Colombian national accused of beating gay man to death 26 years ago is extradited back to Houston

KATY, Texas (KTRK) -- A murder suspect who escaped justice due to a government failure more than 25 years ago is back in the Harris County jail.

Guillermo Alejandro Castillo, 50, was extradited from Colombia for his alleged role in the 1998 murder of Joel Gerhart in Katy.

Fresh off a plane from Colombia, Castillo made his first court appearance Thursday night, where a prosecutor read the disturbing details that took place 26 years ago.

"He was stopped and covered in blood," the prosecutor told the court. "He stated, 'I met this (expletive), and he tried to fondle me. I ain't going to let this happen so I beat the (expletive) out of this (expletive) like I would anybody else,'" she said.

It was August 1998 when Gerhart, who identified as gay, was found beaten to death inside a home on Poppy Trails near FM 529.

"They found a male in the entryway, looked like he had been severely beaten to the facial area," a Harris County Sheriff's Office detective told reporters at the time.

Castillo was caught driving Gerhart's car with a TV stuffed in the trunk.

He and a co-defendant, Yordin Bolanos, were arrested and charged with capital murder. Bolanos was sentenced to life in prison, but for more than two decades, Castillo has been home free.

As Eyewitness News exposed in 1999, ICE, formally known as INS, admitted to mistakenly deporting Castillo even though he was a wanted man.

"I feel like we've been victimized again by the system," Gerhart's mother, Lyndia Gerhart, said in 1999.

According to ABC13's reporting, Castillo claimed he was a legal alien but not a U.S. citizen on paperwork at the Harris County jail.

Federal officers at the jail never questioned him, and he was able to bond out. He jumped bail and never returned to court.

In a post on social media, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said Castillo cut off his ankle monitor and tried to cross the border at Los Fresnos, where he was detained.

Six months later, an immigration judge deported him, and the government did not stop it. He was put on a flight back to Colombia.

"That's correct," an official admitted to Eyewitness News.

In December 2022, Castillo was arrested in Bogota after he went to the U.S. Embassy for a visa.

Extradition was delayed due to the potential for the death penalty until the charge was downgraded to murder from capital murder.

On Thursday, Castillo was flown back to Houston.

His bond has been set at $350,000, and his next court setting is Monday.

If convicted, Castillo, who has a 15-year-old child, faces life in prison.

Gonzalez said they were still trying to locate Gerhart's family to inform them that the arrest had been made.

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