Gov. appoints judge, nominates another

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office announced Friday that he wants to elevate a San Diego judge to the 4th District Court of Appeal and has appointed a longtime prosecutor to be a new San Diego Superior Court judge.

The governor nominated Superior Court Judge Jose Castillo to the San Diego based-appellate court after Castillo spent three years on the Superior Court bench. Newsom also appointed John Pro, a deputy district attorney since 2005, to fill a vacancy on the Superior Court. They will fill spots created by two retirements. Castillo, 44, of San Diego, has been a San Diego Superior Court judge since 2020. Before that, he spent a decade working as an assistant U.S. Attorney in San Diego.

From 2007 to 2010, he worked as a staff attorney at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He was also an adjunct professor of law at Hastings College of Law in San Francisco from 2009 to 2010.

Castillo was a law clerk in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas, from 2006 to 2007.

According to a profile published by the University of California Davis — where he graduated law school — Castillo received his law degree and bachelor’s degree after being honorably discharged from the U.S. Marines.

His elevation to the appeals court requires confirmation by the Commission on Judicial Appointments. If confirmed, the San Diego resident will take the seat that opened when Justice Judith L. Haller retired.

He is a Democrat. The yearly salary for the position is nearly $258,000.

Pro, 47, has spent the last 17 years as a prosecutor in the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office. Since 2018, he has served as the team leader of the District Attorney’s Office Major Narcotics Division.

Before that, he spent about a year as a staff attorney at the Center for Community Solutions. Pro earned his law degree from the University of Arizona College of Law.

Pro lives in San Diego County and is a Democrat. The annual salary for a superior court judge is nearly $232,000.

He will fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Frederick Link.