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Home > Blogs > Dayton Courts: Legal and crime news > Archives > 2009 > July > 21 > Entry
Former Peoria pitcher’s felonious assault trial starts
DAYTON —Â The man who was struck by former Peoria Chiefs baseball pitcher Julio Castillo’s throw into the stands at Fifth Third Field suffered a concussion and had marks from the ball’s stitching in his scalp, an assistant Montgomery County prosecutor said Tuesday, July 21.
“This defendant, Julio Castillo, made a decision and he acted on that decision,” assistant county prosecutor Jon Marshall told Common Pleas Judge Connie Price. “He decided that he was going to hurt someone, anyone.”
Marshall said Castillo was acting with anger when he threw the ball that hit Chris McCarthy, of Middletown. His intent was to hurt a member of the Dayton Dragons, but he missed the dugout, Marshall said.
The ball hit McCarthy, who was sitting with his wife, son and nephew, “square in the temple, the must vulnerable part of the head,” Marshall said.
But defense attorney Dennis Lieberman told Price that Castillo did not intend to hurt anyone. As Dragons players, reacting to a brawl on the field, began to run out from the dugout, Castillo threw the ball toward netting in front of the dugout to keep them from joining the fight.
The reason, Lieberman said, is that Castillo, who is from the Dominican Republic, only speaks Spanish. Castillo sat quietly, listening to his interpreter during his attorney’s statement.
Castillo threw to ball to communicate to the Dragons that they should stay back, since he could not communicate verbally, but the ball sailed over the dugout and hit the spectator, Lieberman said.
“For which he is truly sorry,” Lieberman said. “He wasn’t throwing it at an individual.”
Lieberman also denied that Castillo was angry, but instead was frustrated with his own performance in the game, during which he beaned two batters and broke the leg of his team’s second baseman during a botched play.
“Julio was perhaps frustrated, but he wasn’t angry with the Dragons,” Lieberman said.
Castillo, 22, is charged with two counts of felonious assault. The charges are second-degree felonies, each punishable by up to eight years in prison and a $15,000 fine. The indictments list “a baseball” as the weapon.
He has waived his right to a jury trial, meaning that Price will decide whether prosecutors have proven him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, which is why the attorneys directed their opening statements to her.
The brawl started when Chiefs interim manager Carmelo Martinez left his dugout to argue with Dragons manager Donnie Scott. When Martinez pushed Scott, the benches emptied.
Video of the fight showed Castillo throwing a baseball toward the Dragons’ dugout.
Martinez and Scott along with eight Dragons and seven Chiefs players were suspended by the Midwest League. Castillo was suspended for 60 games and fined $1,000. He already had been removed from Peoria’s roster.
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Comments
By flipper
July 21, 2009 12:27 PM | Link to this
When you throw a baseball at anyone other than at the catcher’s mit then you are intending harm. Period. Ban him from baseball, sue the Peoria Team and send his sorry butt back to Dominican Republic.By Whatever
July 21, 2009 12:57 PM | Link to this
I agree. He threw the ball wanting to hurt a Dragon’s player, but instead, hit one of the fans. I understand the fans have to be on their guard from fly balls and attend a game knowing that they could be injured, but a fly ball is way different then a pitcher throwing a 80 mile an hour or more pitch. I hope he is found guilty but what he did was wrong.By stinker
July 21, 2009 1:59 PM | Link to this
I think he should be deported and sent back to the Dominican Republic. Once again we looking at someone who cannot speak the English language. That isn’t excuse he knew how to throw the ball.By Clem
July 21, 2009 3:25 PM | Link to this
You don’t go to a Dragons game expecting to be hit intentionally in the head with a baseball.Castillo should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law and then deported after he has served his sentence. Dennis Lieberman should be ashamed of himself!!By Stinker is dumb
July 21, 2009 3:28 PM | Link to this
Wow, Stinker, it looks like you don’t know English either! You just wrote: “Once again we looking at someone who cannot speak the English language. That isn’t excuse he knew how to throw the ball.”By Seriously?
July 21, 2009 3:44 PM | Link to this
People make mistakes…I get that, but when they make mistakes it is up to the Court to decided what the punishment should be. Let us just hope that this never happens again because our Court made an example, a standard of appropriate behavior out of Castillo’s situation.By think
July 21, 2009 3:49 PM | Link to this
actually “Seriously”, the court has not done anything yet. the court is simply listening to the evidence.By Seriously
July 22, 2009 3:21 PM | Link to this
I realize the court has not done anything yet ‘think’. That is why I said ‘let us just hope’