Slain security guard was hard worker, able mediator

By Marcus K. Garner and Ty Tagami

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

David Casto worked every day. He had two jobs and an hour commute each direction, but it was worth it to him. He had purchased a Winder townhouse and was saving for a car and a cruise.

Channel 2 Action News David Casto, a security guard, was shot and killed during a robbery at a Cumming Ingles store.

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The security guard didn't just punch in a lot of hours, either. He was good at what he did. He had the ability to calm people down, and wouldn't have thought twice about trying to diffuse a tense situation.

Friends don't want to envision it, but they said a mediation attempt easily could have been Casto's final act when he was killed execution-style Sunday during a robbery at an Ingles grocery story in Cumming.

"It's a shame this happened to someone as nice a guy as he was," said Gilbert Colunga, one of two friends taken in as roommates by the generous Casto until they could overcome financial struggles.

Authorities said Casto, 37, was murdered after three masked gunmen entered the back of the store after closing, allegedly aided by an Ingles employee who left a door unlocked.

All four people were in custody by midnight Monday, once Nakitta J. Holmes, 19, was arrested while he walked down a Buford street. Holmes was charged with murder and armed robbery, along with Tyrice K. Adside, 19, of Cumming; Ingles cashier Sharod Johnson, 18, of Cumming, and a juvenile from Buford, 16, whose name was withheld. More arrests could be forthcoming.

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

Forsyth County Sheriff Ted Paxton said the Ingles grocery store robbery was the end of a weeks-long crime spree in which the suspects appeared on camera to grow more brazen each time. They are believed to previously have held up three convenience stores, two Waffle House restaurants and a Chevron station in Forsyth and Gwinnett counties.

Casto was shot in the head, but the person who pulled the trigger has not been identified by investigators, with suspects so far accusing each other of the killing, Paxton said.

“We were very fearful of this exact thing happening, because we could see an escalation of their demeanor and how they were acting in these stores,” the sheriff said.

Paxton acknowledged he was perplexed by the murder because Casto, who had been disarmed, posed no threat to the intruders.

The robbers bound Johnson and another employee, a woman, with duct tape and left with an undisclosed sum of money. The employees untied themselves and called for help. During questioning, investigators began to doubt Johnson's story, Paxton said. Investigators noted the back door had been left unlocked and unbarred after the store had closed at 11 p.m.

Johnson later admitted to investigators that he had been enlisted to lure the guard and the female employee to the back of the store and he implicated the others, two of whom were arrested outside the Mall of Georgia, Paxton said.

Casto, employed by Executive Security Services of Atlanta, worked at the Ingles store on Canton and a Waffle House in Winder. On the weekends, he went from one job to the other, often arriving late at the second one and working from midnight until mid-morning.

He was divorced, but had rebuilt his life by moving from Cumming to Winder, juggling jobs and hours, and purchasing the things he wanted. His new townhouse was full of murals and statuettes of wolves, something he was fascinated in.

"He had a lot of big plans and dreams, and he was working to save up for them," said Yvette Venavides, Casto's girlfriend and a Winder resident.

Staff writer Larry Hartstein and Pete Combs of WSB-AM 750 contributed to this article.