Carlos Castillo (suspect), Rachel Gilliam (victim)
What a remarkable, remarkable story from the Chicago Tribune today. It seems as if Trib reporters tracked a man wanted in a fatal Halloween 2009 hit-and-run down to Mexico, knocked at his front gate and he spilled his guts.
Not that he was playing hard to get or anything; he kept in touch with friends in Chicago via Facebook and whatnot.
But this; this, this, THIS is journalism at its finest.
If you have time, please read it.
SAN FRANCISCO DE LOS ROMO, MEXICO— It was just after 8 a.m. when international fugitive Carlos Castillo opened the front door of his gated brick home.
“I’ll talk to you guys. I really want to get it off my chest,” Castillo said.
The 25-year-old is wanted in Chicago on charges stemming from a 2009 hit-and-run accident that killed a DePaul University student and his flight across the border to avoid prosecution.
U.S. authorities say he cannot be brought back to Chicago for trial because he is charged with a felony — leaving the scene of a fatal accident — that is not extraditable under the United States’ treaty with Mexico.
Yet in two interviews in recent days, Castillo said he has spent more than two years engulfed in shame and constant fear of being caught. Those interviews, he said, have helped him muster the courage to do what he knows is right: Return to Chicago to face justice. He said he plans to make arrangements in the next few weeks.
“I can’t be here no more. I have to deal with this. There’s no other way. You cannot run forever. Nobody can run forever,” Castillo said. “There’s never not one day where I don’t wake up thinking about this. … Every single day, it just pops up in my head all the time. I can’t eat right, I can’t sleep right. It’s just, it’s horrible.”
It remains to be seen whether Castillo will actually live up to his statements and return to the U.S. …
Great reporting. And good on Castillo for coming clean, and on video, no less. Hope he doesn’t have a change of heart and run again.
(H/T Frank Sennett for pointing it out on Twitter)
