A man accused of participating in the death of a Bronx autistic man died after attending a court hearing in Queens for a separate robbery case — becoming the eighth person to die in Department of Correction custody this year, officials said Thursday.
Luis Alberto Lopez Castillo, 20, went into medical distress around 6:38 p.m. Wednesday after attending a pre-trial hearing at Queens Criminal Court earlier that day, according to NYC Correction Commissioner Stanley Richards.
“An individual in our care tragically passed away following a court appearance in Queens,” said Richards. “This is a heartbreaking moment for me and the entire department.”
Department of Correction staff performed CPR on Lopez Castillo until medics arrived. He was transported to Jamaica Hospital, where he died at 7:54 p.m., DOC officials said.
An autopsy was scheduled to determine how Lopez Castillo died.
“I extend my condolences to his family,” Mayor Mamdani wrote on X Thursday. “In line with standard practice, the DOC and its oversight partners will investigate the circumstances of his death.”
Lopez Castillo was in court for a July 10, 2025 robbery for which he was arrested that same day. He pleaded not guilty and was released with non-monetary conditions the following day.
Less than two months later, in the Bronx, Lopez Castillo was arrested for murder in the death of Ronell Marte, 26, who was shot in the chest in Starlight Park near West Farms Road and E. 174th St on Sept. 4, 2025, police said.
Marte was killed when Lopez Castillo and his accomplice Axel Martinez, 20, tried to rob him in the park. Martinez was the one who shot Marte, police said at the time.
The victim’s family described the victim as a hard worker who was killed walking home through the park because he feared the subway following a beating he took in the city’s transit system.
“He took a shortcut through the park and, heartbreakingly, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and only five minutes away from home,” his sister Nelroby Marte wrote in a GoFundMe post.
Lopez Castillo surrendered at the 43rd Precinct in the Bronx on Oct. 27 and was charged with murder, manslaughter, robbery and criminal possession of a weapon for Marte’s fatal shooting. He was ordered held without bail after pleading not guilty at his arraignment in Bronx Criminal Court.
Police said Lopez Castillo was homeless at the time of his arrest for Marte’s murder.
The death in DOC custody drew condemnation from prison watchdog groups.
“Yet another family is now grieving after the horrific loss of a young man who was only 20 years of age and was awaiting trial at Rikers for almost a year,” said Freedom Agenda Co-Director Darren Mack in a statement Thursday. “It’s past time to stop sending people into this death camp.”
Scott Young, a member of the Katal Center for Equity, Health and Justice, offered his condolences to Lopez Castillo’s family, saying, “He was only 20 years old and had his whole life ahead of him.”
“This is the 8th person to die this year while in the custody of the NYC Department of Correction,” Young said in a statement. “We are 10 months into the year and already 8 people are dead. This is unacceptable. Why are we still going through all of this when Rikers was supposed to be closing?”
“Conditions should be improving, but it seems like it is only getting worse.”