More than three years after four-year-old Kastari Isabella Nunez was fatally shot inside her Northeast Philadelphia home, her father pleaded guilty to charges connected to the conditions that led to her death. The plea did not answer the question investigators had faced since 2020 of who fired the gun that killed the child known to her family as “Star.”
On Sept. 29, 2023, Alhakim Nunez pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of a child and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person as part of a negotiated agreement. According to KYW Newsradio, he was sentenced to 1.5 to five years in prison and received credit for approximately 16 months he had already served.
The involuntary manslaughter charge initially filed against him did not result in a conviction. Charges against Kastari’s mother, Iris Rodriguez, and another woman who had been inside the home, Ashley Gushue, were also dropped.
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A Loaded Gun Inside Kastari’s Home
Kastari was shot inside her family’s home on the 2900 block of Secane Drive late on April 20, 2020. Her mother and uncle drove her to Jefferson Torresdale Hospital with a gunshot wound to her abdomen. She was pronounced dead shortly after midnight on April 21, according to the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office.
Four adults were inside the home when the shooting occurred, including both of Kastari’s parents. Investigators recovered a .357 revolver from a living room sofa containing five live rounds and one spent cartridge casing.
Authorities said the gun belonged to Nunez, who was prohibited from possessing a firearm because of prior felony convictions. Prosecutors also alleged that he was upstairs conducting a drug transaction when Kastari was shot downstairs.
Investigators did not believe Kastari had shot herself. In the days after her death, authorities said forensic testing was still underway in an effort to determine who fired the weapon.
The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office initially charged Nunez and Rodriguez with involuntary manslaughter, endangering the welfare of a child and other offenses. Gushue was charged with unsworn falsification to authorities, tampering with evidence, and obstruction of justice.
At the time, prosecutors maintained that although Kastari’s shooting was unintended, the presence of an unsecured firearm in a home with children made her death preventable.
Prosecutors Said Gaps Remained In The Case
By the time Nunez appeared before a judge in 2023, the prosecution’s case had changed considerably. KYW Newsradio reported that prosecutors acknowledged there were unresolved gaps in the evidence and that they remained unsure exactly what occurred inside the home when Kastari was shot.
Those evidentiary problems resulted in a negotiated plea to child endangerment and prohibited firearm possession rather than a conviction for Kastari’s death. Rodriguez and Gushue no longer faced charges in the case.
Nunez had been released on bail after serving roughly 16 months while the case was pending. Following his guilty plea, Judge Glenn Bronson sentenced him to 1.5 to five years and ordered him to surrender in October 2023.
No one has been convicted of firing the shot that killed Kastari. She would have turned five less than two months after her death.
Please share Kastari Isabella Nunez’s story so her life is not reduced to the unanswered question of who fired the gun that killed her. She is our sister, and her life matters.
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