JOPLIN, Mo. —
A man who was with Arnoldo Castillo the night he is accused of running over Travis J. Vene with a Chevrolet Tahoe testified Wednesday that he is uncertain if Castillo tried to swerve and miss Vene.
“That I can’t say,” Melvin Silvers testified at a preliminary hearing in Jasper County Circuit Court in Joplin. “I don’t know if he intentionally did it or didn’t.”
Castillo, 32, of Golden City, is charged with first-degree assault with a vehicle. He is accused of running over and critically injuring Vene, 27, of Joplin, on April 24 on Orchard Street in Carthage after an argument between the men at a bar in Avilla.
Associate Judge Richard Copeland found probable cause for Castillo to stand trial and set his initial appearance in a trial division of the court for July 19.
Silvers, who was a passenger in the Tahoe, was the lone witness called by Assistant Prosecutor Kimberly Fisher. Silvers told the court that what happened that night in Carthage continues to trouble him.
“I’ve tried to block it out of my mind,” he said. “It’s been pretty hard to deal with.”
Silvers said he and his wife accompanied Castillo and the defendant’s girlfriend to a bar in Avilla that night, and they all had been drinking. He said that as they were leaving the bar, an argument erupted outside over Castillo’s having grabbed the beer of another man’s girlfriend. He said the other man left in a minivan, and his group followed in Castillo’s Tahoe.
“We went on a long goose chase out through the country,” Silvers said.
He testified that Castillo seemed intent on following the other man and would not stop or slow down. He said they missed a turn the minivan took at one point but doubled back and finally caught up with the vehicle at Carthage. He said they did not spot the vehicle until they crested a hill.
The minivan had pulled over at the bottom of the hill and parked. Vene was standing in the middle of the road with a golf club raised above his head and appeared to be waiting for the oncoming Tahoe, Silvers said. Castillo proceeded down the hill and struck Vene with the Tahoe, he said.
On cross-examination by public defender Larry Maples, Silvers said it seemed to him that they were going too fast for Castillo to try to swerve and miss Vene. But he acknowledged that he could not say for certain whether Castillo tried to swerve.
“Mr. Castillo never said to you that he intended to run over somebody, did he?” Maples asked.
“No, sir,” Silvers replied.
Fisher asked on redirect if there had been time to stop once Castillo came over the hill and saw Vene standing in the roadway. Silvers said he did not know.
Carthage police reported that Vene was run over “at a high rate of speed” and dragged “at least a few feet.” He suffered a tear in his heart, and multiple fractures of his face and skull. Both his lungs were punctured, and there was concern that his spinal column might have been severed. Vene’s mother attended the hearing, but there was no testimony as to his progress in recuperating from his injuries.
Silvers told the court that after running over Vene, Castillo commented that he had “thrown his life away.” Maples asked him what he thought Castillo meant by that.
“I believe that Arnoldo meant that he had thrown his (own) life away,” Silvers said.
Bond request
Judge Richard Copeland denied a defense request Wednesday for a bond reduction for defendant Arnoldo Castillo, who is accused of running over and critically injuring Travis Vene, of Joplin. Castillo remains in custody at the Jasper County Jail on $75,000 bond.
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