The California man charged with beheading his ex-girlfriend with a sword last fall now claims to have acted in self-defense.
Jose Raphael Solano Landaeta, 33, who goes by Rafa Solano, was arrested on Sept. 8, 2022, for the murder of Karina Castro in San Carlos.
Witnesses told police that Castro, 27, had been decapitated with a samurai sword in the street not far from her home.
Solano — who shares a 1-year-old daughter with Castro — told ABC7’s Dan Noyes in an interview at the San Mateo County Jail on Thursday that he acted in self-defense.
“He says she emerged from the driver’s side of that Volkswagen with the knife in hand and kind of marched towards him with this knife,” Noyes, who was not allowed to bring in any recording devices or take notes, recounted after he left the jail.
“And he claimed that he swung that sword in self-defense.”
However, both prosecutors and the victim’s loved ones are dubious about Solano’s version of events.
“We haven’t had any reports of [Castro] being armed with a knife or anybody even seeing a knife, much less using a knife,” San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe told Noyes.
Castro’s father, Martin Castro, said the story doesn’t make sense.
“He claimed self-defense against a girl who was a quarter of his size,” he told Insider Wednesday.
“She was like 5 [feet] 5 or 5 [feet] 6 and maybe 120 [pounds] at the time. And this guy’s 6 [feet] 2, 6 [feet] 3 … 300-plus pounds.”
Meanwhile, Castro’s grandmother, Danielle Gannon, told ABC7 that Solano will likely rely on his mental illness as a defense.
“He is a diagnosed schizophrenic on meds. And he would use that as an excuse for his behavior,” she said.
Martin previously told Insider about his daughter’s contentious relationship with Solano.
He said he warned her to stay away from him but that his concern seemed to push the two together more.
“I had a bad feeling that he was going to do something, beat her up, whatever,” he explained to the outlet in September.
“I knew this guy had the potential to do something bad.”
Castro had taken out a restraining order against Solano in April 2022 but still continued to see him, the outlet reported.
In addition to her daughter with Solano, Castro left behind a 7-year-old daughter. Both children were reportedly taken by Child Protective Services after Castro died.
Meanwhile, her grieving father is still haunted by his daughter’s violent end, which was witnessed by several neighbors on the street.
The coroner’s office told him Castro was “about 90 to 95% decapitated.”
“Thankfully she died immediately,” he told Insider.
