Raul Castro Teen Killer Murders 4 Year Old Boy

Raul Castro was fourteen years old when he murdered a four year old boy. According to court documents Raul Castro would lure a four year old boy into his home and would sexually assault him. When the boy started to cry Raul would put the child into a bathtub where he would drown the child. Castro would put the body of the child into the dryer where he would be discovered. This teen killer would be convicted and sentenced to life in prison with a chance of parole after thirty three years

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A Mendota teenager was sentenced Friday morning for the murder of his four-year-old neighbor.

15-year-old Raul Castro will spend 33 years in the Department of Corrections before he is eligible for parole.

Castro must also register as a sex offender for life.

In April, a Fresno County judge found him guilty of sexually assaulting and killing Alex Mercado in October 2009.

Alex’s body was found stuffed in a clothes dryer in Castro’s home.

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A state appeals court has reduced the prison sentence of a Central California teenager convicted of molesting and drowning his 4-year-old neighbor and then hiding the boy’s body in a clothes dryer.

The 5th District Court of Appeal ruled that the trial judge erred in adding eight years to Raul Castro’s sentence for his sex-crime convictions. The Mendota teen was convicted of forcible sodomy on a child and a forcible lewd act on a child in addition to first-degree murder in the 2009 slaying of Alex Mercado.

Authorities say Castro, then 14, drowned the preschooler in a bathtub after Mercado said he would tell his mother about the sexual assault.

The Fresno Bee reports that the appeals court reduced Castro’s sentence last week from 33 years- to-life to 25 years-to-life in prison

https://bakersfieldnow.com/news/local/central-valley-teens-sentence-reduced-in-dryer-killing

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f you’d asked the families of Alex Mercado and Raul Castro two years ago, where they thought they’d be today, they’d probably never say in the Fresno County Courthouse at their sons’ murder trial.

“It’s had, but I’m trying not to cry, just try to hang in there the best that I can,” Elsa Castro, Raul Castro’s mom, said.

Elsa is still in shock.

“My son is a really good person. He’s never been into trouble. I’m going through a lot, but I’m here, hanging in there,” she said.

But on a taped interview with investigators, Castro revealed the horrific details of exactly what happened October 30th, 2009.

{}”Did you have an urge to kill him? Or did you have an urge to do something sexual, or both?” An investigator asked. “The urge was just to kill.” Raul said.

Castro told detectives, he’d been having “urges” to kill for a couple of years.

And on that day in October, he saw an opportunity when Alex Mercado was playing outside.

That’s when he lured him into his house, then into the bathroom, where he sexually assaulted the four-year-old boy.

He told detectives he’d panicked when Alex started crying.

So he laid on top of him in the bathtub to drown him.

“Do you feel sorry for what you did?” The investigator asked on the tape. “I do feel sorry for what I’ve done. I should’ve taken his place instead of him dying.” Castro responded.

Raul told police he stuffed Alex’s body in the clothes-dryer, and then went to bed, hoping it would all go away.

The next day, police found him during a search of the neighborhood.

“I walked into the kitchen, I opened up the pantry, Elsa knelt down and opened the dryer,” Deputy Matt Hamilton, Fresno County Sheriff’s Office, said. “She started screaming uncontrollably.”

Castro is facing charges of first-degree murder, molestation and kidnapping.

He is being charged as an adult.

And if convicted, faces life in prison with the possibility of parole after 47 years.

Raul Castro waived his right to a jury trial earlier this month.

So the case is being heard by Fresno County Superior Court judge Jonathan Conklin.

The trial is expected to take three to five days.

https://kmph.com/archive/mendota-teen-says-he-had-urges-to-kill-before-4-year-olds-murder