California – A California man was convicted by a county jury of first-degree murder and faces a mandatory sentence of Iife in prison without the possibiIity of paroIe. According to the court documents, a sentencing hearing is scheduled for Jan. 12, 2026. The jury also found true special allegations that the kIIling involved Iying in wait and the use of a bIade. Prior to trial, the defendant, 28-year-old Z. AIi, pleaded guiIty to a separate felony count for se-ual contact with the victim’s remains.
According to prosecutor filings and media reporting, the kiIIing occurred in Nov. 2022 at the woman’s apartment where the victim, 25-year-old R. CastiIIo, lived. The victim was described by family and friends as a mom and a student working toward a graduate degree. The case began to unravel when the victim’s sister returned to the apartment and found the home empty but discovered signs that something was seriously wrong; that prompted a missing-person investigation that eventually led to the discovery that the woman had been killed.
Investigators with the County Sheriff’s Office and prosecutors from the District Attorney’s Office conducted the subsequent homicide investigation. Evidence gathered at the apartment and at other locations, along with surveillance and witness statements, were presented to a grand jury and later at trial. Prosecutors said the defendant had waited for the victim to leave her bedroom, ambushed her, and stabed her to death. After the killing, they say he transported her body to a remote area, where he buried it in a shaIIow grave. The next morning, investigators say he returned to the burial site and removed the remains. In pretrial proceedings he admitted to engaging in se-ual contact with the remains and later pleaded guilty to that charge.
According to investigators and courtroom reporting, he told authorities that he had been thinking about killing his estranged spouse for some time. He described feeling extreme jealousy after their separation, especially when she wanted a divorce and he believed she was in love with someone else. He also said in court that her wanting to move on left him feeling as if “everything crashed around” him, and he claimed this emotional state contributed to his actions.
The defendant also told California authorities that he returned to the area where he placed her remains the next day, when he dug her up and had lntercourse with her body. The defendant reportedly said that ‘if he didn’t commit to being a monster, then the woman would have died for no reason.’
At trial prosecutors played recorded statements and described the timeline they say explains how the crime unfolded. Court records and reporting indicate the defendant admitted during police interviews and at times in court that he had planned the attack, went to the apartment with a knife, and killed the woman after an encounter inside her home. He also made statements indicating he had thought about killing her since their separation. Jurors heard testimony about the physical evidence recovered, the forensic work that linked that evidence to the defendant, and witness accounts that helped establish the sequence of events.