A Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy pleaded no contest Thursday, Sept. 5 to vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence in connection with a high-speed, off-duty crash in South Gate that left a 12-year-old boy dead.
Ricardo Castro, now 30, is facing six years in state prison, with sentencing set for Sept. 25 at the downtown Los Angeles courthouse, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Castro will waive credit for the time he spent in county jail before being released, as well as the time he subsequently spent on house arrest or electronic monitoring, along with surrendering his Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) certificate, prosecutors said.
Castro was charged in February 2023 with one count each of murder, vehicular manslaughter and reckless driving causing great bodily injury in connection with the Nov. 3, 2021, crash that left Isaiah Suarez Rodriguez dead and injured the boy’s older sister, along with Castro and his passenger.
The remaining charges will be dismissed, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department could not be reached for immediate comment on Castro’s employment status.
At a news conference last year announcing the case, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón said an investigation showed that the off-duty deputy may have been traveling at speeds nearing 95 mph in a 25 mph school zone as he approached the busy intersection of Firestone Boulevard and San Juan Avenue.
The county’s top prosecutor noted that Castro received rigorous training through his work as a sheriff’s deputy and had significant personal and professional knowledge about the dangers of driving at an excessive speed.
“Mr. Castro’s recklessness ended the life of a boy with an entire future ahead of him and destroyed a family,” Gascón said. “This tragedy was preventable and should have never happened.”
Castro’s driving history revealed that he has been involved in “multiple collisions” and received several traffic tickets, including for speeding, the district attorney said.
“Mr. Castro was also involved as a passenger in a fatal traffic collision just three months prior to this fatal collision,” Gascón said.
South Gate Police Chief Darren Arakawa said at the February 2023 news conference that the boy was an “innocent child” who “didn’t stand a chance in that crash.”
The police chief said the off-duty deputy was driving his Ford pick-up truck at an “unsafe speed far beyond the speed limit” when he broadsided the side of the Mercedes-Benz in which the boy was riding as his sister was negotiating a left turn.
“Despite the valiant efforts of L.A. County firefighters and medical staff at Long Beach Memorial Hospital, Isaiah did not survive this horrific event,” the police chief said.
“I want to emphasize that this was a preventable incident that was clearly in the hands of Mr. Castro, and that cannot be understated. At the time of the collision, the street was heavily populated with motorists and pedestrians and occurred during a time period while school children were still present.”
In an emotional statement, the boy’s mother said, “First of all, I want to say that I love my son. I love you, Isaiah, and I miss you every single day.”
She said the boy — who had decided three days earlier to be baptized — was out that afternoon to get a ruler for a classmate whose ruler had been taken away while being bullied.
The victim’s mother, Betsabe Suarez, said that her family is “completely broken” by his loss, and said she was thankful that the crash was not brushed “under the rug.”
Castro was the second Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy to be charged in just under two years in connection with a deadly high-speed crash while off-duty.
Daniel Manuel Auner, now 26, was sentenced in June 2023 to 13 years in prison on charges stemming from a crash that killed one of his passengers, 23-year-old Ashley Wells, and seriously injured two other young women in his Dodge Charger.
Auner — who was initially charged with murder and was a former deputy by the time of his sentencing — pleaded no contest to one count each of voluntary manslaughter and gross vehicular manslaughter and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon
Auner was driving 116 mph when his Dodge Charger struck the center median, and the vehicle was traveling at least 71 mph when it struck a traffic pole at the corner of Crenshaw Boulevard and 190th Street, according to stipulations between the prosecution and the defense during a December 2021 hearing in which he was ordered to stand trial.
He was arrested by Torrance police in May 2021, one day before the criminal case was filed against him.
Auner remained in custody until he was released from jail on bond just over two weeks later and was given credit for 371 days already served given his time on house arrest. He waived credit for 365 additional days and was led out of the Torrance courtroom in handcuffs after his sentencing last year.
