New details of Sacramento apartment property manager, suspected killer emerge during court hearing
SACRAMENTO – The man accused of killing his apartment property manager made his first court appearance in Sacramento Thursday after being a no-show Wednesday due to medical reasons.
Leslie Weickert, 66, is accused of killing Orelia Castle-Anderson on Monday at Cardosa Village on 66th Avenue in South Sacramento.
Investigators from the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office said the two had a dispute before the deadly shooting.
"I can't wrap my head around it that she's gone for no reason," said Orelia's sister, Josie Castle.
Grieving loved ones of Orelia met with CBS13 on Tuesday and said that Orelia was promoted to property manager at Cardosa Village in 2020. It is a HUD housing complex for families who have someone with a chronic mental illness that the Retirement Housing Foundation (RHF) oversees.
"She loved her job," said Castle. "She loved helping people."
Investigators cannot say what dispute between Orelia and Weickert led to the deadly shooting, but he had lived at the complex for nearly 30 years.
"She was trying to get this man to downgrade from a two bedroom to a one bedroom because he no longer needed a two bedroom," said Orelia's mother, Judy Davis.
RHF confirms this is true and told CBS13 it has learned more about the two's relationship since Orelia's death.
RHF said Orelia had confided her concerns about her suspected killer to another resident. The group said that the resident was sending emails with those complaints to RHF's vice president of affordable housing for at least a year.
RHF claims it never actually received any of these complaints because the vice president they were sent to was dead.
As of right now, it is unclear if Weickert has a chronic mental illness.
"It's a very high bar to get to, to say they were so mentally unfit that they didn't know what they were doing," said a local attorney unrelated to the case, Mark Reichel.
Reichel said even if Weickert does have a chronic mental illness, under the Second Amendment, he legally can own a gun unless the courts found he was a danger to himself or others.
"They could have contacted law enforcement, who would have investigated and if they found it was something legitimate could have gotten an immediate restraining order preventing the gun possession," said Reichel.
The Sacramento County Sheriff's Office said Weickert has no criminal record and it never received any calls on him.
He was booked for homicide, not for illegally having a gun.
RHF could not tell CBS13 what was sent in those complaint emails and it has no record of getting any complaints about Weickert directly from Orelia.
Weickert did not enter a plea in court Thursday but was granted a public defender. He will be back in court on Sept. 5 at 8:30 a.m.