Minnesota man who stabbed his wife during Bible study learns his fate

Corinna Woodhull “thought she could save him,” her mother said after the verdict

A Minnesota man with a history of domestic violence admitted to repeatedly stabbing his wife during Bible study Tuesday night, despite an outstanding warrant for his arrest.

Robert Castillo, 41, was sentenced to 33 ⅓ years behind bars on Friday, Sept. 13, after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in the death of his wife, Corinna Woodhull, in 2023, according to confession and sentencing documents obtained by PEOPLE.

The couple were sitting on Castillo's sister's couch holding hands that Tuesday evening, March 21, 2023, and “behaving normally,” according to the statement of suspicion from investigators who questioned the participants in the Bible study.

Castillo kissed her and whispered something in his wife's ear – although no witnesses heard what he said, according to charging documents obtained by PEOPLE.

After Woodhull shook her head at her husband's words, Castillo pulled out a 6-inch hunting knife he normally carried and stabbed her an estimated 20 times.

Castillo's sister grabbed Castillo by the hair and several family members attacked him, dragging him away from his wife, holding him down and disarming him.

“Don’t let me die,” Woodhull told a Bible study participant, according to the probable cause statement.

When officers arrived at the St. Paul, Minnesota, apartment, they found Woodhull “lying on the floor, bleeding from injuries to his torso, chest and arms,” ​​while several people were holding Castillo on the floor, according to the probable cause statement. His bloody hunting knife was on the armrest of the couch.

“Is she going to be okay?” Castillo asked a police officer on the way to the prison.

Woodhull was pronounced dead at the hospital at 9:39 p.m., according to her autopsy, which was cited in the charging documents and stated that she died from multiple sharp force trauma.

Castillo's sister told officers that Castillo had previously struck the mother of his child with a hammer in their home, smashing her head and breaking her arm, according to the probable cause affidavit. She told authorities that “the hammer incident was a long time ago and she thought Castillo was doing better.”

At the time of his wife's stabbing, he had a warrant out for his arrest from the Department of Corrections and a warrant for failure to appear at a pretrial hearing in an assault case. At the hearing, he was accused of inflicting bodily harm on a prison guard while serving a sentence for a previous conviction, according to charging documents.

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Castillo has eight previous convictions for multiple assault and weapons charges, according to the probable cause affidavit. It says he was convicted in one case in which he “repeatedly stabbed a former roommate in the back, head and neck with a knife” and also “hit the alleged mother of his child with a hammer, breaking her left ulna.”

According to charging documents, Castillo's brother told officers that Castillo and Woodhull separated due to marital problems.

In interviews with police immediately after the stabbing, Castillo said in his probable cause statement that he did not want to talk about the stabbing or the reason for the couple's separation. The separation, he said, occurred about a month earlier.

After his sentencing, Woodhull's mother, Linda Castle, described her daughter as a woman who wanted to help others, according to WKRC. Her family said she ignored their concerns about Castillo's violent criminal past.

“She thought she could save him,” Castle said, according to the outlet. “That their love would help them have a life together.”

After her daughter's murder, divorce papers were found in Woodhull's car, which Castle believes was a motive for her daughter's murder, according to WKRC.

“She knew it was time to go, and that's why she's dead,” her mother said.

If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or visit thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in more than 170 languages.

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