arrest in June was not true.
Police Chief Roger Ellis was demoted in August of 2015 and chose to retire rather than serve as a police captain. Assistant Chief James Shavers was reassigned as a captain – although technically the reassignment was not punishment for his handling of the Ysasaga case.
Greg Stevens later replaced Ellis as chief.
