A Rosenberg woman who prosecutors say drugged her husband and let two men into their home before he was shot to death has been sentenced to life in prison, while the man identified as the shooter received 60 years. Irene Banda and Jorge Castellanos both pleaded guilty to the 2020 murder of Ramiro Martinez, Banda's husband, closing out a case that began as a suspected home invasion and ended nearly six years later with a staged-crime conviction.
Martinez, 48, was killed inside his Rosenberg home on September 11, 2020, in what Rosenberg police originally investigated as an attempted robbery, according to Click2Houston. Fort Bend County District Attorney Brian Middleton announced the sentences in Richmond, saying Banda received life in prison and Castellanos got 60 years for the killing. Middleton, who took office in January 2019 as Fort Bend County's first African American district attorney, according to the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, said the truth finds a way to escape even the most evil plots.
A Conspiracy Hatched in Corpus Christi
According to the seed reporting, Banda, Castellanos, Arnold Deleon, and Karen Rodriguez met at Deleon's Corpus Christi home the night before the murder. Banda had told Deleon that Martinez had assaulted her, and Deleon reportedly said he would do something about it. The next day, Deleon and Castellanos drove to Rosenberg from Corpus Christi in a rented red Hyundai Veloster, with Deleon texting Banda that they were outside and to open the door shortly before the killing.
Inside the home, Banda gave Martinez alprazolam to make him less alert, then let Deleon and Castellanos inside. Castellanos tied Banda's wrists with a computer cord to help stage the scene, and Deleon took a gun Banda had left near the entryway. Castellanos shot Martinez in the head, and Deleon shot him in the back during a struggle. Banda called 911 after the killing, and she was not immediately charged in connection with her husband's death.
Rented Car and Retail Receipts Cracked the Case
A neighbor spotted the red Hyundai Veloster outside the home around the time of the murder, and the vehicle was later found abandoned in Nueces County. Investigators traced the Veloster to Castellanos through rental records, a break that helped tie him to the scene. Surveillance video also captured Castellanos buying latex gloves and t-shirts at a Richmond Walmart before the killing.
Castellanos later sold Banda's Ford F-150 and several of Martinez's guns, which he had loaded into the truck, and Karen Rodriguez helped dispose of the Hyundai Veloster. Rodriguez pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence in June 2024 and is now serving probation. Deleon was never charged with the murder; he died of natural causes in July 2022, before investigators could bring a case against him.
Border Arrest and a Cooperating Witness
Castellanos was arrested while entering the United States at the Hidalgo border crossing. That detail lines up with an earlier account from KENS 5, which reported he was detained by federal agents at the U.S.–Mexico border on October 15, 2020 — about five weeks after the killing — and transferred to Fort Bend County Jail without bond on capital murder charges. In March 2024, Castellanos agreed to provide investigators information about the crime, and a warrant for Banda's arrest followed that same month.
Banda was taken into custody in San Antonio on March 7, 2024, surrendering without incident to Texas Department of Public Safety personnel and Texas Rangers on the Fort Bend County capital murder warrant. She was held in Bexar County Jail on a $750,000 bond, the outlet's report noted. Neighbors in San Antonio's Canyon View neighborhood near Loop 1604 and Redland Road described her as a quiet loner who had moved out of the area roughly seven months before her arrest. Hoodline previously covered Banda's San Antonio arrest at the time.
Abuse Claims Clashed With Trial Testimony
Investigators said corroborating evidence in cell phone extractions and call records helped build the case against Banda and Castellanos, who were ultimately convicted of the 2020 murder. Banda's defense presented expert testimony alleging she had been abused by Martinez, but prosecutors challenged the validity of that testing and presented text messages from Banda's phone that they said contradicted her abuse claims.
Martinez's two oldest children also testified about physical, mental, and emotional abuse during their childhood, according to the case facts. Middleton commended the investigative work that exposed the truth and allowed officials to speak for the victim.
How the Sentences Play Out Under Texas Law
Under Texas Government Code § 508.145(d), inmates convicted of murder or an offense involving a deadly weapon finding must serve at least half their sentence — or 30 calendar years, whichever is less — in flat time before becoming eligible for parole review, without credit for good conduct, according to the Levinson Law Firm. That means Castellanos must serve 30 flat years of his 60-year sentence before parole consideration, while Banda's life sentence carries the same 30-year flat-time minimum before the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles can weigh her release. Texas Penal Code § 19.02 classifies murder as a first-degree felony punishable by 5 to 99 years or life in prison, along with a fine of up to $10,000, according to Fort Bend County records.
The case fits a pattern Middleton's office has pursued in fatal domestic violence cases, including a 45-year sentence handed down in 2019 for Troy Parker and a 50-year sentence in 2023 for Sheldon Magee in separate intimate-partner murders. Rosenberg recorded zero criminal homicides in 2019, the year before Martinez's killing, according to FBI Uniform Crime Reporting data — a statistic that underscores how rare a case of this violence was for the city of roughly 39,000 residents before the 2020 murder upended that record.
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