Suspect in Monday shooting in custody after standoff

Anthony Ortega sprinted eastbound on West Kaywood in Portales before turning south on North Avenue B about 3 a.m. Monday, law officers allege. He left behind a black hat and the man he’s accused of killing: Benigno “Ben” Castillo, 51, according to an arrest affidavit filed last week in Roosevelt County Magistrate Court. 

Emergency responders transported the unresponsive Castillo from his pickup truck to Roosevelt General Hospital. Not long after, Castillo died there from a gunshot wound to an artery in his upper thigh, the court record shows. 

Ortega, 36, was arrested Wednesday after a standoff that police said lasted 12-13 hours in the 1200 block of North Avenue M.

Capt. Chris Valdez of the Portales Police Department said police received a tip Ortega was staying at the unoccupied residence owned by a family member.

When first approached, Valdez said Ortega barked expletives at police from behind the front door of the trailer where he’d been staying at least a few days. The standoff ended without injury, Valdez said, and Ortega was in custody at the Portales jail this weekend.

According to the arrest affidavit, Ortega killed Castillo after Castillo attempted to help a woman Ortega had been romantically involved with.

The woman told police she’d been in a long, “tumultuous” romantic relationship with Ortega. She said Ortega – a long-time drug user who once pulled a gun on her – was becoming increasingly irrational. She recently moved from the home she shared with Ortega and moved her kids into her parents’ home before that. 

The night of the slaying, the woman said Ortega asked her to give him “dope” for an injured knee and to drive him to his father’s house. After she refused, she said she felt unsafe and called Castillo for help.

Castillo, identified in court records as a family friend, began patrolling streets near the woman’s location. Ortega then began texting Castillo, accusing him of taking the air out of his tires, the record shows.

Later on, Ortega located the woman and accused her of cheating, lying and “playing with his head.”

At 3 a.m., when the crime happened, a neighbor went to check on a “loud noise” outside his home and found “two Hispanic males” inside a vehicle before one of them took off. 

Shortly after that “loud noise” the neighbor heard, records show Ortega sent a flurry of messages to the woman, who was nearby. 

At 3:13 a.m. – “please” – at 3:30 a.m. – “answer the phone” – at 3:34 a.m. – “I will turn myself in” followed by “I need you to know where I am.”

Ortega then called the woman, saying “Ben was hurt” and to call 911, the record shows.

A warrant was approved for Ortega’s arrest, citing his previous violence toward the woman, his alleged admission of guilt, and the black hat left at the scene, which matched a black hat he was wearing on video footage from earlier that night.