WINFIELD - Police brought Putnam County resident Philip Casto, who allegedly killed a Hurricane woman last week, back to West Virginia on Friday to face a first-degree murder charge.
Casto, 33, of Scott Depot, shot 27-year-old Jennifer Evans in the head on Sept. 10 at her residence, according to a criminal complaint filed in Putnam Magistrate Court. Her husband, Michael Evans, found her lying dead on the kitchen floor at about 5:30 p.m. that day.
Massachusetts police captured Casto on Sept. 11 at a shopping mall in Braintree, a suburb of Boston. On Monday, he told a Massachusetts court that he would not fight extradition back to West Virginia.
Friday afternoon, a week after his capture, Casto was arraigned by Magistrate Scot Lawrence in Putnam Magistrate Court in Winfield.
Casto spoke little, other than to tell Lawrence he understood the charge and the proceedings, and to tell reporters "no comment" as he quickly walked into the Putnam County Judicial Building.
He wore orange jail-issued clothing and showed no emotion. At the end of the arraignment, after he'd been told he would be held without bail and could face life in prison, his neck protruded as he visibly swallowed while he waited in silence to be escorted out.
Mariah Casto, the wife of Philip Casto, told police he and Jennifer Evans had recently ended an affair, according to the complaint. But Evans' husband, Michael Evans, only told police that his wife was being "pursued" by Philip Casto, and that she had recently broken off all communication with him, the complaint stated.
On Sept. 10, Michael Evans received a text message from his wife saying that Philip Casto was at their home. Michael Evans told her to call the police. He then asked the landlord to go to the townhouse to check on her, but no one answered the door.
That same day, Mariah Casto said she came home to find "what seemed to be a suicide note" from her husband, the complaint stated.
"He sent her a text message saying he had seen something today that he could not forget," Putnam Sheriff's Sgt. Lisa Arthur wrote in the criminal complaint. "He informed her that he was on his way home."
She responded that she had called the police, and Casto did not respond or return home.
Casto bought a gun the day before the shooting, according to the complaint. After obtaining a search warrant, police found a .40-caliber shell casing near Jennifer Evans' body, the complaint stated.
Police checked local gun dealers and found that Casto had bought a .40-caliber Glock handgun from Ultimate Pawn in Hurricane on Sept. 9. Employees at Putnam circuit and magistrate courts said they found no criminal record for Casto.
Surveillance video from a nearby home shows a car pull into the parking area near the Evans residence at 4:38 p.m. on Sept. 10, then a person going up the stairs, according to the complaint. The video shows the person leaving at 4:54 p.m. in the car, which is "consistent in appearance" with Philip Casto's Honda Civic, investigators wrote in the complaint.
Reach Erin Beck at erin.beck@wvgazette.com, 304-348-5163, Facebook.com/erinbeckwv, or follow @erinbeckwv on Twitter.