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The blue-collar, overwhelmingly Latino city faces a lawsuit by former Councilmember Esmeralda Castillo, who alleges she was illegally removed in February in the wake of an investigation that determined Castillo didn’t live within city limits and was thus ineligible to serve.

A few weeks later, as Nancy Martiz was being sworn in to fill Castillo’s former seat Macias focused on her cellphone like someone waiting for an Uber ride.

Robert Castillo was arrested April 10 at his home in northwest Fresno on suspicion of sexually assaulting and killing 43-year-old Barbara Lee, also known as Barbara Parker, according to the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office.

Castillo’s DNA was found in a database known as Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, that helps law enforcement link crime scenes to individuals previously convicted of certain offenses.

Castillo served time in prison in the mid-1980s, late 1990s and mid-2000s for property crimes, but his DNA wasn’t entered into the database until 2007, authorities said.