The former person of interest in the Mark Ysasaga murder case, Christian Castro, 21, of Lubbock was in court Thursday morning to request a bond reduction. Castro was arrested on August 18 for retaliation a few days after he was accused of threatening to sodomize the wife of a Lubbock Police Officer.
Castro was also arrested twice this year for charges related to domestic violence. He had never been charged with anything related to the Ysasaga murder case, but that case is how he came to the public spotlight.
In court on Thursday, Castro’s mother asked that his $100,000 bond be reduced to $10,000. Castro’s attorney claimed $100,000 is abusive. However, the prosecution responded that Castro has a long arrest record.
A combination of public records and social media posts in 2015 demonstrated that Castro received a $10,000 Crime Line reward on the same day that Ysasaga’s body was recovered near 122nd Street and Highway 87.
Unrelated charges of aggravated robbery and aggravated kidnapping against Castro were dropped during the same time frame that he received the Crime Line money.
Castro was a room-mate with Jose Simental at the time that Ysasaga went missing in June of 2012. It was a missing-person case until early 2015 when Simental was charged with murder.
Police found evidence of blood under the floorboards of a home in the 3100 block of 27th Street where Simental and Castro lived.
Simental was scheduled to be in court later this month where he is expected to plead guilty to a charge of tampering with evidence related to the Ysasaga case. The murder charge, for now, is still pending.
As for the bond reduction, a judge said he would consider the evidence and make a decision later.
