Officials say Ernesto Castellanos was working late when a gunman shot him during a robbery at a Plaid Pantry.
PORTLAND, Ore. — Ernesto Castellanos was working a late shift at a Northeast Portland convenience store when police say a robber shot him and took about $25, turning an ordinary overnight job into a homicide case that has shaken coworkers, relatives and prosecutors.
Castellanos, 57, was identified by Portland police as the clerk killed at a Plaid Pantry in the Cully neighborhood on March 27. Days later, officers said 21-year-old Michale J. Paine surrendered and was booked on charges of first-degree murder, first-degree robbery and unlawful use of a weapon. The case matters not only because of its violence, but because authorities say the amount taken was so small and the victim was simply doing routine work when he was killed.
Police released Castellanos’ name and family photos before they publicly identified the suspect, a sequence that kept the victim at the center of the story in its early days. The bureau said officers reached the store at 11:48 p.m. after a call about an unconscious person and found Castellanos dead with an apparent gunshot wound. The medical examiner later ruled the death a homicide by gunshot wound. His family asked for privacy. The company he worked for, Plaid Pantry, announced a $5,000 reward while the search for the shooter was still underway. In a statement later carried by local broadcasters, the company called the killing a senseless act of violence and said it was supporting employees and cooperating with authorities.
Only after that public appeal did the focus shift fully to the suspect. Portland police first put out video and photos of an armed man they said should not be approached. The image was striking: a dark sweatshirt with a horror-movie face and the phrase “Here to crash the party.” By Monday night, according to police, the man in those images had turned himself in. Local reporting on court records said Paine told officers he had gone to the store to rob it and shot Castellanos after the clerk did not appear to believe the threat was real. He later said, investigators alleged, that the crime was not worth $25. The public record did not offer any evidence that Castellanos resisted with force or threatened the gunman.
That gap between the victim’s routine work and the violence of the attack is what prosecutors emphasized as the case entered court. Multnomah County District Attorney Nathan Vasquez described Castellanos as an innocent, hardworking man killed in his place of business. His comments, echoed in local interviews, framed the prosecution around the value of a life lost during a mundane exchange at a cash register. Police have said surveillance video showed the suspect wandering through the store, getting a beverage and lingering at the counter before firing twice. The medical examiner found the wounds to Castellanos’ chest and neck each could have been fatal. For relatives and coworkers, the details leave a record not just of a crime, but of how suddenly a familiar workplace became a scene of death.
The investigation that followed was methodical and public. Detectives from the Portland Police Homicide Unit took over the case that night. According to the police release and local station reports, officers later recovered the firearm they believe was used in the shooting. Additional reporting said fingerprints on a cup left in the store, along with clothing collected later, helped build the case. Those details suggest prosecutors will rely on a combination of video, physical evidence and statements allegedly made after Paine surrendered. What has not been answered publicly is whether the suspect and victim had any previous contact, or whether intoxication claims raised in local reporting will play any larger role in the defense.
The court process is now moving forward in the shadow of that loss. KATU reported Paine pleaded not guilty at his first appearance and that he was ordered held without bond. His next hearing was scheduled for April 8. In the weeks ahead, the legal file is expected to add the routine layers of a murder case: forensic disclosures, witness interviews, motions from both sides and more detail from prosecutors about how they intend to prove intent and robbery. For those following the case closely, though, the most durable fact may remain the simplest one. A clerk reported for work on a Friday night and did not come home.
The case stood with charges filed and the accused in custody, while the next public step remained the April 8 court date and any new details released there.
Author note: Last updated April 22, 2026.