Teen to be tried as adult in connection with gang shootout

A 17-year-old boy will be tried as an adult after a scathing rebuke from Family Court Judge David Gibson following a gang shooting in the parking lot of a dispensary.

“This is a gang battle, shooting guns back and forth at each other when there’s cars with people in them and businesses occupied around them,” Gibson said Tuesday. “That’s what happened here. I don’t care who started it.”

He was among a group of six boys when prosecutors allege Oscar Larente-Castillo and another boy opened fire on July 3 at 9:20 p.m. in the parking lot of an unnamed cannabis dispensary, Chief Deputy District Attorney Summer Clarke said during the Juvenile Court hearing. Ten bullet casings were found in the parking lot, she said.

A 16-year-old boy was shot in the hip, Clarke said. Detectives found 77 videos of the shootings, including two angles of surveillance video outside the business that were presented in court.

The videos showed a boy in a gray shirt, who was identified to police by multiple witnesses as Larente-Castillo, walking away from another boy in a ski mask and a jacket before a shootout began.

“There were people in their cars ducking, trying to avoid getting struck with gunfire in the middle of this shootout,” Clarke said.

Detectives wrote in Larente-Castillo’s arrest report that the shootout stemmed from his “beef” with another student at school who was in the parking lot that night. He faces a charge of willful or wanton disregard of the safety of persons resulting in substantial bodily harm.

Defense attorney Gwen Gerling argued the boy in the ski mask was stalking Larente-Castillo and frequently grabbing his waistband while walking behind the teen. She argued Larente-Castillo was protected under Nevada’s Stand Your Ground law.

“While we can’t know what was actually being said at this time, this individual right here is by their mere actions and what they are wearing, a clear threat,” she said of the boy in the ski mask and jacket. “That’s what Oscar knows.”

Larente-Castillo had three prior cases in Juvenile Court, beginning in 2019 when, Clarke said, he was accused of posting sexual images of another person online. In January 2021 he was charged with sex assault on a minor. Both cases were pleaded down to harassment and coercion, respectively.

He was placed on formal Juvenile Sex Offender probation, but two days after his probation ended, in February 2021, Clarke said Larente-Castillo was involved in a robbery in which a gun was held at a 2-year-old’s face in an attempt to rob the mother.

He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery and was sent to Spring Mountain Youth Camp.

Gibson said he was completely unconvinced by the self-defense argument Gerling made and said Larente-Castillo had a reckless indifference for the other people in the parking lot.

“When you engage in firing a weapon at another group of individuals, when one of them is dressed like that, I think it’s reasonable to believe one of them might have a weapon or return fire,” he said referencing the boy in the ski mask. “Whoever gets hit in the spray, you’re responsible.”

Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter.