Prosecutors said Rueben Rocha fired 19 shots into a Glendale apartment where Jordin Castillo, their young daughter and several other people were inside.

PHOENIX, Ariz. — An Arizona judge sentenced Rueben Rocha to life in prison in March after prosecutors said he climbed onto his ex-girlfriend’s third-floor balcony, kicked in a glass door and shot her to death in a Glendale apartment while she begged him on a 911 call to leave.

Jordin Castillo was 20 when she was killed on June 4, 2023, inside a home where six people were present, including the 2-year-old daughter she shared with Rocha. The case drew attention because of the recorded emergency call, the protective order Castillo told dispatchers she had, and the number of charges a jury later returned against Rocha. The sentence closed the trial phase, but it also fixed the public record of what prosecutors said happened in the apartment that day and what Castillo’s family has said was taken from them.

Prosecutors said Rocha arrived at the Glendale apartment complex after Castillo had been staying in a third-floor unit near 51st and Northern avenues. Investigators said he got onto the balcony and broke through the glass door even though Castillo could be heard trying to keep him out. In the 911 call later described by officials and aired by local media, Castillo shouted that she had an order of protection and warned that Rocha would be arrested. The call captured the moment as fear in the apartment turned into violence. According to prosecutors, Rocha opened fire while Castillo was still on the phone with dispatch. The shooting left Castillo dead and two of her friends badly hurt. Authorities said the young child inside the apartment was taken and hidden by adults during the attack.

The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office said Rocha fired 19 shots and kept shooting as victims lay on the floor. A jury later convicted him of first-degree murder, first-degree burglary, two counts of aggravated assault, four counts of disorderly conduct and one misdemeanor count of interfering with judicial proceedings. Local reporting in the first days after the shooting said police believed Rocha had violated a protective order when he forced his way in. Fox 10 reported that Castillo and Rocha shared a daughter and that police described a history of domestic violence tied to the relationship. Early reporting also said investigators were looking at online conflict, described at the time as “social media drama,” as part of what led up to the shooting. Rocha turned himself in soon after the attack and was booked into jail on multiple charges.

The case unfolded over nearly three years, moving from a summer homicide investigation to a murder trial in Maricopa County. By the time jurors returned a guilty verdict in February 2026, Castillo’s relatives had spent years waiting through charging, pretrial proceedings and trial preparation. ABC15 reported that the verdict was delivered with family members in the courtroom. Castillo’s aunt, Mercedes Castillo, said afterward that the decision brought some measure of relief, though it could not undo the loss. Her remarks shifted public attention back to the victim rather than the defendant, describing Jordin Castillo as thoughtful and strong. That broader context mattered in court because the prosecution did not present the killing as an isolated burst of anger, but as an armed break-in that happened after Castillo had already sought legal protection.

At sentencing in March 2026, Judge and court officials imposed a natural life term on the murder count, meaning Rocha will spend the rest of his life in prison on that conviction. Prosecutors said he also received an additional 52.5 years, with 15 years to run consecutively to the life sentence. Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said the outcome meant Rocha would never be released. Her office named prosecutors Lindsay Gephardt and Melissa Certo in the sentencing announcement and said the jury rejected Rocha’s attempts to justify what happened. With conviction and sentencing complete, the criminal case entered its post-judgment stage. Public milestones now center on prison custody, any appeal filings and the lasting effect on the surviving child and other victims injured in the apartment.

The details that stayed with many people were not abstract legal ones but the ordinary setting of the crime. Castillo was in an apartment with her daughter and friends. Two adults tried to shield the little girl. The door gave way from the balcony side instead of the hallway, turning what should have been a place of refuge into the center of the attack. The 911 recording gave the case a human scale that courtroom paperwork alone could not. Castillo’s words were direct and urgent, and prosecutors used them to show that Rocha was not welcome and that she was trying to invoke the law in real time. Family members, prosecutors and local reporters each returned to that point: she asked for help, named the danger and still was killed before police could get there.

Rocha now stands convicted on every count announced by prosecutors, and Castillo’s killing remains one of the Phoenix area’s starkest recent domestic-violence murder cases. The next formal step would come through any appellate filings, but as of the sentencing announcement in March 2026, the trial court phase had ended and Rocha’s sentence was in place.

Author note: Last updated April 14, 2026.