Casto convicted in 2014 murder of Cindy Ball
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PARKERSBURG - A jury on Monday convicted a 57-year-old Wood County man in the 2014 murder of Cindy Ball.
Greg Casto, 57, now faces life in prison without the possibility of parole after the 12-man jury recommended against mercy on Monday afternoon.
Ball's body was found on Oct. 24, 2014, in a wooded area near Sugar Camp Road in Wirt County, two days after the 36-year-old Vienna resident was last seen alive leaving the Overtime Sports Bar in Parkersburg. She had been shot in the head and was found partially undressed.
Her killing remained unsolved for more than a decade until Casto - who had been involved in what authorities described as a tumultuous, on-again, off-again relationship with Ball - was indicted by a Wood County Grand Jury and arrested in October 2025.
Casto is scheduled to be sentenced in a 9 a.m. hearing on Jan. 15, though Wood County Prosecutor Pat Lefebure said there is little Wood County Circuit Judge J.D. Beane will have to decide beyond whether Casto's sentence of one to five years on the charge of concealment of a deceased human body, of which he was also convicted Monday, will run concurrently or consecutive to the life sentence for murder.
"It's more of an opportunity for the family to speak," Lefebure said.
Family members and their supporters were in the courtroom when Beane read the jury's verdict Monday, bursting into tears and embracing one another. Casto, and people seated behind him in the gallery, showed no reaction.
Lefebure said he was "happy for the Ball family and getting justice for them," noting that has been investigators' focus over the last 12 years.
A call to Casto's attorney, Bill Merriman, was not immediately returned Monday afternoon.
Jury selection for the trial began Oct. 26, and closing arguments were presented Friday afternoon. Deliberations were set to begin at 9 a.m. Monday, and the jury returned with its verdict before 1:30 p.m.
Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com.