‘My life is over,’ Dallas teen yelled after being accused in Fort Worth capital murder
Surveillance videos captured a Dallas teen with a Fort Worth man who was later shot to death in November, and then the same teen was seen hours later abandoning the victim’s car in Dallas, according to a warrant.
That teen was later identified as Elijah Bankhead, who yelled, “My life is over,” after Fort Worth detectives ended a December interview with the suspect, according to an arrest warrant.
Bankhead, 18, was arrested last week and charged with capital murder Friday in the shooting death of 36-year-old Raymond Castillo.
Bankhead admitted to detectives he was the last person to be with Castillo before he was found shot to death on Nov. 22, 2019, according to the warrant obtained by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
The warrant did not mention a motive for the shooting.
Bankhead and Castillo had known each other since 2018, and the teen told detectives Castillo provided rides for him sometimes.
Castillo was a Navy veteran.
“It doesn’t surprise me because was always mentoring someone or helping them,” Joan Castillo, Castillo’s mother, told KDFW-TV. “So I’m assuming that’s the kind of relationship he had with Elijah.”
The warrant written by Detective M.E. Anderson gave this brief account of the investigation:
Castillo picked up Bankhead in Dallas on Nov. 20, and the two headed back to the victim’s Fort Worth apartment.
On the way, Castillo and Bankhead stopped at a store and the two went inside, but Castillo locked his keys in the car. The video captured the two leaving the store at about 11:19 on Nov. 20 after the vehicle was opened by a locksmith.
Castillo’s vehicle arrived at his apartment at 11:40, but then surveillance video showed the vehicle leaving the apartment complex at 4:15 a.m. on Nov. 21. The vehicle was found abandoned at 4:49 a.m. in Dallas.
Bankhead told detectives Castillo told him to leave his apartment on the morning of Nov. 21, and he took an Uber back to Dallas.
Castillo missed a shift at his job as a security guard on Nov. 21 and an appointment.
Friends went to search for him on the morning of Nov. 22 and found him dead on his couch. His apartment door in the 4000 block of Pin Oak Terrace was found unlocked. The complex is the Post Oak Apartments.
Castillo died from gunshot wounds to his head and back, according to officials with the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office. His death was ruled a homicide.
Days after the deadly shooting, police released photographs of a man who they said was with Castillo before he was slain.
The surveillance images police released appeared to show the man inside a store and that man was later identified as Elijah Bankhead.
Bankhead was in the Tarrant County Jail on Monday in lieu of $250,000 bail.
