Investigator Castanos is a United States Army veteran who served as an Officer for nine years and is currently part of the Individual Ready Reserve unit (IRR). He completed one tour in Afghanistan from 2012 to 2013 as part of the Security Force Assistance Training Teams (SFATT). 

Investigator Castanos holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Multidisciplinary Studies from the University of Texas at El Paso and is a certified Drilling Fluids Engineer from the Drilling Fluids Engineering Technology School at Tyler, Texas.

He joined the Midland County Sheriff’s Office in 2015 as a Jailer and had the privilege to serve as a member of the Honor Guard. Investigator Castanos was also a Team Leader for the Jail Special Response Unit (SRU).

In 2016, Investigator Castanos graduated from the 97th Permian Basin Law Enforcement Academy. As a Patrol Deputy, Investigator Castanos contributed to the Midland County Sheriff’s Office as a Patrol Field Training Officer (FTO) by training and evaluating the new Probationary Patrol Deputies (PPD). He also served as an Operator of a highly prestigious unit such as the Special Weapons And Tactics (SWAT) team. In 2018, Investigator Castanos was recognized as the Officer of the year (Patrol Division), by Sheriff Gary Painter.

Investigator Castanos is currently an Investigator for the Justice Court. He attended the Death Investigation Training Academy in Cuba, Missouri, where he received training in: the understanding of cutting and stabbing injuries, gunshot injury and documentation, chemical suicide-responder safety, the investigative value of handwritten statements, professional conduct skill and attributes, implications in case, manner, and time of death rulings, understanding the sciences in death investigation, asphyxial death-classification and causes, proper death notification procedures, determining the time of death, cultural diversity and anger de-escalation for death investigators and police, managing workplace conflict, investigating suicide and self-harm deaths, autoerotic fatalities, investigating and interpreting the scene, motor vehicle crash injury analysis, pedestrian vs. motor vehicle injury analysis, scene arrival and documentation, recognizing and combating secondary traumatic stress, and the impact of critical incidents on eye witness testimony.

Continuing education is critical to developing knowledge and skills in the death investigations area. Therefore, Investigator Castanos has received additional training in Eyewitness evidence identification, Officer response to victim precipitated suicide, evidence collection, control and storage, homicide investigations, human remains identification, statement analysis forensics, crime scene management, sudden unexplained infant death, new supervisor’s course, and the Texas A&M TFSA Death Investigation course.