Carlos Amarillo guilty of ‘Hammering’ girlfriend, her daughter to for being ‘witches’ – faces life in prison
Hammer-wielding killer, Carlos Amarillo, found guilty in fatal beating girlfriend, her daughter for being ‘witches’
Bible waving Amarillo used a claw hammer to murder Estrella Castaneda, 56, and her daughter, Lina, 25, in their Queens, NY home on Jan. 29, 2014
Amarillo, 48, told police he killed the two women because ‘the mother and daughter had cast a voodoo hex on him’
Faces life in prison
Sentencing is set for July 6
Carlos Amarillo faces life in prison when he is sentenced on July 6 for the double homicde
The deranged Queens man was convicted Wednesday of killing the two women because he thought they were witches.
After a nearly two-week trial, a jury on found Amarillo, 48, guilty of two counts of first-degree murder for the horrific January 2014 ‘execution-by-claw-hammer’ of Estrella Castaneda, 56, and her daughter, Lina, 25, at their East Elmhurst home in Queens, NY.
After the gruesome act, Amarillo called 911 and told the operator: “Two females are dead, they were assassinated, hurry they are dead. I killed them because they are witches.
“I want the police to kill me. I killed them with a hammer,” prosecutors said during the trial.
When police showed up at the home shortly after midnight they found Amarillo, carrying a Bible, screaming: “I killed them! I killed them!”
Estrella Castaneda bludgeoned to death by crazed boyfriend who thought she was bewitching him
Lina Castaneda, was killed along with her mother by the the mother’s boyfriend because he suspected they put a hex on him
Responding officers were not prepared for the gory scene they met inside the home. It was a bloodbath.
Estrella Castaneda was face-up on a bed in a front bedroom, with a pillow over her face, blood seeped into the linen and splattered on the wall behind her. Investigators found the rubber grip of a hammer next to her body.
Cops found Lina Castaneda in a rear bedroom, face-down in her bed, next to a bloody hammer.
Her young daughter, was unharmed, just feet away.
Bodies of the Castaneda mother and daughter bludgeoned to death by Amarillo being removed from the home in Queens, NY Jan 30, 2014
“Thankfully, the little girl, just seven years old at the time, was not harmed during these deadly attacks,” said Queens District Attorney Richard Brown. “She will, however, be forever impacted by the absence of both her mother and grandmother in her life.”
Amarillo told cops he thought the victims were casting voodoo hexes on him, prosecutors said.
He mounted an insanity defense at trial.
Confirming the verdict, Amarillo’s attorney Anthony Battisti said:“The jury spoke” . “They heard the evidence a deranged man armed with a claw hammer who bashed his girlfriend and her 25-year-old daughter to death because ‘the mother and daughter had cast a voodoo hex on him’.
As he allegedly told officers at the scene, they were witches who cast a spell on him, police said.
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