Details emerge in murder trial
Woman accused of shooting man in his Cinco Ranch home
More details were divulged about the night of a Fort Bend man’s death during a trial this week for a young woman accused of shooting and killing the man after he allegedly raped her friend inside his Cinco Ranch home.
Monserrat Carrillo-Castilla, 18 at the time, was charged with murder in May 2016 in the death of 36-year-old Willie Honable, an aspiring rapper with an 8-year-old son. Defense attorney David Cunningham said his client, who was in the courtroom, has pleaded not guilty, but Cunningham wouldn’t comment further.
Krystal Walker, who lived in the Cinco Ranch house on Ellerbe Springs for a couple of months with Honable and two others, testified that she met Honable four years earlier at a San Antonio strip club called Sugar’s. She said she started working for him as a prostitute.
“He was my best friend in the whole world,” she said, as she looked teary-eyed at a photo of Honable on the witness stand.
Walker and Britney Lane, who also lived in the house, both testified that they became concerned about Honable on the Saturday night before he died. The women, who both said they worked as prostitutes for him, had traveled to Austin to dance at a strip club. The women testified that it was normal for Honable to check in with them throughout the night but that they did not hear from him all evening.
“He wasn’t answering the phone, so it was out of the ordinary because he always answers,” Lane said.
The two drove back to their Cinco Ranch-area home on Sunday afternoon, along with another woman who also lived there. When they arrived home, Lane went inside and discovered Honable’s body.
She choked back tears on the witness stand as she recalled finding his body and kissing him on his shoulder.
Walker said she trusted
Honable with the money she earned, describing him as her “bank,” but said she quit prostitution after he died because she did not trust working for anyone else.
A medical examiner testified about Honable’s autopsy and his wounds. She said he died from gunshot wounds to the head and torso.
During trial proceedings Wednesday, prosecutor Caroline Kim questioned an investigator from the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office who had taken photos at the scene and reviewed evidence.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Honable in 2016 showed rooms he had leased out to Carrillo-Castilla and her friend. He apparently had offered “to ‘pimp’ them out,” the affidavit stated.
A few days after Honable’s death, Carrillo-Castilla met with a friend to smoke marijuana and admitted that she shot the man, according to her friend’s statement.
She told the friend that Honable had picked up her and a friend and showed them his house in Cinco Ranch. After they left, the friend texted Carrillo-Castilla to say he had raped her.
Carrillo-Castilla returned to his home the same day, and while the two were sitting on the couch, she asked Honable if he liked massages and proceeded to give him one, according to the affidavit.
She then shot him, according to the affidavit. Police traced a fired projectile left at the scene to a 9 mm handgun that is believed to have been used in another aggravated assault from February 2016, the document shows.
Carrillo-Castilla admitted her role in the crime to the friend, who is also a suspect in the aggravated assault in February 2016.
When investigators arrived at Honable’s home, they found his body partially on the floor, a pocket inside out and his head on the couch in a pool of blood. Police did not detect any signs of forced entry.
Ann Melton, Honable’s mother, also testified Thursday and described how she’s spent “every single day and every single moment” trying to figure out what happened to her son.
“I had never experienced anything like that,” Melton said. “I just wanted to know what happened.”
The jury trial is expected to resume at 9 a.m. Monday in Fort Bend County with Judge Brady G. Elliott presiding.