Teen gets 10 years in Sultan gang killing

Published 11:05 pm Monday, January 11, 2010

EVERETT — A Snohomish County Superior Court judge on Monday urged parents to take action in their children’s lives.

Maybe then, fewer parents would end up sitting in his courtroom, left aching for their children.

The message is “not to wait until after the deed has been done to rally, but rather to be vigilant about who your kids are hanging around with,” Judge Ronald Castleberry said.

The judge on Monday sentenced Ivette Rico, 18, to a decade in prison for the gang-related beating and stabbing death of Antonio Marks, 17. Rico and four other young people are accused of killing Marks in Sultan on June 17. They all were charged with second-degree murder.

The slaying was captured on video. Marks is seen approaching a group of young people, words were exchanged and Marks was knocked to the ground. He was kicked repeatedly and stabbed several times.

Prosecutors believe the defendants were members of Brown Pride Soldiers, a Sultan-based gang, and Marks was part of a rival gang. Investigators learned that the gangs in May made it known that they were at war with each other.

In a letter she wrote to her attorney, Rico outlined how she fell in with the Brown Pride Soldiers.

Rico explained that she didn’t have many friends and people often teased her about having facial hair. Sultan brothers Marco and Adolfo Castillo didn’t tease her and made her felt like she belonged, Rico wrote in the letter. By the time she realized they were part of gang, it was too late, she wrote. She played along, too scared to get out.

“I’m sorry. I had no idea it would go so far,” she said Monday. “I’ve regret what I’ve done.”

Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Tobin Darrow said that Marco Castillo was the leader of the gang. Rico and the others took their lead from him. Marco Castillo, now 20, is accused of striking the first blow that knocked Marks to the ground.

The others stood at attention until he signaled them to join in the kicking, Darrow said. Marco Castillo later repeatedly stabbed Marks, killing him.

Marks’ mother, Angelina Reyes, on Monday called the defendants “animals” and said they deserved to spend life in prison.

“You take a life, you should serve a life sentence,” Reyes said.

The current system used to determine sentences needs to change to deter other young people from joining a gang and committing murder, she said.

“I don’t want to see this happen to anybody else,” she said.

Reyes criticized the prosecutor’s office for recommending a low-end prison sentence. The standard range for second-degree murder for someone without any prior felony convictions is 10 to 18 years.

“There was no fight for my son here,” Reyes told Castleberry.

Darrow said in making his decision he had to consider that at the time of the attack Ivette was a 17-year-old girl with no previous criminal history. She was under the influence of an older gang member and has taken responsibility for her actions, Darrow said.

Everett defense attorney Pete Mazzone said Rico’s parents are hardworking people whose other daughter, a couple of years older, is doing well in life. It’s not clear why Rico’s path was so different, he said.

Castleberry said parents need to help their children when they see them making bad decisions and not wait to get involved until their child is sitting before a judge, convicted of murder.

“The time for a parent to intervene is in the beginning,” Castleberry said.

Sentencing is scheduled this month for Jaime Santana, 16. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. Marco Castillo, 20, was sentenced last month to 15 years in prison. His brother Adolfo Castillo, 17, was ordered locked up for 10 years.

The murder trial for Ana Cary Ayala Bustos, 16, is expected to begin in March.

Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463, hefley@heraldnet.com.