Death of the Snow-Cone Man

Norberto Castro made a good life here, but a witch spelled his doom

A A A Comments (1) By Christine Pelisek Wednesday, Jan 31 2007

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Godinez claims she became a target herself when Mendez placed a shoestring around her neck and threatened her with a gun. “[Mendez] put it around my neck,” she said. “She was just like, ‘Drive or else you and him are going to die.’ I was paranoid. I was scared. I was crying. I couldn’t even drive. The car was going side to side.”

Near Dodger Stadium, Godinez said she was ordered to drive along surface streets until they arrived at Allesandro Street, where she pulled in behind a white truck. She refused to help with the semiconscious Castro, and ran away to hide. Cowering in nearby bushes, she saw Castro struggling. “He was saying, ‘No, no,’ but he — he wanted to say something else like ‘stop,’ you know, like, ‘Don’t hit me,’?” she said.

Happier times: Norberto Castro loved to cook Mexican food for his roommates — and work for himself

Love interest Maria Gomez (left) and sidekick Carla Mendez

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As he struggled, one of the women screamed — perhaps the noise that woke up the homeowner on Allesandro Street.

“Oh, I thought he was dead. He’s still alive,” testified Godinez. But Gomez and Mendez found two large rocks and “just threw it on his head,” then fled without the car, she said. Godinez, paralyzed with fear, hid for an hour then called her mother.

With fingerprint evidence placing Gomez inside the bloodied Jetta, she was arrested during a six-hour stakeout on a South L.A. street two days after Godinez told police her harrowing story. Mendez eluded the law for five more months, and was picked up by the LAPD’s fugitive task force on February 23, 2006, visiting a friend in South L.A. The trial of the two women is set for some time this month.

CASTRO’S L.A. ROOMMATE and friend during better days in Mexico, Torres was shocked to hear what had happened to the snow-cone man. As she sat on a blue couch in the apartment she once shared with Castro, she remembered him as a good soul.

She dismissed Gomez’s bizarre claim that Castro tried to put a spell on her, or somehow caused her to be in a car accident. She said Castro didn’t involve himself in superstitious beliefs, and never went to a botanica.

He was just a man trying to carve out a life in L.A. with his son — and succeeding.

“He was a nice person,” said Torres as she shook her head sadly. “I miss him.”

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