Eavan Castaner is a teen killer from Casper Wyoming who would murder his ex girlfriend Lene’a Brown. According to court documents Eavan Castaner and Lene’a Brown ended their relationship and the teen killer did not take it well. In the days leading up to the murder Eavan Castaner would send the teen a series of threatening texts and messages.
On the night of the murder one of Lene’a Browns friends arranged to meet Eavan Castaner at a nearby park. The teen killer would walk up to the group and aimed directly at Lene’a and fired killing the teen girl
Eavan Castaner would be arrested hours later and make a full confession to police. The teen killer would plead guilty to second degree murder and would be sentenced to 42–75 years in prison
Eavan Castaner Case
Just over a month away from his 17th birthday, Casper teen Eavan Castaner was sentenced to 42–75 years in prison for fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend, Lene’a Brown, on the night of May 13 last year.
Castaner was sentenced before Seventh Judicial District Court Judge Dan Forgey on Tuesday morning. He was originally charged with first-degree murder and took a cold plea deal for second-degree murder last fall. He also pleaded guilty to misdemeanor stalking.
The sentence tracked closely with District Attorney Dan Itzen’s sentencing recommendations for what he called Castaner’s “cold, calculated decision to kill.”
The case record built by Casper Police Department investigators included hostile and threatening texts sent by Castaner to Brown in the hours and days leading up to the murder. Castaner was found less than an hour after Brown was killed and confessed to police. Detective Jonathan Schlager said from the stand during a preliminary hearing that Castaner had been acutely aware that it had been 25 days since they broke up.
Itzen introduced texts into evidence on Tuesday from two weeks before the shooting showing that Castaner had been hoping for reconciliation. On the night of the killing, Castaner’s texts included, “I hope you die in the most painful way possible.”
Brown had texted Castaner’s mother the messages, asking her to intervene. Brown’s mother Mikala said she had been asleep and out of town for work.
Castaner’s attorney, Ryan Semerad, said Castaner had essentially been unsupervised, missing school and involved in drugs and alcohol in the weeks before the homicide.
Castaner had gotten the handgun from an unlocked case in the closet of his mother’s home, Semerad said.
Castaner’s texts prompted one of Brown’s friends to text Castaner and arrange to meet him at Buckboard Park around midnight. Brown, her cousin and two other high school–aged friends parked in the cul-de-sac. One accompanied Brown with a baseball bat. The two others hid behind a tree, one with a gun, as Castaner approached.
Castaner had sent texts expressing his urge to kill and “release his anger” with his friend Riley Sears, who tried to talk Castaner out of going to the park and even tackled him along the way. Itzen acknowledged that Sears himself had been killed by a gun in February.
Itzen said that investigators had found multiple pictures of Castaner flaunting guns and bragging about the attachments he’d acquired in social media posts.
Itzen said that when Castaner approached Brown and her friends in the street, he didn’t aim for the others. “He pulls the trigger and Lene’a’s life is gone,” he said.
Brown was 17 years old.
Her friends called 911. Sears also called police and told them they could probably find Castaner at his new girlfriend’s house in the same neighborhood. Less than an hour after Brown was shot dead in the street, Castaner surrendered and the gun was found in a drawer in the house.
“He left the family with the same thing I leave you with, judge: memories and photographs,” Itzen said as a picture collage of the Natrona County High School student and her friends played on the courtroom screens.
“It is a total loss for all involved,” Semerad said. “A funeral for innocence lost twice over.”
Semerad said that Castaner’s drug and alcohol abuse, mental health issues, delinquency from school and access to firearms should have been recognized and addressed. Citing a U.S. Supreme Court opinion, Semerad said, “Offenses by youth represent failures of family, schools, and the social system which share responsibility for the development of American youth.”
Semerad argued for a 22- to 30-year sentence, saying Castaner had changed since the killing and was capable of significant reform.
Eavan Castaner was a week away from his 16th birthday when he killed Brown last year.
Her father, David Henrickson, hand-dug her grave on the Wind River Indian Reservation last year. He said in a brief statement to the judge that Castaner’s sentence should reflect that Lene’a had been robbed of her chance at life.
“I scream inside all day long,” he said.
Castaner told the judge that his crime would imprison him mentally for the rest of his life. “I pray Lene’a’s family and the community will forgive me. I’m sorry for what I did.”
Eavan Castaner will get credit for 330 days served since his arrest on May 14, 2024. He is also ordered to pay $7,000 in restitution.
Eavan Castaner Links
Casper teen sentenced to 42–75 years for murder of Lene’a Brown
Teen gets 42-75 years for murder; defense plans to appeal
Teen who killed Lene’a Brown pleads guilty to 2nd-degree murder; faces at least 20 years