AN ANCHORWOMAN PREPARES TO REPORT at the corner of Main Street and Fourth in Sultan Wednesday morning following a fatal stabbing that took place there the night before. Five youths were eventually arrested for the murder of a Marysville teen. PHOTO BY RONDA MURPHY

Heartbreak in Sultan: A community struggles to understand murder; five youths arrested

BY POLLY KEARY, EDITOR

As graduating Sultan teenagers celebrated the beginning of their adult lives Wednesday, the life of Antonio Marks, 17, of Marysville ended and five Sultan teens face years in prison for his murder.

The details of the case are still emerging, but evidence collected from witnesses, the crime scene, and downtown surveillance cameras points to a simmering long-running confrontation that exploded in the early morning hours.

Now, community members are wondering if the town is safe, worrying about the possible influence of gangs, and trying to make sense of a shocking and brutal act of violence.

Initial Reports

“At 12:22 a.m., we received a call from a person at 4th and Alder who said they heard the sounds of a fight and saw someone being beaten up,” said Sultan police Chief Jeff Brand Friday. “ Units arrived in about two minutes and found a young man on the ground.”

Critical moments were lost when a carload of young people arrived at the same moment. Friends of the victim been alerted by someone and were arriving to try and help him. “The deputy had to deal with them and they were taken as witnesses,” said Brand.

But fire personnel were arriving just behind the police. What they found shocked them.

“We responded about 12:24 in the morning,” said Merlin Halverson, chief of the Sultan Fire Department. “It actually came in that he had facial injuries. We got there about 12:27. At 12:32, we recognized that we needed an air lift.” The young man they found had hardly any pulse and was breathing only faintly. Examination of his body revealed as many as half a dozen stab wounds to his torso. He was quickly bleeding to death.

“We headed east on Highway 2 and met a medic en route,” said Halverson. “Our crews were putting IVs, doing everything we could to keep his blood pressure up. He was still alive when we put him on the aircraft.” But at some point shortly after Marks arrived at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, he died.

Investigation

Almost as quickly as emergency workers were rushing to Marks’ aid, police investigators were moving in to try to find out who was responsible. “Our major crimes people were notified and called and they immediately started working their magic,” said Brand. “They activated all their staff and started working the case.”

The major crimes unit, Brand noted, is especially skilled, following a strong effort to improve in recent years. “Several years ago, the Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Unit recognized we can always do better, so they went to the King County Sheriff’s Office which had a reputation for solving crimes and putting together evidence,” said Brand. “They said, ‘scrutinize our major crimes unit, give us some input.’ We totally changed how we do things.”

The skilled Snohomish County investigators fanned out and got to work. “We had a lot of citizens talking to us, witnesses at the scene, we were able to do a lot of stuff,” said Brand.

One of the most helpful pieces of evidence came from a crime-stopping measure put in place by a concerned citizen in concert with the city of Sultan two years ago. “My husband Brian designed, researched and installed security cameras downtown,” said Debbie Copple, who works at the Sultan Visitor Information Center at the intersection where the crime occurred in Sultan’s historic downtown.

The cameras were meant to deter some threatening individuals who had been loitering in the area that summer, said Copple.“I was being threatened by drug dealers,” she said. “They’d stand right in front of our building and sell drugs, booze, whatever, to kids, so I’d just go out there and stand in the middle of it. They started ranting. So Brian put the cameras up.”

Those cameras showed much of what happened. On film, five young people are shown approaching Marks. Someone punched him in the face. He fell down, and members of the group attacked him as he lay, hitting him and kicking him in the head. Then Marco Castillo appears to stab Marks while he lay on the ground. He did not appear to fight back.

Arrests

Less than 24 hours later, three people police believe were the attackers were arrested. A day later, two more Sultan teens were arrested. All were charged with second degree murder.Only one is not a minor; the other four will likely be tried as adults, prosecutors said.

Police believe the adult, Marco Castillo, 19, of Sultan, was the person who wielded the knife. According to court documents, Castillo pulled a knife from his pocket and stabbed Marks after a confrontation that had begun a day earlier. Castillo told police that Marks and he had argued Tuesday at the Castillo house, according to court documents.

Wednesday, Castillo ran into Marks outside a store, and they conflicted again. Castillo allegedly told police he hadn’t meant to kill Marks. Rather, he meant to hurt him badly enough that the boy wouldn’t fight back. He is being held in jail on $1 million bail. Prosecutor Kathy Jo Blake argued for the high bail, calling the crime “especially vicious.”

The four other youths arrested for the crime include Castillo’s brother, Adolfo Castillo, 16; Jaime Michel, 16; Ana Cary Ayala Bustos, 16; and Ivette Rico, 17.

Now all that remains is for the judicial system to try the case, the families to grieve, and the community to wonder how things could go so terribly wrong in the lives of six young people.

Marks

It’s not clear why Antonio Marks was in Sultan, but it may have been to see a girl, the sister of one of his attackers, who he was dating. He had himself had a little trouble with the law in the past. He seemed, however, to be trying to create a future for himself, and was working to complete his education at the Northwest Regional Learning Center in Everett, at which he enrolled in January.

While there, he showed promise as a writer and a poet, his teachers said. One of his teachers described him as having a big heart, and said that he helped other students sometimes. Friday, some of his loved ones gathered at the corner of 4th and Alder to remember him and grieve.

The Accused

Castillo has a history of entanglement with police for violent and antisocial behavior, according to Brand, Halverson and others. And one of the other accused young people was recently involved in a vandalism incident at Camp Volasuca, according to Director Dave Wood.

“One of the boys was arrested a month ago,” said Wood. “He and a couple of girls lit a fire and burned some of our equipment, and were drinking beer. We called the police, and he had a gun. The other three had knives. He threatened the staff for having the audacity for calling police.”

According to Debbie Copple some of the accused had turned up on security tape in other recent incidents, as well. “They’ve beat others,” she said. “A few weeks ago they beat up a guy and took his stuff. The victim was an immigrant with a green card, but he was afraid to go to authorities.”

Gangs?

Many are wondering to what extent gang affiliation may explain the violence.

According to Brand, probably not much, although several of the accused are affiliated with a small local youth gang called the Brown Pride Soldiers, or BPS. “One of the boys has been pretty active promoting BPS violence and activity,” said Wood, who interacts with kids a lot at the Volunteers of America program Operation Safe Stop, which provides kids a safe place to hang out.

Brand, too, said that several of the kids were associated with BPS. “The people involved to have some gang affiliation,” he said. “These are some of the individuals we’ve dealt with that like to say they are gang members.”

Brown Pride Soldiers, a gang with as few as 10 members, are one of two youth gangs authorities have identified in the upper Sky Valley; the other is the Gold Bar Crew, a gang that one member says isn’t involved in much more than recreational drug use and partying.

“hahaa all we do is smoke weed an kik it, dont really f*** with anyone,” wrote a member called GBC360 on a local internet forum. “BPS started beef with us for nothin and its ben on for awile but look at em Now (sic).”

Woods has run into BPS colors and logos at Operation Safe Stop, he said. “One of the girls from the vandalism incident came into to Safe Stop and she came in wearing BPS colors,” said Woods. “She was stopped at the door and told to lose that stuff or not come in, and she did lose the stuff.”

According to GBC360, there are other gangs in the area that have escaped notice.

“...therez other crews and memberz of other gangs all over in this valley but theres a reason you dont know about em,” the gang member wrote.

But just because some of the kids arrested have gang affiliation doesn’t necessarily mean that the violence was gang related, said Brand.

“Was this gang related? No, it wasn’t,” said Brand. “Say there’s an assault and a union member is involved. Does that mean the union was involved? Not necessarily.”

A Community Struggles

Wednesday morning, two teenagers stood in a Sultan beauty salon, talking with a beautician. “My dad told me not to even walk around,” said one girl. “He said it’s not safe.”

That line of thought has been very common in recent days, said Sultan Mayor Carolyn Eslick. “There have been concerns from kids and adults about our streets and how safe they are,” said Eslick.

Wood, too, has been getting calls at Camp Volasuca from scared parents and kids wondering if it’s safe to go out. “What we’re hearing from kids is, it is safe in the town? ‘Cause this is new,” he said. “There’s been fights, but not weapons. Now there’s not only weapons, there’s been a death.”

As shocking as the murder was, it doesn’t mean Sultan is any worse than other towns its size, reassured Police Chief Jeff Brand. “I don’t think things are that much worse here than in other towns,” he said. “There’s no such thing as Mayberry anymore.” Still, police are asking teens to be home by 10 for the next few weeks.

Mixed with the uncertainty is the sorrow that five of Sultan’s children should appear to have been involved in such a gruesome crime. “Instead of feeling better as days go by, I’m feeling sadder,” said Eslick.

Others are wondering what can be done to keep things like that from happening in the future. For all the people who are feeling angry, sad, confused, frightened or concerned, or who just want to know more in order to try to understand, there is a community meeting Tuesday night at 7 p.m. at Camp Volasuca.

“If anyone wants to talk about grief, fear, anything, it’s kind of a healing, mourning thing,” said Wood. Police will be there, as will others with information on youth issues.

But at the end of the day, making sense of the tragedy may be difficult at best, said Eslick. “Such a senseless thing that happens in our society,” she said.

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