SAN ANTONIO — Warning: The following details may be disturbing for some readers.
Nearly two years after a brutal killing, a San Antonio man was sentenced to 70 years in prison for murdering a 31-year-old woman.
Rafael Castillo was convicted of the crime on Tuesday that happened in November of 2020 at a home in south Bexar County.
Public works crews discovered Nicole Perry's body off WW White Road in November of 2020. She had been wrapped in trash bags and left on the side of the road.
According to the arrest affidavit, it was a witness that came forward the following day that led investigators to a home off West Harlan. Ten people from that house were detained. Some of them told deputies the gruesome details of what happened to Perry.
She had been staying at the house with her fiancé. The affidavit said that Castillo was often at the house, and that night, became enraged at Perry. He reportedly bound her with duct tape. Witnesses told investigators that she was still alive when Castillo chopped off her hands with a machete.
Those witnesses said Castillo then hit Perry over the head with an axe and then forced her fiancé at gunpoint to clean up the scene and get rid of her body.
Castillo was later arrested in Brownsville a few weeks after the murder.
According to online court records, Castillo was arrested in 2019 for kidnapping, but that case was dismissed due to insufficient evidence.
Shortly after the sentence was handed down, Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales said in a statement, “This jury’s verdict recognizes the shocking violence that ended Nicole Perry’s life. It shows that regardless of the circumstances, people who commit violent crime will be held accountable.”
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