Baby Phoenix Castro’s father asks judge for mental health diversion

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KRON) — Baby Phoenix died at home the day before Mother’s Day with fentanyl powder splotched on her pink onesie. A San Jose police officer who tried to save the 3-month-old infant on May 13, 2023, said when he picked her up to perform CPR, the officer felt like he was “holding a doll.”

The baby’s mother, Emily DeLaCerda, screamed, “my baby is dead,” according to new court documents filed by Santa Clara County prosecutors.

Phoenix’s father, David Anthony Castro, still had a stash of fentanyl stored inside a Lego toy box in the San Jose home. In the hours leading up to his daughter’s death, the father had sent text messages to his drug dealer asking for “strong sh*t.”

At 6:36 p.m. on May 12, 2023, Castro texted his dealer, “You got that strong s**t? Let me know.”

Phoenix was poisoned by a toxic combination of methamphetamine and fentanyl, a medical examiner’s autopsy concluded.

Castro, 39, appeared in court Tuesday to face felony child endangerment charges. His defense attorney requested that the judge divert the case out of criminal court and into mental health diversion. If Judge Meghan Piano agrees, Castro would be sent to a mental health treatment center instead of prison.

Prosecutors are fighting Castro’s motion. “Defendant now seeks to avoid accountability for his deliberate actions by filing this motion for Mental Health Diversion. Defendant’s behavior and choices led to Baby Phoenix’s environment being so toxic and so dangerous, that it actually killed her,” Assistant District Attorney Maria Gershenovich wrote in court document filed last week.

Castro’s defense attorney said her client was diagnosed with adjustment disorder, opioid use disorder, amphetamine use disorder, and alcohol use disorder. The defense argues that the father’s mental disorders — primarily addictions — make him suitable for mental health diversion.

Charges filed against Castro carry a 10-year prison sentence. Justice will be denied for Baby Phoenix if Castro’s case is diverted, Gershenovich said.

Gershenovich wrote, “Defendant has purposefully squandered every single opportunity at treatment, clearly demonstrating he does not care to change his behavior and address his addiction and mental health. He also actively worked to deceive anyone who attempted to hold him accountable in treatment, for social workers, to dependency court, to law enforcement. Defendant now wants this court to believe that somehow this time will be different. It will not. What (Castro) is actually doing is requesting an opportunity to erase this conduct from his life and his history, while Baby Phoenix is gone forever.”

The prosecutor noted that Castro still has two surviving children who would be endangered if their father is let out of custody.

Judges have wide discretion for either granting or denying mental health diversions. On Tuesday, Castro’s hearing at the Hall of Justice in San Jose was pushed back to August 5 to give the defense’s experts more time to conduct behavioral and mental health evaluations. Judge Piano will make her ruling at the hearing’s conclusion.

Phoenix’s father blames her deceased mother

Castro’s new defense strategy veers sharply from his preliminary hearing, which was held in February of 2024. At the preliminary hearing, defense attorneys attempted to re-directed blame toward the mother, Emily DeLaCerda.

Castro had sole custody of Phoenix. DeLaCerda was either in jail or rehab for the majority of her daughter’s very short life. Phoenix was born on February 12, 2023, she remained in the hospital for two weeks, and her mother was arrested in March. Just one week before Phoenix’s death, DeLaCerda was transferred from jail to a residential rehab facility.

Castro was alone with his baby at home when she was poisoned by fentanyl on May 13, 2023, investigators said. At 10:08 a.m., the father called 911 reporting that his baby was not breathing at their apartment at 5479 Spinnaker Walkway, police said. A detective testified that the home was littered with drug paraphernalia, including broken glass pipes and aluminum foil.

DeLaCerda had left her drug rehab facility earlier that morning to visit her baby for Mother’s Day, court documents state. The mother arrived at the apartment at 10 a.m. Five minutes later, she ran outside “very distraught, screaming, ‘my baby is dead.'”

Four months after Phoenix died, DeLaCerda died from a fentanyl overdose on September 16, 2023, inside the same apartment on Spinnaker Walkway, police said.

Father allegedly lied to San Jose police

Investigators found evidence that Phoenix’s father lied to police about circumstances around his baby’s death, recently filed court documents state.

During an interview with San Jose Police Department detectives, Castro “lied and told detectives that he had not been using any controlled substances, and last used drugs before Phoenix was even born,” Gershenovich wrote. The father claimed that he fed Phoenix her bottle and they fell asleep together on the couch watching television at 1 a.m. on May 13, 2023. He also told detectives that his friend, Jonathan Huth, arrived at the apartment unannounced and told him to call 911 after seeing Phoenix.

Gershenovich wrote, “Defendant’s self-serving false statements have since been disproven. Follow-up investigation uncovered that (Castro) lied about his actions that morning and showed the lengths defendant was willing to go to in order to hide his crime.”

Castro realized that his baby was unresponsive and not breathing at 9 a.m., prosecutors said. “Instead of immediately calling 911 to get help for Baby Phoenix, defendant actually called his friend Jonathan Huth a bit after 9 a.m. He asked Jonathan to cover over. Once Jonathan got to his house, (Castro) gave Jonathan cash and asked him to bike to a nearby smoke shop to get some fake synthetic urine. Jonathan did as he was told,” Gershenovich wrote.

Castro waited to call 911 until after his friend returned with the fake urine, prosecutors said.

Detectives combed through cellphone data from the father’s cellphone. His text messages showed that, despite his claim of “being clean” since Phoenix’s birth, Castro frequently bought drugs from dealers, including the day before Phoenix died.

After SJPD Detective Harrington confronted Castro with the text message evidence, the father allegedly admitted to heavy drug use and cheating on drug tests from Child Protective Services agents. He explained “how he managed to ‘game’ the testing system and how he would time his drug use to ensure he tested ‘clean’ for DFCS social worker during the time he cared for Phoenix,” Gershenovich wrote.

Prosecutors argue that Castro’s history of resisting drug treatment and lying to county officials make the father extremely unlikely to comply within the court’s mental health diversion system.

Castro and his deceased girlfriend, DeLaCerda, lost custody of their two older children in the summer of 2021 and in February 2022. They were placed in protective custody after both of their parents were arrested for child endangerment due to unsafe conditions in the home.

After losing custody of his two older children, Castro failed to work with county officials, accept resources, or answer phone calls from social workers “despite the risk of never getting his children back. His lack of effort is well documented,” Gershenovich wrote.

Castro remains in custody and locked in a Santa Clara County jail.