07 January 2014 :

A Riverside jury recommended that Robert Gonzales Castro, 34, Hispanic, should be sentenced to death for the killing and robbery of a man in 2008. The same jury found Castro guilty last month in the murder of Juan Genaro Gonzalez, who was fatally shot in front of a home May 18, 2008. Another man, Steven Ray Eynon, who was also charged in the murder of Gonzalez, previously pleaded guilty to Gonzalez’s murder and was sentenced to 25 years to life. Prosecutors said Castro confronted Gonzalez when he began arguing over a stolen laptop computer. Eynon, who agreed to cooperate with police as part of his guilty plea, told authorities that Castro had shot Gonzales at close range with a 9mm in the chest. In addition to the murder in commission of a robbery, the jury also found Castro guilty of a 2nd special circumstance of committing a previous murder. Those special circumstances made him eligible for the death penalty. Prior to his trial, Castro and Eynon pleaded guilty to another murder, which occurred 3 days after Gonzalez's death. San Bernardino County prosecutors said the two men killed Ronald Sexson, 58, as he was taking his trash out May 21 and startled Castro and Eynon as they were climbing out his window during a burglary. Castro could formally receive the death penalty when he is scheduled to be sentenced February 21.