Lexie Castile was 20 years old when authorities said she died of a gunshot wound to the head in a garage apartment shared with her fiancé, Anthony D’Onofrio
Tim Hahn
Erie Times-News
Published 5:06 a.m. ET Jan. 26, 2025
They were engaged to be married and were living together in a garage apartment on Erie’s west side.
They visited with one of their relatives on the evening of Sept. 15, 2012, before returning home in the 1100 block of West 24th Street, and were in the apartment with a 3-year-old boy when a gunshot rang out early the next morning.
Lexie N. Castile, 20, was rushed to UPMC Hamot, but died of a gunshot wound to her head.
Her fiancé , Anthony D’Onofrio, then 25, would tell a 911 operator that Castile shot herself in the head.
The investigation into Castile’s death would remain open, with no initial ruling from the Erie County Coroner’s Office on the manner of her death, into 2022, when cold-case investigators with the Erie Bureau of Police and the Pennsylvania State Police took a fresh look into the case and reviewed it with Erie County’s then-forensic pathologist.
That work led investigators to believe that Castile hadn’t shot herself, but was shot by her fiance.
D’Onofro, now 36, was charged in Castile’s killing in July 2023.
His trial on criminal homicide, first-degree murder and other charges opened in an Erie County courtroom Friday.
Murder or suicide?
Prosecutors and D’Onofrio’s lawyers both urged the jury of eight men and four women in their opening statements to consider every piece of evidence and testimony presented at the trial in determining whether D’Oniofrio killed Castile, as prosecutors allege, or whether she killed herself, as D’Onofrio and his defense team allege.
The trial, which opened Friday morning, will continue into next week.
In her opening statement, Erie County First Assistant District Attorney Jessica Reger briefly outlined the relationship between Castile and D’Onofrio, which she said started out well when they first met in early 2012 but moved fast. She told the jury that Castile had been in a previous relationship that was tumultuous, and that at one point in the past Castile’s boyfriend at the time told Castile’s mother that Castile had tried to hang herself with sheets.
But Castile was excited about the future, Reger said. She and D’Onofrio were going to move out of his mother’s garage, she was working, and she was thinking about going back to school, Reger told the jury.
The day before the shooting, Reger said, Castile, D’Onofrio and Castile’s 3-year-old son were at the home of D’Onofrio’s cousin and planned to stay overnight, but they instead decided to return home after Castile realized she worked the next day. Castile repeatedly asked D’Oniofrio if he was mad at her, but he said no, Reger said.
To understand what happened next, Reger told the jury, they have to consider “all the pieces to the puzzle.” It’s undisputed that Castile, D’Onofrio and Castile’s young son were the only ones in the garage apartment, she said. One of the first things that will make you pause, she told the jury, was that, after the shooting, D’Onofrio removed the gun’s magazine and removed the bullets.
Reger said after the couple and the child returned to their apartment, D’Onofrio, tired of being asked repeatedly by Castile if he was mad at her, told Castile she could leave the next morning. She said D’Onofrio also claims that Castile then said if I can’t have you, I don’t want to be with anyone else.
D’Onofrio then claimed he heard some movement, and then a pop, and after flipping on a light saw Castile on the floor with the gun on her chest. D’Onofrio claimed he didn’t see the wound, and instead of going over to attend to his fiancee laying on the ground he got the gun, took out the magazine and counted the bullets, Reger said.
Only then does he call 911 claiming Castile shot herself, she said.
“Without saying goodbye to him or her 3-year-old sleeping across the room, she shoots herself,” Reger said.
An Erie police investigator would use rods and lasers to determine the trajectory of the bullet that killed Castile, and what he learned did not make sense with the defendant’s story, Reger told the jury.
She said a cold-case investigator who later took up the case asked Erie County’s former forensic pathologist, Eric Vey, M.D., to consider something never asked before: to look at the weapon used in the shooting. Based on that review, including marks left on Castile’s head, he was able to make an expert opinion on the position of the gun, “and that position makes no sense with a self-inflicted wound,” Reger said.
D’Onofrio’s lawyer: ‘science will be a friend to the defense•
Erie lawyer Chad Vilushis, who is representing D’Onofrio, told the jury in his opening remarks that there is no question Castile died on Sept. 16, 2012, and no question about what caused her death. The only question, he said, is whether it was self-inflicted or murder.
Physical evidence, if collected, handled and addressed properly, can often aid jurors in understanding what happened. The “he said-she said” testimony will almost certainly be challenged, Vilushis said.
He said evidence the defense will present will include Castile’s prior suicide attempt a few years before the fatal shooting. Castile would deny attempting to kill herself then, Vilushis said, but Castile’s boyfriend at the time would report the attempt to Castile’s mother, with whom Castile was living with at the time, the mother would stay up all night and call off work the next day to be with Castile, and the mother would encourage Castile to see a therapist.
“Do the acts of everyone match those words of denial? It’s up to you to decide,” Vilushis said.
He told the jury they will hear how, after the shooting, D’Onofrio rendered aid to Castile, went to the police station and turned over his clothing and had his hands tested for gunshot residue, which he did not have to do. He also gave a more than two-hour interview with police when he was not arrested, Vilushis said.
He told the jury that, through the defense’s evidence and cross-examination, they will hear whether the physical evidence matches what D’Onofrio told police or what the Commonwealth believes occurred. They will also hear that some physical evidence was badly mishandled, Vilushis said.
He noted that Castile’s DNA was present on the gun used in her death; that blood was found in various places in the apartment but D’Onofrio, the person accused of shooting Castile at close range, was not covered in it; and that gunshot residue testing was never done on Castile’s hands.
“I believe the evidence will show science will be a friend to the defense, science will show it was a self-inflicted wound,” Vilushis said.