Final suspect captured in Ingles slaying

By Ty Tagami and Larry Hartstein

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Authorities have arrested the final suspect in Sunday's execution-style killing of an Ingles security guard during a robbery.

Nakitta J. Holmes, 19, of Buford, was captured about midnight Monday by Forsyth County Sheriff's deputies and Gwinnett County police as he walked down a Buford street.

He was one of three masked gunmen who robbed the Cumming grocery store with help from a store employee, authorities said. All four are charged with murder and armed robbery.

"We went to several locations where we thought we might locate him; he doesn't have a real permanent address," said Karleen Chalker, spokeswoman for the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office. "We happened upon his girlfriend and we were questioning her. He was around the corner on another street, and we took him into custody without incident."

Sheriff Ted Paxton said the gunmen had been on a crime spree lasting several weeks.

They garnered only "minuscule" amounts of money from their raids on two Waffle Houses and three convenience stores in Forsyth and Gwinnett counties, Paxton said. But authorities watched as the robbers grew ever more brazen.

“We were very fearful of this exact thing happening," Paxton said of the Sunday night murder of David Casto, "because we could see an escalation of their demeanor and how they were acting in these stores.”

The 37-year-old guard was shot in the head during the robbery of an Ingles on Canton Road. Paxton said he was "perplexed" by the murder because the guard, who had been disarmed, posed no threat to the intruders.

The robbers bound two employees with duct tape and left with an undisclosed sum of money. The man and woman soon untied themselves and called for help. During questioning, investigators began to doubt the man's story, Paxton said Monday. He noted that although the store was closed, the back door had been left unlocked and unbarred.

Paxton said the male employee, a cash register operator identified as 18-year-old Sharod Johnson of Cumming, eventually admitted he was enlisted to lure the guard and the female employee into the back of the store. Then, Johnson "started spilling the beans on everybody," Paxton said.

With help from Gwinnett authorities, deputies took three others into custody  Monday outside the Mall of Georgia.

Tyrice K. Adside, 19, of Cumming, and a 16-year-old juvenile from Buford whose name is being withheld, were charged in the robbery and killing. The third man picked up with them is not a suspect in the fatal robbery. He has not been charged, but shared plenty of useful information, Paxton said.

Holmes, Johnson and Adside will appear before a magistrate judge Wednesday.

Paxton said it was too early to say who shot Casto. He added that authorities were still issuing search warrants and that they expected to round up "a few" more suspects.

Casto, a Winder resident, was employed by Executive Security Services of Atlanta. The people who have been arrested so far are pointing fingers at each other over his killing, Paxton said. “It’s going to take work to try to sift through all that to really get down to who is actually the shooter."

The store closed at 11 p.m., and it's unclear whether the robbers came in just before or just after closing, Paxton said. There were no customers inside, and the store lacks surveillance cameras.

But Paxton said evidence from other crime scenes in Forsyth and Gwinnett counties, including a Waffle House and a Chevron, links the suspects to the Ingles robbery. He praised the cross-jurisdictional cooperation from Gwinnett authorities.

“It will not bring back the life of David Casto, the security guard who was murdered last night," he said. "But there will be justice."

At least one of the weapons used in the fatal robbery has been recovered, said Karleen Charlker, a Sheriff's Office spokeswoman. She indicated there may be another arrest in connection with one of the other robberies.

--Pete Combs of WSB-AM 750 contributed to this article.