Bethany Castro, a 25-year-old Hispanic/Latino woman from Des Moines, was fatally shot during a violent confrontation in Pleasant Hill in the early morning of July 23, 2020. Although some records associate the case with that date, authorities reported that she remained alive for several hours after the shooting and died at a hospital on the morning of July 24.
The shooting unfolded in a quiet residential area near the 100 block of Christie Lane after Castro and her boyfriend, Phillip Bryant Koromah Jr., became stranded when the gear shifter in Koromah's vehicle was broken during an argument.
Koromah called his friend Alex for help, and Alex's girlfriend, Seirria, drove to the neighborhood while attempts were made to arrange for a tow truck. Alex later arrived on a motorcycle, and he and Koromah became involved in a loud scuffle because Koromah believed Alex was too intoxicated to drive. Police officers responded to a noise complaint, spoke with those present and left after concluding that the situation had calmed and that the disabled vehicle was awaiting a tow. Once the officers were gone, however, the conflict between Castro and Koromah resumed.
When tow-truck operators arrived, they saw the couple arguing near a street corner. Witnesses later described Koromah as polite when he spoke to the operators about moving his vehicle, but the situation quickly deteriorated when he returned to Castro. Seirria testified that she saw Koromah striking Castro. One tow-truck operator heard someone yelling and reached into his truck for a telephone so he could summon police. At that moment, he heard a gunshot, looked toward the couple and saw Koromah with his arm extended in the manner of someone aiming a handgun. He heard additional gunfire and watched Castro collapse. The operator estimated that Castro and Koromah were approximately five to ten feet apart.
The tow-truck workers rushed toward Castro and attempted to help her as blood poured from her head. Emergency responders transported her to a hospital in critical condition. Medical testimony later established that a bullet wound to her head caused her death and that the manner of death was homicide. The absence of gunpowder stippling on her body indicated that the weapon had been fired from more than approximately two feet away, evidence that conflicted with Koromah's later claim that the gun discharged accidentally during a close struggle.
Instead of remaining with Castro or seeking medical assistance, Koromah left the scene in the vehicle Seirria had driven there. In doing so, he ran over her foot. Police spotted him traveling at excessive speed away from Christie Lane and began pursuing him. The chase continued at high speeds until a deputy used a vehicle to strike the fleeing car, causing it to spin and allowing officers to take Koromah into custody. During the pursuit, Koromah threw a handgun and drugs from the vehicle. Investigators recovered the discarded items, and a firearms expert later determined that the gun was the weapon used to shoot Castro.
Evidence also showed that Koromah telephoned a former girlfriend while fleeing and said that he was going to prison for murder. Investigators considered that statement, his failure to help Castro, the high-speed escape and his effort to dispose of the firearm to be significant evidence of his state of mind. Koromah initially gave shifting accounts of what had happened. He told investigators that the gun belonged to Castro and that the two had struggled over it, but he later acknowledged at trial that the weapon was his. He also admitted during an investigative interview that he had struck and kicked Castro during the confrontation, although he denied much of that conduct when testifying before the jury.
Koromah was initially arrested on charges that included attempted murder, first-degree robbery, possession of a firearm as a felon, drug offenses and traffic violations. After Castro died, prosecutors amended the attempted-murder accusation to first-degree murder. Court records alleged that a witness had seen Koromah physically confronting Castro before he fired at her. The first-degree robbery charge was connected to his taking the vehicle used in his escape, while the remaining charges stemmed from the firearm, narcotics and dangerous pursuit.
During his August 2021 jury trial, Koromah maintained that the shooting had been accidental. He testified that the gun discharged during the argument and attempted to explain inconsistencies in his earlier statements by saying he had been intoxicated, exhausted and confused after striking his head when the pursuing deputy rammed the vehicle. The prosecution argued that the eyewitness testimony, physical evidence and Koromah's actions after the shooting demonstrated that he had deliberately fired the gun rather than accidentally discharging it during a struggle.
The jury rejected Koromah's account and convicted him of first-degree murder. Jurors were required to find that he had shot Castro, that the shooting caused her death and that he had acted with malice, deliberation, premeditation and a specific intent to kill. His motions seeking a new trial and arrest of judgment were denied by the district court.
Koromah appealed the conviction, arguing that there was insufficient evidence of an intentional killing, that statements made by the prosecutor deprived him of a fair trial and that the prosecution improperly removed a Black prospective juror. On April 26, 2023, the Iowa Court of Appeals rejected each argument and affirmed the conviction. The appellate court concluded that the evidence overwhelmingly supported the finding that Koromah intentionally shot Castro in the forehead. It emphasized the testimony that he had been assaulting her before the gunfire, the distance between them, his immediate flight, the disposal of the murder weapon, his changing explanations and his telephone statement that he was going to prison for murder. With the conviction affirmed, the case ended not with an unidentified suspect or an unresolved investigation, but with Castro's boyfriend held criminally responsible for her killing.
