One death sentence handed down in killing of Reno cab driver

Thursday, March 25, 1999 | 12:09 p.m.

A Washoe District Court jury handed down the sentence Thursday for Shawn Russell Harte, 22, of Fallon.

Two others defendants, Harte's girlfriend Latisha Marie Babb, 20, also of Fallon, and Weston Edward Sirex, 26, of Reno, were sentenced to life in prison without parole.

The trio was convicted of first-degree murder by the same jury last week for the October 1997 killing of cab driver John Castro.

Harte smiled and nodded at jurors as the verdict was read following five hours of deliberations.

In his closing statement during the penalty hearing, Deputy District Attorney Elliott Sattler said Harte was a "cold-blooded murderer who deserves the death penalty."

"On Oct. 26, he put a gun to the back of an innocent man's head and killed him for 89 bucks," Sattler said. He said Harte shot Castro for his "own malicious, cruel, dark-hearted reasons."

During the trial, prosecutors said someone called the Reno-Sparks Cab Co. requesting a taxi at a supermarket.

Sirex, who was a dispatcher and driver for a competing cab company, and Harte got in the back seat and told Castro they wanted to go to Cold Springs, about 20 miles north of Reno.

Castro was found slumped over the steering wheel the next morning and died later that day at Washoe Medical Center.

Authorities said one of the assailants wore an electronic transmitter, and Babb, who followed in a get-away car, had a receiver and was able to hear what was going on.

In an interview following her arrest, Babb told the Reno Gazette-Journal that she drove the getaway car and that the robbery was planned because she and Sirex needed money.

"We weren't out to get this specific person," she said. "Weston and I needed cash. One of Weston's friends at the cab company had been robbed and I jokingly said, 'Let's rob a cab. It's easy enough.' So we did."

Prosecutors said the three went to a Taco Bell and then to the Circus Circus Hotel Casino to play carnival-style games after shooting Castro.

Their arrests followed an investigation by Churchill County authorities into a report of shots fired at a motorist near Fallon.

Officers found shell casings and shoe and tire tracks that eventually led to a vehicle registered to Harte. That in turn led to the residence Harte shared with Babb in Fallon.

Inside the residence, authorities found newspaper clippings of both the Fallon shooting and the Reno murder.