It’s like something out of a Japanese horror movie. A man loses it and goes after someone with a samurai sword and, well, let’s just say he aims for the neck and succeeds. This unfortunately and gruesome true crime tale comes to us from San Mateo, California. The man is named Jose “Rafa” Landaeta and the victim was his ex, Karina Castro. This is the story of how and why it all went down.
By the time Sept. 8, 2022 rolled around, any chance of the formerly amorous couple rekindling their old relationship was long gone. There were too many things to prevent that. For one, Castro already had a restraining order against Landaeta, and still they were constantly bickering with each other on social media.
However, it wasn’t always like that. Castro and Landaeta used to live together in a house in San Carlos, near Magnolia Avenue and Laurel Street. A neighbor named Chapele Thorborne said it was a “nice neighborhood” and that the couple moved in together around 2019 and “seemed like they loved each other.”
The couple also shared a one-year-old child together, so things were obviously amicable at one time. At some point though, that took a sharp turn. A few days before the attack, the couple went exceptionally hard at each other hard through messaging.
During the trial, the IT team for the prosecutor’s office found dozens of Snapchat messages between the couple that were both brutal and threatening. Landaeta, by the way, had been previously diagnosed with schizophrenia and had a criminal record that included a 2012 conviction for having sex with an unconscious 15-year-old girl.
They argued about everything, including their shared child. Castro said she would take custody and not let Landaeta see her anymore.
“Izzy will have my last name. You will have no right to my kid,” he said.
Castro also threatened Landaeta by saying she would expose the rape conviction to all the world. Landaeta called her a “snitch lip” and said that she would “F**k around and find out.”
She texted him back with: “U wanna put a target on my back, ur homies gonna kno the real u,” which was another threat to expose Landaeta’s secret relationship with a man. Then she said, “Dude, go head try and take my a** out.”
Landaeta then sent a ninja emoji, followed by blood emojis. Those normally innocuous symbols would prove unfortunately prescient.
On Thursday Sept. 8, 2022 at around 11:40 a.m., in broad daylight, things came to their bloody conclusion. In court, witnesses described a man who was “much bigger” than a woman, arguing violently in the street outside of the house. Witness Renata Tebellion said she had had just finished brunch at a restaurant called Drake’s when she saw Landaeta and Castro screaming at eachother.
Landaeta then went to his car and pulled out a “long, shiny” sword and “stomp walked” toward Castro, focused and menacing. One of Tebellion’s companions, named Marie, started screaming “Stop! Stop! Stop!,” but Landaeta did not stop. He chased Castro in the street, slashing at her violently. In court, Tabellion said she was terrified and ran toward a house nearby, thinking he would come for her next.
Another resident, Daniel McCormick, said he was working directly across the street and he went to look because he heard “loud voices and screaming” outside. He saw Landaeta repeatedly hack at Castro’s neck and shoulders while she was already on the ground. She was wearing pajamas and black slippers.
“I knew the first blow was catastrophic, she was deceased, I could clearly see that. I knew I had just witnessed a murder,” he testified. Landaeta fled, and McCormick said he went to “guard” the body and shield onlookers from the grisly scene. At this point, it was 11:50 and witnesses had flagged down nearby officers.
People nearby also called 911 about “a woman’s head being cut off with a sword.” The San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office said that shortly after they arrived, Landaeta returned to the scene and surrendered. He was wearing blood stained jeans and sneakers. They found Castro’s blood all over the sword, and in Landaeta’s car as well.
In a news briefing shortly after the murder, Lt. Eamonn Allen said deputies were “beset” by the shocking nature of the scene.
This included deputy Albert Grant, who would later testify that when he got on the scene he found Tebellion and her friends sobbing together. Then he saw Castro’s body behind a black sedan.
“I noticed her head was decapitated and there was a pool of blood coming from her body,” Grant said to the jury in court.
At the scene, Child Protective Services took away the children, ages 1 and 7, and a dog and two cats.
Landaeta’s trial began on Nov. 7, 2023. He acted strangely in court, reportedly having stopped taking his medication, and even told a prison worker that he was going to be found mentally incompetent to stand trial. Landaeta’s attorney, Robert Cummings, argued that he acted in self defense, and in a state of confusion – not vengeance. He said when Castro accused him and threatened him, it put him into a fit of schizophrenic paranoia.
Cummings also claimed Landeata thought Castro could make good on her threats and was involved with gangs, and that she was brandishing a “black knife” during the attack. That knife, by the way, was never found at the scene. When Tebellion was asked whether Castro had a weapon, she said she only saw Castro holding a cell phone.
So why did Landaeta grab the sword? To “de-escalate” the situation, according to Cummings. Cummings also claimed Landaeta wasn’t competent to stand trial, but a court-appointed doctor found otherwise.
In court during cross-examination, Landaeta tried to refuse to answer questions by just staring into the distance, and eventually he stopped showing up to court at all, opting to remain in his jail cell. The trail lasted two weeks, and a jury quickly found him guilty.
Judge Lisa Novak sentenced him to 26 years to life for the brutal slaying.
“This is by far the most difficult trial that I’ve ever presided over, because of the true horror of the crime you committed in butchering Karina Castro,” Novak told him in court. Landaeta will be eligible for parole after serving 26 years. He is 34 years old.
Castro’s family members held pictures of her in court and hugged each other when the sentence was read. “It’s as over as it can be, but I’m going to leave here feeling the same as when I got here,” Castro’s father Martin said. Someone asked him if he felt any closure now that it was over.
“My closure will be the day I die.”
