Fatal stabbing in Sultan brings attention to gangs

SULTAN — Even before Wednesday’s beating and stabbing death of a Marysville teen in downtown Sultan, a countywide team had planned to meet with people in Monroe to talk about gangs in the Skykomish Valley.

The Gang Community Response Team was invited by leaders in the Hispanic community, who want to provide parents with more information and resources to keep their kids out of gangs. Similar meetings have been held in Everett and Lake Stevens in recent months.

“There’s been a tremendous desire by the Hispanic community to have information. They want to know where they can go for help,” Everett police detective Kevin Fairchild said. “They are mobilizing to find answers and reach out. We are not pointing the finger or blaming anyone. This is not a Hispanic community problem — this is a community problem.”

Five Sultan teens are accused of taking part in the brutal beating and stabbing of Antonio Marks, 17. Marks died of blows to his head and stab wounds, including one that sliced an artery, according to court documents. He was left to die in the middle of downtown Sultan, a few feet from City Hall.

The defendants are all members of the Sultan-based gang called Brown Pride Soldiers, or BPS, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Kathy Jo Blake wrote in charging documents.

Marks was believed to be part of a rival gang. He also was dating the sister of two of the defendants.

Blake on Friday charged the Sultan teens with second-degree murder. The accused are Marco Castillo, 19; his brother, Adolfo Castillo, 16; Jaime Michel, 16; Ana Cary Ayala Bustos, 16; and Ivette Rico, 17.

All the teens have been charged as adults. If convicted, they face up to 18 years in prison.

Investigators say Marks and Marco Castillo got into some sort of dispute Tuesday night when the younger boy came to the Castillos’ house in Sultan. Marks left but later encountered Marco Castillo and the other defendants as they were walking back from a store where they had purchased cigars, according to court documents.

The teens got into another confrontation. A video surveillance camera caught the killing on tape, Blake wrote.

Marks was knocked to the ground by Marco Castillo, who pummeled the younger boy, according to the charging papers. Marco Castillo backed away and the other four teenagers attacked Marks, repeatedly kicking him, Blake wrote.

The video then shows Marco Castillo stab Marks several times in the torso while the other teens continued to kick the motionless Marks in the head, court papers read. Marks never fought back.

Marco Castillo allegedly told investigators he didn’t intend to kill Marks but wanted to hurt him enough so that he couldn’t retaliate.

The homicide has Sultan city officials reaching out to the community to talk about what more can be done to prevent such violence. They’ve scheduled a town meeting for Tuesday. They also are asking kids around Sultan to be home by 10 p.m. during the next few weeks.

Before the arrests, about 10 young people in Sultan were identified as members of BPS, according to police. The gang’s criminal activity had increased during the last few months, said Fairchild, who is part of the Gang Community Response Team.

The team formed last year, pulling together law enforcement, youth advocates, social service providers, school officials and others to address the growing number of young people joining gangs in Snohomish County.

“It’s truly a joint effort. Law enforcement can’t arrest their way out of the situation,” said Ann Plunkett, the Snohomish County sheriff’s director of community partnerships.

The group created a tip line for people to report gang activity, as well as for them to request help at keeping kids out of gangs, she said. The team also hosts educational meetings about gang activity. Three of those meetings were specifically requested by leaders in the Hispanic community.

“In Snohomish County every major racial group is represented in gangs,” Fairchild said. “But over 60 percent of the gang sets are traditional Hispanic gangs, including the Surenos, Nortenos and MS-13.”

Right now, eight of every 10 gang-related incidents in the county traces back to people involved in Hispanic gangs, he said.

Much of the violence is directed at opposing gang members, Fairchild said. Many of those conflicts arise out of petty disputes, such as crossing out another gang’s graffiti.

Gang violence, particularly when Hispanic kids are involved, often is rooted in feelings of displacement and fear that they won’t be protected, said Uriel Iniguez, director of the state Commission on Hispanic Affairs. Iniguez was a state corrections officer for 14 years.

Many Hispanic youths who get involved with gangs do so after experiencing harassment or racism and feel that no one else will protect them, Iniguez said. That means the problem is communitywide, he said.

“It comes down to basic community action,” Iniguez said. “Everyone needs to be involved, from schools, churches and neighborhoods. It’s not acceptable to say it’s not everyone’s problem.”

Reporters Krista Kapralos and Debra Smith contributed to this report.

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

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