Authorities: Wood Dale man killed his father

A Wood Dale man, charged in April with beating his father, is now accused of stabbing the man to death with a sword.

Bail was set at $2 million Tuesday morning for Joshua Robert Castellano, 30, who was charged with first-degree murder in the death of 54-year-old Robert Castellano.

DuPage County assistant state's attorney Lynn Cavallo told Judge Brian Telander that paramedics were called at 3:55 a.m. Sunday to the family house in the 200 block of Forest View Avenue for a report that a man had fallen down some stairs.

They found Robert Castellano on a bed in the master bedroom, barely breathing. When they moved the bed to put him on the floor to treat him, they found the sword with a 13-inch blade under the bed, wrapped in a blanket, Cavallo said. He died at the scene.

Cavallo said that on the 911 call, Joshua Castellano's mother could be heard screaming “Where's the knife, Josh? Where's the knife?” and that Castellano later told police he had wrapped it in a blanket and put it under the bed.

According to Cavallo, a neighbor had heard the father and son arguing. Cavallo said the two were in the garage, that the mother let them in the house, and the argument continued in a hallway.

Cavallo said Robert Castellano suffered a 13-inch stab wound, from his right kidney to the left side of his body.

Cavallo asked that bail be set at $5 million.

“This is an extremely angry man,” she said of Joshua Castellano, and called him dangerous.

Castellano was charged in April with domestic battery, accused of beating his father with blunt objects, causing cuts and bruises on his face and body. Castellano was also charged in 2020 with punching a Wood Dale police officer in the jaw. Those cases are ongoing. In the domestic battery case, Castellano was prohibited from contacting his father or returning to the house for three days after his arrest.

Cavallo said Castellano was also charged in 2017 and 2019, in Colorado, with driving under the influence of alcohol and resisting arrest.

Assistant Public Defender Brittany Earl told Telander that Castellano is a 2019 graduate of Colorado State University, and recently began working as a DoorDash delivery driver.

To be released from jail, Castellano would have to post $200,000. If he is freed, he is to wear a GPS monitor, and cannot return to the house. He lived there with his parents and a brother.

His next court date is May 27.