A Colorado judge ripped a defendant this week as “an insignificant little man with a big gun” as he sentenced him to life without parole for killing three members of his ex-girlfriend’s family and another man in 2022.
“I’ve had many people stand before me as defendants and say, ‘I’m not a bad person, I just did the wrong thing’ and I’ve sometimes agreed with them,” District Judge David Karpel told Joseph Castorena, according to KMGH. “But Mr. Castorena, you are the biggest exception to the rule.”
“Your actions were those of an insignificant, little man with a big gun who had to control the people in his life that he supposedly loved, and did so with such abject violence,” Karpel said. “This insignificance of yours will dissipate in time into ether where you will become forgotten.”
Castorena was accused of breaking into his ex-girlfriend’s Aurora home early in the morning of October 30, 2022 — despite a protection order barring him from going near the home — and lying in wait until the family returned from a party, as CrimeOnline reported. When they did, he killed his ex-girlfriend’s twin sister, Maria Anita Serrano, her husband Kenneth Luque, Serrano’s father Jesus Serrano, and Rudolfo Perez, who rented an RV in the backyard and came into the house when he heard the gunfire.
He reportedly told his ex, Jessica Serrano, that he was going to kill her as well, but he ran out of bullets.
After the shooting, he fled to Mexico, where he was found and arrested in December, KMGH reported. He was extradited to Colorado the following March.
Castorena was put on trial earlier this year and found guilty on four counts of first degree murder and the attempted murder of his Jessica Serrano. Karpel sentenced him to 24 years on the attempted murder charge, which will run concurrently with the life sentence.
Before the sentencing on Tuesday, prosecutors told the court that Castorena never showed the slightest bit of remorse for the murders and in fact blamed Jessica Serrano “until the very end” for what he did.
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[Featured image: Joseph Castorena/Aurora Police Department]
