Marine Recruiter Entered a Home and Stabbed 11-Year-Old Girl. Last Week, He Was Brought to His Knees in Court — Literally By Christine Pelisek

A Marine Corps recruiter who entered a Michigan home in the middle of the night and stabbed an 11-year-old girl was sentenced to up to 40 years in prison — and got on his knees in court as he begged for forgiveness.

Ricardo Perez Castillo, 25, pleaded no contest to assault with intent to murder, first-degree home invasion, and second-degree assault with intent to commit criminal sexual conduct in the June 15, 2024 attack, according to the Kent County Prosecutor’s office.

“This case is disturbing on so many levels,” Judge Christina Mims said at last week’s sentencing, WOOD Grand Rapids reported. “What you engaged in was — just what comes to mind is a real-life horror movie or a horror show where you’re stabbing this child. It’s just by the grace of God that she wasn’t killed.”

The victim spoke out via a letter read by a prosecutor during the sentencing.

“I remember being in a lot of pain on the floor,” she said, per WZZM-13. “I remember seeing all my blood everywhere. I remember feeling warm running down my body from the blood. I remember the smell of it. I could still feel the sting of the pain,” she said. “I remember being very scared and not understanding why this happened to me. I was terrified. I never would have guessed an innocent sleepover would have left me in the hospital with bad injuries.” 

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Castillo — a U.S. Marine Corps recruiter — made his way into a home in the 8000 block of Ella Terrace Court in Rockford through a side door in the early morning hours of June 15 before grabbing a knife from the kitchen and then taking off his pants and underwear.

He then made his way upstairs.

“He went upstairs and the first room he checked was the parents, they were sleeping, so he shut that door,” Kent County Chief Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Elizabeth Bartlett tells PEOPLE. “The second bedroom was locked. And then the third bedroom was the girls.”

Castillo allegedly walked into the bedroom where the homeowners daughter and her 11-year-old friend were sleeping, and stabbed the 11-year-old girl multiple times before he was stopped by the homeowner, who held him at gunpoint until police arrived.

“The victim was sleeping on an air mattress in the middle of the room, and the homeowner’s daughter was in a top bunk, and he gets on top of the mattress over the girl and he starts stabbing her, he thinks in her neck, but it’s her shoulder and then her arm,” says Bartlett. “She screamed and then her friend screamed, and then the dad woke up and went into the room.”

Bartlett says Castillo made a number of statements to police.

“He said in my head, that was gonna be the easy way to kill her by stabbing her in the neck,” she says. “To be honest, in that moment of the incident, I was going to try and kill the whole f…ing family. He said that the female would’ve been the weakest when asked about why he didn’t have pants or underwear on. Said, I think I was trying to sleep with the girl once she was dead.”

“It reads like an absolute nightmare,” says Bartlett. “You would never think that sending your 11-year-old girl to a gated community sleepover, it would ever end this way.”

At last week’s sentencing hearing, Castillo asked for forgiveness.

“I know I don’t deserve it,” he said, WZZM-13 reported. “I can’t imagine all the nightmares. I can’t imagine anything that you have felt for the past 15 months. But I’m sorry. I’m truly from the bottom of the heart. I was a lost person. I have found God and made me realize how much, how much I truly am lost.”

“I ask for forgiveness for all of you, for both families, for the whole community of Rockford, I ask for forgiveness. Sorry. I’m sorry,” he said as he kneeled in court, per WZZM-13.