Man found guilty of 2019 drive-by murder in South Natomas, faces life in prison
A man has been convicted of murder in a 2019 car-to-car drive-by shooting in South Natomas.
A Sacramento Superior Court jury found Adrian Castillo, 25, guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Kenyatta Dawson Jr., 29, as well as attempted murder.
The Nov. 8, 2019, shooting began with Castillo attempting to sell a “ghost” gun in a planned exchange at the Natomas Marketplace parking lot, the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release.
“When Castillo realized the buyer had shorted him, he directed his juvenile driver to follow the buyer’s car,” prosecutors wrote.
The car, driven by Dawson, had four other occupants inside including the gun buyer, who was not identified.
Castillo’s vehicle caught up to Dawson’s on Truxel Road, where Castillo opened fire with a .45 caliber Glock that “had been illegally altered to be fully automatic,” DA’s officials wrote.
“Castillo fired 10 rounds in a matter of seconds.”
The gunfire killed Dawson immediately, leading his vehicle to speed out of control and strike another vehicle, rendering it disabled, prosecutors said.
Castillo’s car then pulled up again, and he fired “six more rounds into the victims’ car using a second gun,” according to the DA news release.
Some of these rounds struck the gun buyer, who was “shot through the jaw, breaking both jaw bones, and shot through both legs.”
Castillo fled, but was located a few days later by Sacramento Police Department detectives, according to the news release.
Both guns used in the shooting were legally purchased and registered to Castillo, prosecutors wrote.
A jury Friday found Castillo guilty of attempted murder, and of first-degree murder with an enhancement for committing the murder during a drive-by shooting.
Castillo faces life in prison with no parole, and is scheduled for sentencing Dec. 28.
This story was originally published November 23, 2021 at 8:02 AM.
