The New York Supreme Court on Thursday overturned the 2019 conviction of Jairo Castillo, a Bronx man who fatally shot an assailant who confronted him with a razor blade over a drug dispute.
The Court of Appeals said in its ruling that the court should have allowed Castillo to claim he acted in self-defense during the 2016 encounter because the attacker, Julio Lebron, “held a razor blade to himself.” [Castillo’s] face, threatening to cut him from ear to ear.”
Thursday’s decision concludes years of heated debate in New York over violent crime and the use of self-defense. Notably, in 2022 the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a century-old New York gun law that limited concealed carry permits to people with a “special need,” such as carrying cash for a business.
In 2022, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged a Harlem bodega worker, Jose Alba, with first-degree murder for fatally stabbing a customer who began attacking him. News of the allegations caused a political uproar, with New York City Mayor Eric Adams noting, “There’s a line to be drawn when you’re a primary aggressor.”
Although Bragg eventually dropped the charges against Alba, the incident nevertheless caused a media and political firestorm. Former President Donald Trump visited the bodega earlier this year and told employees that “you should have a gun.”
“If you had a gun you would never get robbed, that would be the end of it,” he said.
But weaker claims of self-defense have also sparked outrage. In 2023, an out-of-state man shot at an SUV that accidentally pulled into his driveway. A passenger in the vehicle, Kaylin Gillis, died as a result of the shooting. The judge overseeing that case noted, “I think it’s important for people to know that it’s not okay to shoot and kill people driving through your driveway.”
What happened to Jairo Castillo
The mid-level appeals court that heard Castillo’s case disagreed with his claims of self-defense, noting that Lebron had turned to leave a saloon where the dispute took place when Castillo began firing his gun . That court said there was “no reasonable view of the evidence” to suggest Castillo was justified in “firing four additional shots into the victim’s back” after he turned around, even if the initial gunshots were justified.
But the highest court, the Court of Appeal, disagreed, clarifying that defensive, deadly force can be used against an aggressor in some circumstances even if it begins to turn away. The court said Thursday that even though Lebron began to leave, “it would not be unreasonable for the defendant to believe [he] continued to pose a threat.”
The court vacated Castillo’s conviction for second-degree murder and related criminal possession of a weapon.
Asher Stockler is a reporter for the USA Today Network New York. You can email him at astockler@lohud.com. Reach him safely: asher.stockler@protonmail.com.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: New York Supreme Court overturns murder conviction over self-defense claim
