Man gets life in prison for fatal shooting after Sacramento ghost gun sale goes bad
A Sacramento Superior Court judge sentenced a 26-year-old man to spend life in prison for a 2019 shooting that killed one person and seriously injured another in a ghost gun sale gone wrong in South Natomas.
Judge Delbert Oros on Friday sentenced Adrian Israel Castillo to life in prison without the possibility of parole for committing the drive-by shooting that killed 29-year-old Kenyatta Dawson Jr., the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office said Monday in a news release.
A jury on Nov. 19 found Castillo guilty of first-degree murder and attempted murder for firing two guns at a car with five people including Dawson, who was driving, and the “gun buyer,” who was not identified in the news release. The conviction included a special circumstance allegation for committing murder during a drive-by shooting, along with enhancements to both charges for using a gun.
Prosecutors said the gun buyer was “shot through the jaw, breaking both jaw bones, and shot through both legs.” They also said nobody else in the car, including Dawson, had any interest in the illegal gun purchase, which occurred Nov. 8, 2019, in the Natomas Marketplace parking lot.
Castillo was trying to sell a “ghost” gun, which doesn’t have a serial number, according to the District Attorney’s Office. After the exchange, Castillo realized the buyer shorted him and told his driver to follow the car driven by Dawson.
Castillo’s vehicle caught up to the other car on Truxel Road, near San Juan Road. Prosecutors said Castillo then fired a .45 caliber Glock that “had been illegally altered to be fully automatic,” firing 10 shots in a matter of seconds.
Dawson was struck by the gunfire and killed immediately. His vehicle sped out of control and struck another vehicle. Dawson’s car became disabled.
Prosecutors said Castillo’s car then pulled up again, and he fired six more rounds into the car using another gun. Both guns used in the shooting were legally purchased and registered to Castillo, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Investigators found the gun Castillo sold in Dawson’s car, but there was no ammunition. Investigators did not find any evidence that anyone in Dawson’s car returned fire in the shooting.
Castillo left the area, but Sacramento Police Department detectives found him and took him into custody a few days later, prosecutors said.
