A hit-and-run driver was sentenced today to nearly a year in county jail and two years probation for killing a 51-year-old Long Beach man more than two years ago in Bixby Knolls.
Roughly 30 friends and family members of Felix Castro — who went by Tony – packed a Long Beach courtroom Thursday morning, where Judge Richard Goul heard from Castro’s wife and four children before handing down the sentence.
They remembered Castro as a war veteran and loving father who “showed his emotions through acts of kindness,” his oldest daughter, Makayla Castro, told the courtroom.
His youngest child, 11-year-old Atticus, recalled learning about the crash when three officers knocked on the door of their Bixby Knolls home.
“My heart was pounding thinking it was some kind of joke, but it wasn’t,” Atticus Castro said.
Tony Castro was killed on Orange Avenue near Banner Drive on Oct. 6, 2023.
Nearly every night since, Atticus has slept with a teddy bear programmed with his dad’s voice saying “happy birthday.” When Atticus told his dad that he wanted to be a pilot, the two spent countless hours watching planes at LAX.
On the night of the crash, Felix Castro went out for a walk and was trying to cross Orange Avenue outside of a marked crosswalk when he was struck by a 2020 Lexus sedan driven by 48-year-old Tiffany Reese.
Reese kept driving after the crash, leaving Tony Castro’s mangled body stuck between two parked cars, according to prosecutors. A delivery driver on a bicycle found him and called 911.
Reese took an Uber to the scene about an hour later and falsely told officers that her car had been stolen and she had only recently discovered it parked near her house with damage to the windshield, according to court records.
Her attorney, Matthew Kaestner, said Reese, a flight attendant for Southwest Airlines, “panicked” after the crash and was trying to find a way to keep taking care of her father, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease.
“It wasn’t a good lie, it was a stupid lie, it was a lie based on desperation,” Kaestner told Judge Goul.
More than a year after the crash, Reese was arrested and charged with felony hit-and-run causing death. If convicted, she faced up to 4 years in state prison.
She initially pleaded not guilty, but switched her plea to no contest in June, putting herself at the mercy of Judge Judith Meyer.
Meyer died on July 4 after a battle with cancer, leaving Judge Goul to take over for the sentencing hearing.
Kaestner asked Judge Goul to consider granting Reese house arrest for her sentence and reducing the conviction to a misdemeanor so that she could pass a background check and keep her job as a flight attendant.
Reese was not distracted or speeding during the crash, Kaestner said, and had never even had a traffic ticket.
Ghoul denied both requests, but honored an agreement Judge Meyer made with Reese to give her 364 days in county jail, 2 years probation. If she violates her probation, she will be sentenced to 3 years in state prison.
Tony Castro’s wife, Sayana Chhe, said she was satisfied with the sentence and that the hearing felt like a step toward receiving closure for her husband’s sudden death.
“Time has not softened the loss,” she said in court. “His absence is still in our home, it’s in our children’s lives.”
Chhe continues to have “severe nightmares” and anxiety whenever she crosses a street or watches others cross, she said.
The family plans to spread Castro’s ashes in the ocean near Bellows, Hawaii, where he took his favorite family vacation.