FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A psychologist testified Thursday as a paid defense expert witness in the penalty phase for the man who killed a Hollywood police officer in 2021, describing her meetings with him.
“(He had) depression about what happened, and not only his fate, I would say, periods when he is not eating well, he is not sleeping well, saying that he was also psychologically stable. So he’s not psychotic, he was not hearing voices. He was very stable psychologically,” Dr. Yenys Castillo said.
Jason Banegas, 22, has already pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for fatally shooting Hollywood police Officer Yandy Chirino in October 2021.
Now, a jury is deciding whether he’ll be executed or get life in prison. The defense team needs to convince at least five of the 12 jurors that Banegas deserves to live.
Chirino was just 28 years old when he was killed while responding to a call about a suspicious person in the 4000 block of North Hills Drive.
Ring camera footage shows Banegas, then 18, on his bike, checking for unlocked car doors.
Police say Banegas shot Chirino twice in the face while resisting arrest, killing him.
Castillo testified that she charges $250 an hour and worked 122 hours on the case for the defense, meaning she made $30,500 on the Banegas case, in which she also spoke with Banegas’ mother, sisters, grandfather, a former juvenile detention counselor, a neighbor, and a former family friend.
She said she also reviewed his school, health and Department of Children and Family records.
The jury also heard from Benegas’ younger sister, 21-year-old Kathryn Benegas, who offered an emotional account of what she described as a violent upbringing shared with her brother.
Kathryn Benegas, who works and studies at Miami Dade College, testified that she and Jason Banegas share the same mother, Ingrid Villanueva Pineda, and biological father, Omar Yovany Banegas.
Jurors were told that the household was marked by frequent fights between her parents.
“I would stay quiet and hide,” said Kathryn Benagas when asked what she would do during the arguments.
She described witnessing severe abuse of her mother when she was about 5 or 6 years old.
Kathryn Benegas said she saw her father grab her mother’s head and beat it against a sink, causing her to lose several teeth and bleed heavily. She said her mother sat crying in a bathtub afterward but refused medical treatment because she feared seeking help due to her immigration status.
She also recalled another incident in which her father threw her mother out of a car, again leaving her in pain but unwilling to go to a hospital.
She told jurors that her father later “disappeared” when she was about 6 or 7.
She said she remembered seeing him at an airport with his bags packed as her grandmother begged him not to leave.
He boarded a flight, she said, and she never saw him again. Despite the violence, she testified that she viewed him as her protector.
After he left, her mother entered a relationship with a man named Melvin.
Kathryn Benegas said Melvin “was never a father figure” to her or to Jason and that they received “no attention and love from him.”
She also told jurors that when she was a child, he touched her and “overstepped boundaries,” and when the prosecutor asked if that attention was sexual, she responded: “Yes.”
She said that when she told her mother, Melvin denied it and her mother believed him.
She later recalled her mother telling her she knew Melvin had molested her but felt she “couldn’t do anything about it” because he provided for the family financially and she had a child with him.
Kathryn Benegas also testified that her mother struggled to support the family and that, at times,“she would sell her body and do things with her friends at the club to get money.”
She also described trying to intervene when her mother drank heavily, saying that “especially when my mom got drunk,” she would take away her beers and tell her to stop.
Kathryn Benegas also spoke about her brother’s emotional struggles and the way he coped through music.
She said he used songwriting to work through heavy emotions, describing a song in which the chorus repeats the idea that “everyone believes there is a monster in him,” even though the deeper lyrics explore his vulnerabilities and the pain tied to his upbringing.
Kathryn Banegas also testified that she was the person who gave her brother the gun.
She said she deeply regrets it, explaining she gave it to him because she felt safer having him protect her, noting, “everyone around us had guns.”
She added that she believed the gun might help him with his “rapper” persona.
She also explained why she believes her brother deserves to live.
“He doesn’t deserve to die,” she said. “Mistakes happen when you are emotionally unstable and maybe that is what happened with him. I love him to death and I will love him in my next life.”
The defense rested its case on Thursday afternoon. Closing arguments are scheduled for Monday, with court set to resume at 9 a.m.
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