An errant golf shot launched Mariposa Castros devotion to Trump. Now the Gilroy mom will be sentenced for storming the Capitol – San Francisco…

Mariposa Castro was with her husband on the famed golf course at Pebble Beach in 2006 when they were nearly struck by an errant golf ball. They turned to find out who took the shot, and there he was: Donald Trump. The reality TV host and the Gilroy stay-at-home mom had a short and friendly conversation, presaging her fandom and loyalty, according to court records.

Fifteen years later, Castro crawled through a broken glass window at the U.S. Capitol and watched as rioters tore apart furniture, creating weapons used to beat police officers defending the building from supporters of then-President Trump hoping to overturn the election. On Wednesday, Castro, 49, is expected to be sentenced after pleading guilty to one misdemeanor count of demonstrating inside the Capitol building.

While she faces up to six months in prison, prosecutors are asking for 60 days, and her attorney is seeking probation so she can be with her husband and children, who moved to Tennessee after the historic insurrection. Her case reveals the tension over how severely members of the Capitol mob should be punished and shines a light on how they ended up in infamy.

Like many of the more than 725 people from across the country arrested for their actions on Jan. 6, 2021 including four from the Bay Area Castro implicated herself with her own social media videos, photos and posts. More than 140 people have pleaded guilty, mostly defendants who did not cause injury or damage, with nearly half sentenced to punishments ranging from probation to a few years behind bars.

Castros attorney, Elita Amato, called prosecutors request for prison time a bid for an unwarranted draconian sentence in her sentencing memoranda. She went to the Capitol out of curiosity, Amato said, and because she heard Antifa would be there and she wanted to expose them. She never expected things to get as violent as they did at the hands of Trump supporters, the lawyer said.

Despite claims that Castro was nonviolent, prosecutors said prison time, rather than probation or home detention, was both necessary and appropriate.

A riot cannot occur without rioters, and each rioters actions from the most sedate to the most violent contributed, directly and indirectly, to the violence and destruction of that day, federal prosecutor Jordan Konig wrote in his sentencing memo.

A screenshot of Mariposa Castro (in red), formerly of Gilroy, is seen on a livestream video taken by another individual in Room ST-2M of the Capitol building during the attack on Jan. 6, 2021. Castro was expected to be sentenced on Wednesday, Feb. 23, after pleading guilty for her role in the riot.

Recent court filings and a letter penned by Castro to the judge paint the clearest picture yet of her role in the Capitol storming and her motivations. Castro has not spoken publicly about her charges.

Born in Mexico, she came to the United States at age 2. Later, she hoped to open a tea and yoga shop. She studied and received certificates in the practice of Reiki and sound healing therapy, and visited Buddhist temples for inner peace, her attorney said.

The mother of three and grandmother of two began attending Trump rallies during his election run, often dressing up in costumes and dancing. In her statement to the judge, though, Castro said she didnt know the difference between Democrats and Republicans before 2020.

When she heard about the Stop the Steal rally, Castro, her husband and a friend decided to travel to Washington, D.C. At the rally, they sat in the VIP section. Afterward, the trio returned to their hotel, where she watched Trump supporters march to the Capitol on television.

Partly out of curiosity, partly because she wanted to live-stream for others to see what was occurring, she decided to leave the comfort of the hotel, and walk to the Capitol, her attorney wrote. Now of course she greatly regrets this decision.

Prosecutors painted a darker picture, saying Castro had texted a friend, I couldnt stay in the room well watching in the news what is happening ... Im not taking this! NO, before walking a mile and a half to the Capitol building.

When Castro arrived in the afternoon, prosecutors said, she would have witnessed some of the most extreme violence in a tunnel area. She posted a video exclaiming, Were breaking in! We are breaking in! Were doing this ... Were taking our house back. This is our Capitol.

As she neared the building, Castro yelled, Lets go! Lets go in! before being helped through a hollowed-out window and into a conference room on the Senate side of the building. Broadcasting on her live Facebook feed, she yelled, Were inside the Capitol house. We got inside the Capitol!

After she left the grounds, Castro streamed another conversation with a woman: Its a civil war, Castro said. Were taking it back. Were not a communist country. On her way back to the hotel, she asked her followers to share her videos.

Its just the beginning. As Trump says, The best is yet to come, she said. It was so ugly. It got ugly in there. ... And Im by myself. That just shows how brave I am. If I can do this, you guys can do this.

In a Feb. 9, 2021, interview with the FBI after her arrest, Castro falsely told investigators that the people who committed violence at the Capitol were Antifa and Black Lives Matter protesters, not Trump supporters. She also said she left the building only when tear gas became unbearable.

In her letter to Judge Reggie Walton, Castro said she wanted to show support and film the action, and that was it.

Of course, we were disappointed how things went during the election, and we were expressing our freedoms of speech and to assemble peacefully, she said. She said the words she used on video, such as We are at war, were hyperbole often used at protests. She called crawling through the broken window an incredible lapse in judgment.

After she left the Capitol, she wrote, she was confused and in disbelief. I still to this day find it odd that there were those people I saw in that Capitol Room that were supposedly Trump supporters rioting, she wrote. This has NEVER happened before at any of the Trump events Ive attended.

She concluded by calling herself a good American Patriot.

A number of friends from Bay Area Trump rallies wrote letters of support for Castro, one calling her a hero.

She is a passionate truth teller, not a terrorist, another wrote.

Castros attorney said her actions led her to be harassed and forced her familys move to Tennessee after her husband lost his job.

The only explanation for her being there is her support of former President Trump, her curiosity, the intention to provide a live stream of what she saw, and her then having gotten caught up in the moment, Amato wrote. She has learned her lesson and will walk away rather than walk towards incidents similar to Jan. 6.

Matthias Gafni is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: matthias.gafni@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @mgafni

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An errant golf shot launched Mariposa Castros devotion to Trump. Now the Gilroy mom will be sentenced for storming the Capitol - San Francisco...