A man with a violent past was charged Thursday with murder on accusations that he stabbed his wife in the heart during weekly Bible study at her sister's home in St. Paul.
Robert Castillo, 40, of St. Paul was charged with second-degree intentional murder in connection with the attack Tuesday on 41-year-old Corrina Woodhull.
Castillo was restrained by others at the residence in the Payne-Phalen neighborhood until police arrived and arrested him. Castillo appeared in court Thursday and remains jailed in lieu of $5 million bail. Court records do not list an attorney for him.
At the time of the attack, a warrant was out for Castillo's arrest stemming from when he failed to show up in court in connection with charges that he assaulted two corrections officers in 2020 while in Stillwater prison, where he was serving time for hitting a woman in the head with a hammer in 2014.
According to the criminal complaint:
Officers were dispatched about 9 p.m. to the 1000 block of E. Maryland Avenue and saw Woodhull bleeding from wounds to her torso, chest and arms. Police located a 6-inch hunting knife nearby.
As police took him to jail, Castillo asked, "Is she going to be OK?" the complaint quoted him as saying. Woodhull was pronounced dead at Regions Hospital 40 minutes after being stabbed. One of the stab wounds penetrated her left chest and heart, according to the Ramsey County Medical Examiner's Office.
Woodhull's sister said Castillo whispered something in his wife's ear as the couple sat on the couch. She shook her head no, and Castillo stabbed her about 20 times. The sister said she grabbed Castillo by the hair to pull him off Woodhull. Other family members stepped in, stopped the stabbing and held Castillo down.