MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Onelio Castro-Arroyo who is awaiting trial for a 2019 murder tried his best to derail his hearing for another crime on Monday in Miami-Dade County court.
Before he was accused of killing his wife in front of his daughter about four years ago, Castro-Arroyo was arrested after the makeshift fuel tanker he used to siphon gas caused an explosion.
Castro-Arroyo, 56, claimed the hearing was a farce, the attorneys present were not representing him and interrupted with, “I don’t understand! I don’t understand!” The judge didn’t buy it.
“You’re a smart man. Doctors have evaluated you. You are competent!”
Miami-Dade court records show he was sentenced to five years in prison followed by probation, with credit for 445 days for time served, after his conviction for the 2014 crime.
Prosecutors said he was out on probation for that case when he stabbed Yanelis González 16 times inside a parked car in 2019 at the Country Club Villas Park, at 6869 NW 179th St., north of Miami Lakes.
González, who was born in Cuba’s Pinar del Rio province, was a 45-year-old mother of two. His 7-year-old daughter who lives with autism was in the car during the stabbing, police said.
Surveillance video shows Castro-Arroyo taking off his shirt — which was stained with Gonzalez’s blood — and dropping it with the knife into a dumpster, according to detectives.
Castro-Arroyo later surrendered with his hands up on May 22, 2019, at the Villas of Havana at 717 SW 11 Ave., in Miami’s East Little Havana, and told detectives the stabbing death was the end of a troubled relationship, according to police.
Castro Arroyo was finally quiet in court on Monday when González’s eldest daughter stood up and said in Spanish that she was never going to forgive him.
Castro Arroyo asked for her forgiveness. She denied it.
“You took my mother away from me,” she said.
Corrections officers were holding Castro-Arroyo at the Metrowest Detention Center on charges for the domestic violence case.
He was facing charges of second-degree murder and tampering with physical evidence in the domestic violence case.
The warrant under Onelio Castro for the 2014 case that closed in 2015 was for grand theft, petit theft, criminal mischief, and second-degree arson.
Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Ellen Sue Venzer was presiding over both cases.